I have a three year old deep cycle Interstate that was on a battery tender for seven months. Reinstalled it and started the motor once and never again. There is a battery cut off switch and when I turned it on, showed 12v on the volt meter. It’s in another location and I’m taking a load tester and meter to see if there are other issues. Curios if there are issues with the tender.
Should show 12.6 for full charge. Battery life is dependent upon usage. Even thought it’s a deep cycle battery, it could be a bad battery, after 3 years. Or a bad connection! Alway clean your connections throughly, if you have battery trouble, first! Then charge it, let it set or pull the surface charge off of it and test voltage. Bones
I have an Interstate battery in my '40 coupe.....been using a Battery Tender on it since new.......18 years.....still cranks over the SBC with 11.2 CR (327/375 Rochester FI) ....and fires the engine. Just keep it clean and use clean water for the cells......no deep discharges.
Have you used that as your starting battery with great success before? Deep cycle batteries don’t have the cranking amps of starting batteries. They really shouldn’t be used as starting batteries for that reason, but if it’s been working for you as one for a long time I’ll shut my pie hole.
Thats it, deep cycle batteries are meant for long draws powering things like travel trailers, not short powerful bursts like starting cars. A deep cycle requires a long even steady charge to replenish, car batteries are meant to be charged quickly, you are running the wrong battery.
Seems the formula for selecting a car battery is get the most Cold Cranking Amps CCA, that will fit in your battery tray. Phil
Deep cycle batteries will start a car when they are new, but they deteriorate with time just like any battery and somewhere in its life it will stop starting the car, but may test somewhat good for a trolling motor battery. Bones
You need to do a load test to see if you have a bad cell or a generally weak battery. Try a slow charge first and keep it on just long enough for a complete charge. I have a .75 amp trickle charger I use if my car sits for more than a few weeks in cold weather. If the battery is in good shape, theoretically the trickle charger should kick out once it is fully charged.