How to Care for your Battery - Maintaining your Warranty

Please refer to the safety note provided in your package with the battery. It is imperative to remove the transport plugs (small red/yellow/grey/black plugs depending on the manufacturer) before use or loading. The batteries are delivered ready to use and do not require recharging before use (with the exception of some motorcycle models). However, it can be beneficial to charge before use. We recommend that you do so before installing your battery if its voltage is less than 12.4v.

The best (and easiest) way to check the state of charge of a battery is to use a voltmeter or multimeter to measure the voltage. Once you know the exact voltage, you can determine the state of charge as follows:-

• • 100% 12.7v or + No action required, battery recharged
• • 75% 12.4v No action required
• • 50% 12.1v Battery must be recharged
• • 25% 11.6v Battery needs a full recharge as soon as possible
• • 0% 10.5v Fully discharged battery, to be recharged as soon as possible

The more a battery is discharged before each recharging, the more it loses capacity and it’s life is shortened as a result. It is imperative never to fully discharge a battery (no matter how small the battery or its technology or application) and to recharge it as soon as possible.

Over time, dirt and debris can collect on your battery and corrode metal elements such as battery terminals. Therefore, it’s important to clean your car battery every few months to avoid long-term damage. You can either create your own cleaning solution by using baking soda and water or some electrical contact cleaner with a wire brush to remove any crust and corrosion left on the battery. Keep in mind to wipe off any cleaning fluid residue on the battery so it doesn’t go through the battery ports and cause any damage.

When a battery has been fully charged it can quite happily be stored away for 2-3 months. However when a battery is flat, storing it for this period would almost certainly damage it beyond repair.

The reason behind this is a chemical process called sulphation. When a battery is charged this chemical process cannot take place. However, when the battery's voltage falls below 12.4V this process begins. The process causes sulphur crystals to form on the lead plates inside the battery, which in turn increases the battery's electrical resistance. The longer this process is allowed to continue the worse the effect. Eventually the battery will become so electrically resistant, that you will be unable to charge the battery, let alone draw power from it.

If this process is caught early you may be able to salvage the battery using a battery charger with a pulse charge function. This will partially break down the sulphur crystals but the battery will never reach its full capacity again. It is also just as harmful to leave a battery charging over a long period of time.

Keeping a constant voltage at the battery terminals during the charge maintenance phase will have the effect of sulphating the internal plates in the same way as a deep discharge. We recommend performing a regular charge and discharge cycle. For slow discharge batteries, we recommend an equalisation charge every 30 to 90 days (15.5v charge for several hours in order to remove the sulphate from the plates).

Remember that if your battery fails due to sulphation it will not be covered under warranty. This kind of failure is classed as damage caused by the user through neglect.

Although you must always keep your battery as charged as possible when not in use, you must never overcharge it. Overcharging will cause the battery to heat up and its electrolyte will start to evaporate. In turn this will cause the battery's plates to break down, severely reducing the battery's ability to yield power.

Overcharging can be caused by a faulty regulator on a vehicle's charging system or by a manual charger being left on continuously at a high charging rate. It is also just as harmful to leave a battery charging over a long period of time. Keeping a constant voltage at the battery terminals during the charge maintenance phase will have the effect of sulphating the internal plates in the same way as a deep discharge.

We recommend performing a regular charge and discharge cycle. For slow discharge batteries, we recommend an equalisation charge every 30 to 90 days (15.5v charge for several hours in order to remove the sulphate from the plates). This type of damage is also not covered under warranty.

Everybody knows that a battery will deteriorate over time, and will eventually have to be replaced. Every time you use your battery then recharge it, its performance is ever so slightly decreased. This cannot be avoided. However, the severity of this decrement can be limited.

The way to achieve this is to not discharge your battery too deeply. Deep discharging causes the performance decrement to be more severe. Therefore once you have used the battery for the day, it is best to recharge rather than use it until it becomes flat.

Obviously, in the real world this is not always possible as the battery may be fully drained with one day's use. But when you can, recharge the battery before it's fully discharged.

Most modern batteries are the sealed, maintenance-free type, but there are still a few open vent batteries on the market. If you have one of these you should always check the battery levels regularly. The level of the electrolyte should be just above the battery plates, ensuring the whole plate is submerged. Any part of the plate, which is not submerged, is prone to break down. This in turn will decrease the performance of the battery.

If you need to top up the battery levels, make sure you only use de-ionised water. Using tap water will cause mineral build up on the plates and reduce the performance of the battery.

For those of you with sealed, maintenance-free batteries this is not a concern, as they are designed to retain their electrolyte under normal conditions. The only way these batteries will have low electrolyte levels is if the battery is overcharged.