Hot Rods Storing a battery on a concrete floor will drain it.........

....I've heard that one but never tested it out.
The thing I have a question about is.......'if I disconnect my battery when parking for a few days...will that prolong the life of the battery a significant amount ?'
I wanna think......it will but never tested it out.

Also........you fellas who store your cars during cold weather....would jacking them up... off the ground prolong the life of the tires a significant amount?
I believe keeping them from direct sunlight helps a little.

Does ALL these question go into the same bin as the concrete floor vs battery question?
6sally6

 

In the old days before plastic case battery's You did NOT store on the floor. Todays battery's you can.
AT work we carry BIG AGM 8D's and they are stored on the floor NO ISSUES.

• Keep batteries on concrete. Today’s batteries have plastic cases there is no risk of the battery degrading from being on a concrete floor.
• Proof. FarmCraft101 set six batteries on different surfaces and then load tested periodically. Concrete acted as a temperature buffer; the batteries stored on concrete were fine.

Heat is bad for batteries. According to manufacturer Pacific Power Batteries, a car battery in a hot climate will last, on average, only two thirds as long as it would in a cold climate. For example, a battery that lasts 4 years in a cold environment would only last 2 years and 8 months in a hot climate. Keeping the battery on a slab of concrete, which can act as a heat sink, might actually extend its life by absorbing some of that heat.

 

It is a wives tale that could be hard to prove, but I just had a battery fail that spent a year or two on the floor.

 

Yup, batteries won’t die on concrete.

a battery will last longer ( longer life) in colder temperatures, but will loose some of its amp hours .

a battery will live a short life in hot weather but have its full amp hours.

got it cold weather I find tires that sit in one spot get flat spotted .

and yes it f you have a new car or a car with a parasitic draw, disconnecting the battery will prolong its life.

 

I know that concrete won’t hurt a battery……..but I still find myself setting batteries on wood or cardboard or something to keep it up off concrete!Old habits die hard! I even laugh at myself for doing it! But entertainment is hard to get these days!






Bones

 

they like being used...hard to drive it every week and keep it active, if it's on the floor!

As far as disconnecting the battery to help keep it up...if the car has any small drains (clock, radio, alarm, etc) then that is a good idea. If not, then it won't make any difference.

 

Tanx Squirrel
6sally6

 

I've had great results using a battery tender on stored car for winter.

 

Old wives tales die hard. This came up before, maybe on the AAC site a while back and it seems about half of u believe the tale. I think it is due to some of the inaccurate term that we are used to such as "Ground". Automotive electrical systems have positive and negative sides but neither of them is a true ground. one is a return to complete the circuit. We call it a ground because it is convenient. Your house has a true ground, usually a cold water pipe or a copper rod driven into the ground. The theory is that a mysterious thing called grounding seems to happen when the battery is placed on concrete. Somehow dirt doesn't have the same effect. No one have been able to explain to me how "The little Es" make their way out of the battery to be sucked to their doom by the Satanic forces of the killer "ground". I suspect that many a hapless battery suffered a needless death back when everyone had those ground straps hanging from their cars.

 

My good friend has owned a shop for decades, sold thousands of batteries, always tells me batteries die in July but don't fall over 'til January.

 

.............Makes sense that jacking them up would eliminate the stress of car weight on them. Keeping them from direct sunlight is indeed good, but also don't store them near any electric motor such as a furnace as they give off ozone which is detrimental to rubber.

 

I do like wives tails

 

Will the water on top of a wet battery conduct electricity?

 

...Yep. So will dirt. Keep it clean.

 

How many remember pushing pennies into the old tar top batteries to attract the corrosion away from the terminals?

 

Not me old boy.

But speaking of corrosion, I'm about done with post battery terminals. I have been slowly switching over to bolt on terminals, side or top mount, a lot less hassle. Had to use my dump truck this week, old top post type, had been sitting awhile outside. Sure enough, click, click. Pulled the terminals off, corroded. Battery brush, the wire brush deal that goes both over the post and into the clamp, to clean them up and off it went. The bolt on terminals just seem to work better. Prolly why they come that way now..

 

For a safety precaution, I keep the neg clamp lose for easy removal of the neg cable when parking the old cars in the garage. Used to pull all my batteries and keep them warm over winter, now been told its better to have them cold as long as they have a good charge.

Put cars up on stands or put plywood under the them to keep the tires off the concrete.
Got 2 sets of old rims/tires, so the mag wheels/tires can go down to the warm basement for the winter.
Take the the drag slicks off before it freezes and store them in big leaf bags, out of sunlight and away from electric furnace motors in the basement.
Summit Racing lists this in their "How Should I Store My Drag Slick" instructions.

One W.I.R. street class drag racer told me that he buys a new set of drag radials every spring, because the old ones won't hook the 2nd year, wonder how he stores them?

Norb

 

I am a big fan of “Battery Tenders” but I prefer the Yuasa brand units. Just because I was taught not to put a battery on concrete I normally store them on wood. As for tires on long term storage vehicles if possible I temporarily install tires that are only used for storage, the good tires are kept laying flat in cool dark storage.
If I am not able to install temporary tires I pump up the pressure a few pounds then park the car with the tires on styrofoam panels. I also pump the brakes periodically. I try to start the car monthly, let it warm up, if it has an automatic trans I run it through the gears while it is warming up.

 

I tried the experiment of leaving a known good battery on a concrete garage floor and tested it every day. Did not go down for a week or 10 days. Then I forgot about it. Came back after 3 weeks, it was dead as hell and would not take a charge. I have kept spare batteries on a wooden shelf for years before they went dead, charging them up every few months, now I don't leave them on concrete if they are good.
If you leave a car parked for a long time, like more than a week, it is a good idea to disconnect the battery to avoid a slow drain and also in case of a short or fault in the wiring that could cause a fire. Some just put on a battery tender to maintain charge. Late model cars always have a tiny current draw that can kill a battery over time.
Storing a car over winter, jacking it up and letting the wheels hang will keep the tires from getting flat spots and cracking especially if they go flat. It also saves the springs. It may also help to cover the tires.

 

Yup, me too. I don't laugh at myself though, just shake my head in disbelief and set it on a piece of wood anyway.

 

Have always disconnected batteries if the vehicle is going to set for any extended period of time. Taught this young, old habits are hard to break. And, was taught to never set them on concrete floor. Right or wrong it's just what I was taught and have always done.

 

Junkyarddog-I nailed it. With the old rubber case batteries setting them on concrete floor would cause them to drain a lot faster than they would normally. That doesn't seem to happen with a plastic case battery but I still set them on a board.
What will drain a battery when it is sitting is a dirty and damp battery top. I've measured 9 volts across the top of one battery that one of my students was having issues with it going dead in a couple of hours. That was putting on multi meter probe on the + post and putting the neg probe in spots around on the battery top.

 

I don't like storing them on concrete in winter 'cause it's bloody cold down there. How many have had a battery cark it in winter as opposed to summer? Nothing to do with 'grounding' just seems to suck the life out of them.

 

Don't forget to use this.............

 

As a FNG I started a similar thread and got flamed & locked!
Amazing how otherwise smart folks still believe in the ''magic electron thief'' lurking in concrete. Had a neighbor who was so adamant about it that I kept my spare battery on a wood block so he wouldn't go on about it. Trickle chargers are your friend for mostly dormant cars.

 

fwiw….
I put a new battery in my flathead V8, - after 2 years I replaced it, as I regularly do - left the 2 year old battery on a concrete floor for another 2 years, - then put it in an off topic daily driver, didn’t charge it, but jump started it, and got another 4 or 5 years out of it !
Never worry now about leaving them on the concrete…….

 

Only if the battery was made by Lucas.
The Prince of Darkness will find a way...

 

In the early 60s I worked at a marina on Lake Erie. When we winterized boats, batterys went to "the shed", where they sat on wood and were trickle charged from time to time. They seemed to last a LONG TIME.

 

When I put a battery on the floor I put it on a small piece of 2x4. Not because of the drain thing but because it allows me to get my fingers under it when it comes time to pick it up again...and if its a leaker, it will hopefully keep my concrete floor from corrosion too.

Over the winter I remove all my stored car batteries and put them on trickle chargers.

 

Only ever had batteries die in winter, rarely in summer. Must be our electrons go in different directions from up North. I use my old car batteries on my solar power setup for my shed, but they are on a couple of blocks only so I can get my fat fingers under there1
The electric motors that give off ozone are only universal or brush type motors. Where you see sparks, there will be ozone.