Cub battery woes

[Scrubcadet10]

2010 Cub Cadet ltx 1040, new battery (Put in back in April), The battery doesn't stay charged, You can jump it and start it and let the charging system/alternator charge it up, but the next day, It goes from 12.5 volts to 8 to 10 volts. What do y'all think?
A bad cell? I was going to buy that NOCO GB40 starter/jumper but then i saw the price
Thanks in advance!

 

[cpurvis]

Try this: Get the battery charged back up to 12.7 volts, then disconnect the ground terminal. Let it set for the same amount of time, then check the voltage again. If it's down again, the battery is bad.

 

[BlazNT]

Auto parts store will tell you. Lawnmower batteries only have 90-day warranties. That lets you know how badly they are built.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Try this: Get the battery charged back up to 12.7 volts, then disconnect the ground terminal. Let it set for the same amount of time, then check the voltage again. If it's down again, the battery is bad.

I'll try that, Thanks!

 

[Scrubcadet10]

2010 Cub Cadet ltx 1040, new battery (Put in back in April), The battery doesn't stay charged, You can jump it and start it and let the charging system/alternator charge it up, but the next day, It goes from 12.5 volts to 8 to 10 volts. What do y'all think?
A bad cell? I was going to buy that NOCO GB40 starter/jumper but then i saw the price
Thanks in advance!

I finally got around to charging the battery up today, got it to 12.8, and took the ground off. How long should i let it sit before checking it again? 1 day or a few days?

 

[bertsmobile1]

When I do a charge test I leave a pad & voltmeter next to the battery.
Every time I walk past I read the voltage & note the time.
In good condition the battery should go near 13 V and stay above 12.5 for around a month then discharge no faster than a couple of months.

To be of any use to you it definately needs to hold a charge for more than a week.

Mowers are tough on batteries both electrically and mechanically.
Add to that domestic mower users are really cheap so will happily use a totally buggered battery for decades till it gets to the point that the PTO starts cutting out or the mower will not have enough battery power to restart if turned off.
I stock 2 batteries
A Pb Ca mower battery for $ 95 ( cheaper than the discount auto stores who pay less for the battery than me )
A PVR AGM spiral cell battery for $ 295, never replaced one of these to date & all of them are still holding better than 13V after several seasons on commercial mowers.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

The cub has a built in volt meter, showing 12.8, but i always use a meter to be sure its right.
Usually it takes about 4-5 days for the battery to get low enough where it cant turn the engine over.

 

[cpurvis]

You can check the voltage as often as you like. If it is still roughly 12.7 volts after a week with the ground cable disconnected, that means you have something draining the battery.

If it drops below 12v after a week, the battery is probably bad.

Or, you could just take it, fully charged, to an auto parts store and have them do a load test.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

I went back down today, hooked the battery up, battery was reading 12.4 V. down from 12.8 yesterday. And whenever I'd turn it over it would go down to 11.8 volts.
So i took of the ground again and let it sit for a few more days.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

I went back down today, hooked the battery up, battery was reading 12.4 V. down from 12.8 yesterday. And whenever I'd turn it over it would go down to 11.8 volts.
So i took of the ground again and let it sit for a few more days.