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I have an LT2700 that I bought used last year. It's battery has died. I am reading from the manual that it takes a 12 volt 66 plate 295 cold cranking amp maintenance free battery. I think the one that is in it is too small anyway. The holding bracket is too large for the battery. Does anyone know what brand and model number battery came with it? I can get a replacement if I knew those specifications. Thank you

What I have in it is an Interstate SP-35. I think it has 300 cranking amps, which should be sufficient. It started the mower with ease last year, but I had to jump it off with first start of the season. It takes a full charge, but it still struggles now. It was manufactured 2019. They are only warranted for 6 months. I'm wondering if I could put a small side post car battery in. It would give it more cranking amps and probably last longer. Any suggestions?

Here's the unvarnished truth about batteries....

1. There are on-line stores that sell batteries by physical size. If fitting the battery box (physical size) is important, then you can try a source, like Battery Jack. Look under "motorsports" because a mower battery is most like a car or motorcycle battery. https://www.batteryjackdealer.com/

2. The factory installed the cheapest battery that met the requirements. So it doesn't make a toot what brand came with the mower. You probably can't buy that brand anyway, unless you buy batteries by the pallet load. You simply need a battery that meets the requirement specs.

3. Batteries are NOT like other electrical devices. I once worked in an OLD house. The Edison light bulbs from the 1920's in the attic still worked ! However, because batteries are liquid chemical devices they are not like light bulbs. They are subject to electrical charge, age, temperature, local environment, etc, etc. In other words they are more like owning a dog in that they REQUIRE regular attention and maintenance.

IMHO, the Interstate Battery is the best you can buy. But, if you bring home the very best, $3000 pure-bread dog, but never care for him... he'll soon be dead by starvation, disease, loneliness, eaten by coyotes, rabid raccoon attack, etc, etc. So don't tell us the brand of battery, instead tell us what care you gave the battery. I suspect the answer is "None", and so, like the dog, neither of us should be surprised that you are once again back at the battery store doing more shopping.

Basics
A. Most batteries are now made in China and quality is way down. So if you expect even a moderate life, then you had better be "loving on them" like a pet.
B. If there's a water level, then you need to watch that level and add distilled water when needed.
C. Battery posts need to be clean and corrosion-free at all times. That means being pro-active with anti-corrosion battery post treatments.
D. Batteries need to be maintained YEAR-ROUND in a charged state, and protected from freezing temps. The best way to charge a battery is to run the piece of equipment. Second best is to disconnect one battery cable during any storage*. Third best is to attach a sub-1A "trickle charger" for ~3 hours, about once a month. (Too much charge is worse than too little.) In a perfect world, you might have one battery which you put in your mower in Spring, put in your motorcycle in Fall, and put in your snowblower for Winter.
E. BOTH battery cables need to be in A+ condition and there can be NO corrosion or rust at either end.
F. The ONLY test of battery condition is a "battery load test".

* I'm a huge advocate of these battery disconnect devices. CLICK HERE

Hope this helps.

F. The ONLY test of battery condition is a "battery load test".

That is debateable. The new testers that measure internal resistance are as accurate as a load tester. Used to have to service server battery backups. In the old days we used a carbon pile load tester. We switched over to the new internal resistance checker. Used them side by side and results were the same.

What would make a battery take a full charge but not deliver full amperage. I’ve cleaned the cables. I can’t think of anything else unless the battery is under powered to begin with. I guess I could put an ammeter on it to see how many amps it is truly delivering. Thanks for your response

"Full charge" measuring 12.5 to 12.6 volts is not an indication of capacity. Try to start it while measuring battery voltage. What does it drop to?

1. If you connect a high wattage head lamp bulb (say ~50-65W) for 2 minutes, THEN measure the battery voltage, that will often bleed off the "surface charge" and give a better indication of the REAL internal voltage of the battery. The voltage should not drop below about 12.3V with a test like this.

2. Sometimes it's not the battery at all, but how the battery is connected. It is common for the battery "ground" cable to run down and be bolted to the steel frame. That is a TERRIBLE electrical connection !! The starter is mounted to the engine, so the "ground" cable needs to be attached directly to the engine. And since the engine is corrosion-prone aluminum, the place the electrical cable mounts needs to be absolutely corrosion-free. Both ends of BOTH battery cables then will often be treated with an anti-oxidation compound, like No-Ox-Id or similar.

3. Maybe the battery is in fantastic condition, but it's simply NOT being charged as the engine runs. So the charging system might be questionable.

4. Maybe the battery has been over-charged. If you have a small-ish mower battery, but you connect a car battery charger, then it's easy to "cook" the smaller battery to death.

In short, there a LOTS of ways to screw this up ! Sorry, but there is not just one answer.

Hammermechanicman said:

F. The ONLY test of battery condition is a "battery load test".

That is debateable. The new testers that measure internal resistance are as accurate as a load tester. Used to have to service server battery backups. In the old days we used a carbon pile load tester. We switched over to the new internal resistance checker. Used them side by side and results were the same.

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I stand corrected then. I see you have background in a similar industry. Mine was telecom OSP battery backup.

Hammermechanicman said:

"Full charge" measuring 12.5 to 12.6 volts is not an indication of capacity. Try to start it while measuring battery voltage. What does it drop to?

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I charged the battery up to 13.2 volts. It dropped to 10.3 after starting with cleaned cables and using dielectric grease. What does that mean? Thanks for helping

bijiminy said:

I have an LT2700 that I bought used last year. It's battery has died. I am reading from the manual that it takes a 12 volt 66 plate 295 cold cranking amp maintenance free battery. I think the one that is in it is too small anyway. The holding bracket is too large for the battery. Does anyone know what brand and model number battery came with it? I can get a replacement if I knew those specifications. Thank you

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Find a local farm store that sells Deka batteries as they are much better than Interstate brand.https://www.eastpennmanufacturing.com/contact/where-to-buy/

bijiminy said:

What I have in it is an Interstate SP-35. I think it has 300 cranking amps, which should be sufficient. It started the mower with ease last year, but I had to jump it off with first start of the season. It takes a full charge, but it still struggles now. It was manufactured 2019. They are only warranted for 6 months. I'm wondering if I could put a small side post car battery in. It would give it more cranking amps and probably last longer. Any suggestions?

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That battery needs to be load tested and I would bet it is toast. There is a reason that even Interstate only offers a 6 month warranty on these batteries. They sit to many days with nothing happening and the charging systems are marginal if the unit is run at lower rpm's. 300 cranking amps is sufficient unless the valve lash is loose and the decompression is not working with a mechanical ACR system, if so equipped.

bijiminy said:

What would make a battery take a full charge but not deliver full amperage. I’ve cleaned the cables. I can’t think of anything else unless the battery is under powered to begin with. I guess I could put an ammeter on it to see how many amps it is truly delivering. Thanks for your response

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Full charge is when the paste on the plates is at it's maximum potential VOLTAGE
Amps is determine by how deep the paste is and how deep into the plates the full potential has happened.
Automatic chargers measure the resistance in the battery to determine the state of charge but this is not the beast way to do it as internal faults will raise the internal resistance fooling the charger that a 1/4 charged battery is fully charged.
The rate the charge can be used by the mower , called the CCA is determined by the number of plates , the size of the grains in the paste & their chemical composition, the purity & volume of the electrolyte, the spacing of the plates and the efficency of the internal electrical connections .

A lot of this is hit & miss, so every battery coming off a production line gets tested
The best get a premium brand sticker on the side.
from there on in they get progressively cheaper brand stickers on the side till they get to supermarket quality.

Now here is what muddies the water
Walmart probably sell over 10,000,000 batteries a year
But the battery factory hopefully will not make 10,000,000 trash quality level batteries a year so in order to supply the volume of junk level batteries ordered, the factory will regularly put a junk brand sticker on a better quality battery. Thus you might get a top quality batteryy for the price of a junk quality battery from Wallys or you might get a junk quality battery, just like you might win a prize in a lottery.
Howeer you should never get a rubbish battery from an auto electrcian or battery specialists unless you go for the cheapest one on the shelf.
A top shelf brand should always be top shelf quality .
This is why you get all those You Fool videos with some turkey brain with no understanding on how things work, telling every body that batteries are a con cause his $ 20 cheapie ran far 10 years without a problem ( he just got an upgrade battery with a low grade label )
FWIW dry cell batteries and spark plugs are the same .
Most brands come out of the same factory because it is not economic to run 50 different factories,

I hate to say it but i have had very good luck installing the Strongbox brand of batteries from John Deere. If the wallyworld and tractor supply batteries last 5 years i tell folks you got your money's worth. I regularly see the JD batteries last 7-9 years. They cost more but they do seem better. I don't know who makes them for JD.

Hammermechanicman said:

I hate to say it but i have had very good luck installing the Strongbox brand of batteries from John Deere. If the wallyworld and tractor supply batteries last 5 years i tell folks you got your money's worth. I regularly see the JD batteries last 7-9 years. They cost more but they do seem better. I don't know who makes them for JD.

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There should be a listed manufacturer on the label, or look for a code in the molding. It would be interesting to see if they are Clarios (was Johnson Control) or East Penn. If they last the amount of time you state, I would bet they are East Penn made as EP produces great batteries.

Graeden said:

Find a local farm store that sells Deka batteries as they are much better than Interstate brand.https://www.eastpennmanufacturing.com/contact/where-to-buy/

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I disagree interstate is in any way inferior. Yes battery quality is by far an issue. The best battery will be severrly or completely damaged by being dead for 24 hours by allowing sulfation to destroy it.

VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ said:

I disagree interstate is in any way inferior. Yes battery quality is by far an issue. The best battery will be severrly or completely damaged by being dead for 24 hours by allowing sulfation to destroy it.

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That is your opinion. Compared to Deka or Odyssey, Interstate is an inferior product. Can you provide a link proving your statement that a battery will be severely damaged within 24 hours of complete discharge?

Graeden said:

That is your opinion. Compared to Deka or Odyssey, Interstate is an inferior product. Can you provide a link proving your statement that a battery will be severely damaged within 24 hours of complete discharge?

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Google battery sulfation and learn. So now you prove which batteries are best - All I am saying is Interstate is not inferior, nor did I say Deka was, all I said is (all lead acid) batteries can be damaged by being dead and allow Sulfation to progress. This is a known chemical process. Foot in mouth is not my disease.

bijiminy said:

What I have in it is an Interstate SP-35. I think it has 300 cranking amps, which should be sufficient. It started the mower with ease last year, but I had to jump it off with first start of the season. It takes a full charge, but it still struggles now. It was manufactured 2019. They are only warranted for 6 months. I'm wondering if I could put a small side post car battery in. It would give it more cranking amps and probably last longer. Any suggestions?

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Cranking amps has ZERO to do with longevity. Those words are mainly not totally, a sales gimmick. Your tiny mower starter only draws maybe 40 amps just guessing out loud???? You don't need 900 amps to crank a lawn mower. Also more CCA's the more plates inside the battery. More plates = thinner plates. Thinner plates = way less battery life. Thicker plates like tractor batteries are the best you can buy.

These new small batteries will last maybe 6 customer yards to 2-3 years. Brother bought a new one last season. Already needs a trip to the ER LOL.

Check your grounds or upgrade the wire size, even better idea. Do the big three upgrade like the car stereo guys do.

slomo

Graeden said:

That is your opinion. Compared to Deka or Odyssey, Interstate is an inferior product. Can you provide a link proving your statement that a battery will be severely damaged within 24 hours of complete discharge?

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If you completely drain a lead acid battery, talking stone dead, it will not fully recover in the amp hour rating. In other words, NEVER come back to 100% fighting capability.

slomo

Hammermechanicman said:

"Full charge" measuring 12.5 to 12.6 volts is not an indication of capacity. Try to start it while measuring battery voltage. What does it drop to?

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In voltage it does. The word capacity you used, you were talking about amps. I see where you are going. Normally, normally, 12.6 is fully charged.

slomo

bijiminy said:

I charged the battery up to 13.2 volts. It dropped to 10.3 after starting with cleaned cables and using dielectric grease. What does that mean? Thanks for helping

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Most likely, your valves are out of adjustment. I know, what valves..... While you are at it, clean the engine block cooling fins. Remove the engine shroud. Look for grass, oil, mice, dirt dobber nests, grease, or any other filth around the fins. Look all AROUND the cylinder/s. Over heating can lead to valve seats popping out and so on.

slomo

slomo said:

If you completely drain a lead acid battery, talking stone dead, it will not fully recover in the amp hour rating. In other words, NEVER come back to 100% fighting capability.

slomo

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Yet that is not the claim you made. Show me proof that a battery is destroyed within w4 hrs after complete discharge.

VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ said:

Google battery sulfation and learn. So now you prove which batteries are best - All I am saying is Interstate is not inferior, nor did I say Deka was, all I said is (all lead acid) batteries can be damaged by being dead and allow Sulfation to progress. This is a known chemical process. Foot in mouth is not my disease.
View attachment 56031

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I stated Interstate is inferior to East Penn/Deka & Odyssey. Take your own advice and use google. I never initiated a conversation with you, I simply stated to the op that Interstate is inferior to other brands. You decided to insert yourself into the conversation with a Maren attitude.

Graeden said:

Yet that is not the claim you made. Show me proof that a battery is destroyed within w4 hrs after complete discharge.

I stated Interstate is inferior to East Penn/Deka & Odyssey. Take your own advice and use google. I never initiated a conversation with you, I simply stated to the op that Interstate is inferior to other brands. You decided to insert yourself into the conversation with a Maren attitude.

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Take a crescent wrench. Drop it across the + and - terminals. Leave it for several hours. Sure it will charge back up. Will it ever be back at full capacity? No. Do that a few times in sub zero weather. Good luck with it.

The word "destroy" was never stated/typed buy anyone in this thread but you. Slow down and read what was stated/typed again.

Battery brands mean nothing. It's not a 100% golden cookie that if you get brand purple, it will last 7 years (you insert a number here) or start on a dead cold winter morning.

slomo

Your battery needs to have 400 cranking amps

Sure.

slomo

My battery is better than your battery

Hammermechanicman said:

My battery is better than your battery

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Sorry Hammer, you have to put a brand NAME on yours to be better. Like Betty Crocker or RID.

slomo

Brand is "superduperbestest" made with only the finest rare earth chinesium components by virgins in a monastery in the Himalayan mountains.

What we sell for them is the Interstate SP35. If you want a higher cranking amp go up to the SP40. But the SP35 works just fine

Did you guys hear what happened to Betty Crocker. She went Stir crazy. LOL

A 300 CCA battery of most any brand will work. Keeping it changed and the electrolyte level full are the best practices for battery life. Get you a trickle charger and hook it up when your mower is not in use. A trickle charger is cheaper than buying batteries once a year.

I have a Silver Eagle LT 2700 and it calls for a 430 cc amp mower battery special noticed it states do not JUMP START YOU WILL BLOW OUT THE DIDOES

parapower said:

Your battery needs to have 400 cranking amps

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On a lawn mower engine that draws what 50-75 amps max?

Cranking amps mean nothing. It will either start or not. Cranking amps is mostly a sales gimmick.

CC=Cranking amps, CCa= Cold cranking amps. They do mean something. It is a rating of the battery to deliver amps and has a value to its depth of capability. Every battery manufacturer rates the battery either CCA or CA or both. Most low class riders have engines with cheaper starters and internal decompression systems and will require no more than a 350 CCA battery or less. With out this decompression and a bigger starter to crank past top dead center, a bigger battery is needed.

Two things to consider are CCA or CA and reserve capacity. Both of which decline as battery ages and internal resistance goes up. I have a lithium ion jump pack that will fit in a hip pocket that puts out close to 600 amps and will start any mower and most small cars with a dead battery but it has very little reserve capacity. Great for starting but not continuous use. If you need 300 amps to start the engine and you have a 300 amp battery all is good but when the battery ages and now is only putting out something like 220 amps the engine may not start. If you had the $15 more 400 amp battery as it ages you will get more useful life from the battery. I always buy the highest capacity battery i can.

VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ said:

CC=Cranking amps, CCa= Cold cranking amps. They do mean something. It is a rating of the battery to deliver amps and has a value to its depth of capability. Every battery manufacturer rates the battery either CCA or CA or both. Most low class riders have engines with cheaper starters and internal decompression systems and will require no more than a 350 CCA battery or less. With out this decompression and a bigger starter to crank past top dead center, a bigger battery is needed.

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You are right. The lower CCA batteries may turn the engine over but not fast enough for it to start like it should. The 27 Hp Generac turns over hard and it needs a higher CCA battery. Even though a battery has 12 volts it is the amps that does the work.










ca

If you can find a automotive battery they usually have a longer warranty. 18 month free replacement at O'Reilly. Prorated after that.

Jaxondaweb said:

If you can find a automotive battery they usually have a longer warranty. 18 month free replacement at O'Reilly. Prorated after that.

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Not enough room tight as it is. Too high and 3 months free replacement on their LM Battery. Ours are $50.00 and 6 moths free replacement.