Export thread

I purchased a 42" Hustler Raptor late last year and left it sitting for 1.5-2 months and the battery died. I jumped the battery and used the mower for about 30 minutes and then put it up. A week later i tried to start to start it again and the battery was dead. Does the battery need to be replaced? What charger do you guys recommend for my mower? This is my first mower so I'm not used to trickle charging my battery during the winter. TIA :thumbsup:

mk3wagen said:

I purchased a 42" Hustler Raptor late last year and left it sitting for 1.5-2 months and the battery died. I jumped the battery and used the mower for about 30 minutes and then put it up. A week later i tried to start to start it again and the battery was dead. Does the battery need to be replaced? What charger do you guys recommend for my mower? This is my first mower so I'm not used to trickle charging my battery during the winter. TIA :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Your engine has a built in charger and that's all the battery needs if everything is in order. Using a volt ohm meter check the battery for voltage. Jump start the engine and re-check the voltage. With the engine running about half throttle or more the V meter should be reading around 13.5 V. If that looks good take the battery to an automotive store and have it load tested. Note: Running the engine 30 minutes with a fully discharged discharged battery isn't long enough to re-charge with the engine charging system.

I use Battery Tender Jr's (750mA) on my mower & bike batteries over winter.. They can't over charge em, & with the hourmeter on my mower there is a very slight bit of power being used constantly to keep the meter active.

Battery tenders are worth their weight in gold for storing equipment. Also not that expensive. Think I paid $30 for mine.

:thumbsup: I have even seen them as low as $25. bucks shiped on ebay..

I have never liked battery tenders for a lot of reasons.I understand the newer ones are better but I have akways used a normal manual battery charger and a 7 day timer to give then 15 mintes of full charge a week.

I had a old John Deere 420. Long story short this thing ended up in my driveway one day free of charge. It took some work but used it for six years before I retired her. It would not start. So I replaced the battery and terminal endeds. Mowed with it two three times then it was dead. That's when I found out the poor old girl did not want to charge anymore. So I would put her on the charger when done. Every couple years I would have replace battery but no big deal. It took a car battery so you could run a while without it charging. The thing that stunk was you shut it down in middle of yard (usually to get another beer) with the battery low. You were done. Time to drive truck to middle of yard to jump start.
Now to the point of the story. I had less troubles with my tired old John Deere after I got the battery tender. I would recommend them to anyone unless your trying to charge deep cycle. There is probably a special one you can buy for operation.

I have been pleased with my WalMart sourced Schumaker bat chargers. The big one is "smart" in that it will tell you the charge state and then progressively how "full" the charge is as it is running (led readout). Paid ? $50 a few years back. This unit also has a sulfate alert light and promises to deliver tailored electrical pulses to loosen the sulfate that may have built up on the cells. I also have a smaller, simpler one. I do talk sweetly to the 4 batteries I have and charge them often. They respond by lasting up to or beyond their advertised life. And of course use a battery hydrometer to check the electrolyte which is the best referee I know of and can save trips to the battery shop. Incidentally I have had about 4-5 H Frt trickle units over the years and finally gave up as they were unreliable and short lived.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll jump the battery this week and use it for at least 1-1.5 hours. Hopefully it will hold a charge this time. I normally cut my grass 3-4 times a month during the spring. I'll look into a charger before I put it up next winter. :thumbsup:

You need to get a 1.5 AMP or larger battery charger and charge your battery fairly soon. Leave it on charge for at least 24 hours or more.
In the fall, charge the battery and disconnect it at layup time.

Disconnect the negative cable when in storage. If a battery won't hold a charge for a month or 6 weeks with the ( - ) disconnected it's time for a new battery.

Do you guys know if this charger will work? The reason I'm asking is because I already have it.

Tenergy TB-6AC 50W/5A Dual Power Balancing Charger: NiMH/NiCD/Li-PO/Li-Fe/SLA

I wouldn't use that charger on a lead acid cranking battery.

mk3wagen said:

Do you guys know if this charger will work? The reason I'm asking is because I already have it.

Tenergy TB-6AC 50W/5A Dual Power Balancing Charger: NiMH/NiCD/Li-PO/Li-Fe/SLA

Click to expand...

No it is not up to the job,
That unit is for charging you battery drill, alarm & the kids toys
It has a complicated charging regemine to suit gel cell batteries that is not suitable for a normal saturated cell battery.
The actual chemical composotion of the pastes and the plates are different between wet, sealed & gel batteries and this gives a slightly different voltage at different states of charge which these "smart" chargers supposedly pick up and then talor the charging to suit. Tenders work the same way on much less sophisticated electronics .

What the instruction don;t say is they can only work properly if connected directly to the battery terminal and the battery is isolated.
Hook one up to a battery by connecting to brass terminals or steel terminals or a stainless steel terminal bolt and they will all work differently due to the differnt resistance characteristics of the interface between dissimilar metals.
The best ones will come with a pair of terminals & a plug and tell you to install their terminal directly against the battery terminal then bolt you machines terminals over the outside of a battery that is fully charged.
It will remember this and bring the battery back to his level.

The biggest factor in battery life is the state of the machine.
A mower that always fires on the first compression stroke will run any crap battery for a very long time, oft way after the battery is running down.
A mower that takes 2 minutes of cranking to fire up will eat a battery every season regardless of battery tenders, size & price of battery and state of mowers charging systems.

The best battery for an thing that is laid up for long periods are pressure valve regulated , absorbent glass matt sealed lead acid batteries & the best type of these are the spiral cell ones.
However PVR-AGM batteries are twice the price of standard batteries so it is next to impossible to get mower owners to fit them.

When I was importing these batteries I sold them by the truck load to farmers who understand the value of having occasional use impliments firing up strait away when you need them.

All my batteries come into the house for the winter. I trickle charge them once and they are stored away and ready in the spring. I have an old Schumacher automatic that has served me well for decades.