Craftsman Rider Battery ( RANT )

[OldDiyer]

OK so I have a 2002 Craftsman LTZ1000 tractor that I purchased new and has been a good unit for me so I am pleased with it. So heres my rant, I have an auto repair (and owner) backround in 2016 the battery gave up the ghost so I went to Auto Zone and purchased their Gold Duralast U1-3 battery, 6 years into that battery it dies and after checking it has a bad cell thought that seems odd but last Oct. needed another battery so went back to them for another Gold Duralast U1-3 battery put it in and things were fine till a week ago. Went to use the tractor and the battery was dead thought that maybe I left the key on or something so charged it and got the lawn done the tractor sat for about a week or so went to use it and its dead again. Charged again and did a 12 volt test light draw test nothing, did an amp parisetic draw test and nothing let it sit for 2 days and its dead again. I removed the battery and it is a sealed battery but you can get the cover off so I checked and it had a dead cell.
Needless to say I was not happy because these batterys no matter where you get them only have a 90 day replacement warrenty whats with that? I did not go back to Auto Zone but got another battery at Walmart I know that they may not be the best but I tried Auto Zones best and that dumped on me also.
I guess my rant is the original battery lasted 14 years, second battery 6 years and now 8 months. I don't misuse my tractor and use it year around for summer grass and in winter I have a blower for it and change oil with the seasons. I guess if I didn't take care of the battery or the tractor I would understand. Thanks for listening!

 

[Rivets]

Have you checked the charging system on the tractor to see if it is working properly and you are getting a full charge while using?

 

[sgkent]

what Rivets said. I might add, I bought an autozone battery for my VW bus about 10 years ago, it was weak in 2 years. We occasionally use the bus but it is garaged and I put the charger on it frequently to keep it topped off. Replaced it with Interstate and that lasted almost 10 years before testing weaker. The current Duracell battery came from Sam's Club. I think Duracell are made by East Penn / Deka. I think Clarios makes Autozone batteries, Clarios is a successor to Johnson Controls. I believe Napa batteries are also East Penn / Deka. Just spent the last hour researching sealed AGM backup batteries for a Dell server rack - sort of like 8 motorcycle batteries in a case. The ones we finally landed on are made in Vietnam. There were no American or German made replacements that I could find. i suspect lots of these smaller wet cell batteries are whomever is making them at the time.

 

[StarTech]

Battery Plus Bulbs was giving a 6 month warranty on their batteries. It was 12 months before Covid.


But battery quality has taken a dump since Covid hit.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I am not familiar with that brand
However I did make batteries for several year in my immediate post grad years
When I starter battery grid plates were 2mm thick and you could hang your washing on them
When I left they were 0,5mm thick & broke under their own weight if not handled carefully .
When this became a problem for things like off-road vehicles, pleasure craft & motorcycles their grids went up to 0.75mm to 1mm and the alloy was changed because of repeated failures,
However the car batteries remained at 0,5mm because car suspension gave them an easy life.
Mower batteries get a rough life as mowers have no suspension & a crude electrical system.
So unless that is a mower battery , it could just be a case of wrong battery for the job.
If your yard is quite rough and you mow hard then you may need to go to a "motorsport" battery .
These have thicker plates, stronger glue in the paste and fiberglass spacers between plates for added support .
The absolute best battery for a mower is the spiral cell battery Toro used for a while that is still available , but take your big wallet with you.
Check the battery terminals for AC when the engine is running.
Electrically this kills batteries faster than a direct short .
Cranking continiously for over a minute or so can also cause the grid plates to warp on cheaper batteries .

 

[OldDiyer]

Even thou the battery did have that dead cell after reading all the replys thought it would be a good idea to check the charging system just in case something was amiss being that the tractor is 21 years old. These are the results of the testing. Battery voltage at start of test 12.6 volts,disconnected leads at regulator has 12.6 volt coming in from ignition switch, next checked the AC volts coming from alternator 28.6 volts, checked DC volts out of regulator after starting and it was 16.2 volts but after running a bit it went to 14.8 volts turning on lights for a bit it came up to 16.1 than dropped back to 14 9 volts. So with this testing I believe the charging system is good so guess I just got a bum battery. Not only that but remembering a question I asked about a while back a bungee cord did the trick to start the tractor without a helper. So again THANK YOU every one for the replies and also the idea to look at the charging system as well.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Did you test the DC output for AC ?
This happens when the rectifier is faulty
Most cheap meters will show 1/2 the AC voltage if you measure AC while on the DC setting .

 

[OldDiyer]

Bert, The meter I own has AC and DC volt scales so when I checked the 2 wire connector from the alternator I was in AC and got the 28.6 AC volts. And than I back probed the red single connector from the regulator to battery and got the 16.2 but it went to 14.8 after just a few minutes I didn't wait much longer because I figured I was good with the reading i got. I did watch a few videos just to get the idea on how to check this on a lawn tractor they were all pretty much the same by the way they did it so thought that it may be correct way to go about it.

 

[Rivets]

Looks like you have a CV492 Kohler engine in your unit. That being said Kohler engines that size should have an AC voltage output of 35+ VAC. I’ve attached a service manual for your engine which has a very good procedure for testing the charging system. https://www.mymowerparts.com/pdf/Ko...13-CV14-CV15-CV16-CV460-CV465-CV490-CV495.pdf

 

[OldDiyer]

I do not have the Kohler engine it is a Briggs 21.5 hp I do have the service manual for my engine.