Winter storage tip for your Battery

[Born2Mow]

My son keeps several cars that he drives once a month. When asked about battery care, he said it wasn't required. Then he showed me a very ingenious product I had never seen before. It turns out that these are not only available for standard "round post" batteries, but also "side post" and motorcycle sized batteries. These last 2 versions have application on mowers for winter storage.





The product is basically 2 robust metal bars separated by a thick plastic insulator. A large thumb screw connects the 2 plates together when you want to use the battery. When the battery is not being used, the thumb screw is loosened and all electrical flow stops. In this way the battery stays charged longer and is able to crank the engine with much less maintenance. This makes it perfect for aiding in winter storage for my ZT mower in Georgia.

Batteries discharge when not in use via the charging system's rectifier, which is normally connected to the battery 24/7. This device makes it a 10 second job to totally disconnect the battery from the electrical system, and is no harder to use than a manual gasoline valve.


Device shown fitted to the Negative post of an eXmark ZT mower

No matter which model you buy, they are all under $10. To see all the various post and color options simply type "battery disconnect" in the Amazon search box.

Examples on Amazon

Hope this helps.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

That's pretty neat.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I always love it when some one discovers a great new idea that has been on sale for over 60 years.
Every caravan & boat shop carries several different brands of the same thing
Some are better than others .

The real benefit of them is low draw items will drain a battery so low that they can not be recharged with regular battery chargers .
In our case the analogue clock in the dash

 

[Darryl G]

I just remove my mower batteries in the winter and put them in my garage that stays above freezing.

 

[Born2Mow]

Of the 3 versions available: round post automotive, side mount automotive, and motorcycle... I think the "motorcycle" version is a tad too small; the bolt holes are sized for 5mm. Given the chance to do it again, I'd probably order the "side mount automotive".

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I have about a dozen of the cheap Harbor Freight or Hazard Fraught, take your pick, float charger battery tenders. I have used thems for years for winter storage of all my vehicles and equipment with batteries. Haven't had a battery freeze or die over winter.

 

[7394]

I have a few Battery MINDers® that keeps my batteries in good shape. Set it & forget it..

I like the 1500 unit & it can maintain up to four 12 Volt batteries at one time when connected in parallel..

batteryminders.com

 

[bertsmobile1]

FWIW
I ride motorcycles, very old ones so the standard thing with them is to pull the batteries out when I come back from a ride and hook it up to a busbar system set up for batteries
hat is hooked up to a charger on a timer set for 15 minutes ones a week .
Got about a dozen batteries on it and some are better than 15 years old .
When we did hire cars it was a similar story except they got 1/2 hour a week .

 

[Hammermechanicman]

In our case the analogue clock in the dash

Back in high school my '63 Ford Galaxie kept randomly blowing the dash light fuse. Ran out of fuses so stuck a piece of 1/4 20 bolt in it. Found out why it was blowing fuses when the the clock contacts stuck closed. Fried the insulation off the wire to the clock at 60MPH and filled the car with white smoke in seconds. Had 3 other high school kids in the car with me. People freak out so easy.


Note to self. Fuses are important.

 

[Born2Mow]

Thought I would open this thread back up and report my experience over the winter. First post was at the end of October and now we are in the middle of March. So call it 4-1/2 months since installation. Call it 4 months my Exmark Series E with the 708 V-twin has been in storage.

When I put the mower away for the winter I treated the fuel, and parked it in an un-heated out building. During that time I did no other maintenance of any type. It wasn't the coldest winter on record, but it was a good Georgia winter.

In the last 4 months....
> I did not use a "maintenance charger"
> I did not crank the engine in mid-winter
> I did absolutely ZERO maintenance on the mower

Today I got the mower out. After airing the tires, checking the engine oil level, turning the fuel valve ON and tightening the battery disconnect... the engine cranked like it had been run yesterday. The battery apparently had retained full power with ZERO maintenance.

During the same storage period in the same out building my motorcycle DID require maintenance charge.

All I can say is that I'm sold on these battery disconnect devices.