Dead battery

[SeniorCitizen]

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.

 

[mk3wagen]

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

 

[Mad Mackie]

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

 

[bertsmobile1]

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

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.

 

[RetiredGuns]

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.