Wednesday, November 2, 2011

GETTING READY FOR WINTER: Batteries

Cold temperatures decrease the power of a battery.

Batteries are rated as CCA cold cranking amps. That is the power the battery will produce at -18 Celsius or -39 degrees Fahrenheit. We have testers that will check the CCA of a Battery in 10-15 seconds. The CCA is different for the car you have. For example, Diesel trucks have 2 batteries because they need a lot more CCA to run them.

The old wives tale is that if you store a battery on cement it will drain a battery. The fact is, cement is always colder and it lowers the temperature of the battery, which lowers the power it will produce.

Everyone thinks that cold is harder on your battery, but the fact is that HOT weather is harder on your battery. More batteries fail in HOT weather than cold, but cold weather also wears on batteries.

If you don’t have your battery tested before the winter, when the extreme cold comes, your battery will not start your car.

Everybody has a tendency to buy batteries in reverse to what they should:
  • Example: If your battery fails when the car is pretty new, most people go ahead and put the best battery in it; when the car gets a little older ,most people tend to not put in a good battery because their vehicle is older. Just the opposite should be happening. But when the car is newer you starter and alternator and everything in the car is in better shape; when your car is older, that's when the car will need the better battery because the starter and alternator aren't as good as when the car was newer.

As we have said before, proper maintenance will usually keep you from having those surprises of going out to your car on a chilly morning, and not having it start. Proper maintenance is always the key!

If you would like to have the CCA of your batter tested before winter, or have any battery questions in general, give us a call at (801) 966-6021.

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