Battery Unused Shelf Life

since it is a 12v field battery, I would never be afraid of trying it out charge it up and use it, if it won't work throw it away there is really no risk factor associated with this battery Charlie

| since it is a 12v field battery, I would never be afraid of trying it out | charge it up and use it, if it won't work throw it away | there is really no risk factor associated with this battery

Yes, that is true -- since it's not going in your plane, a failure of this battery will not crash your plane, so it's not such a big deal. Though it's failure might mean you can't start your plane, which would be a bummer. Test it at home, not at the field. Outside though -- they can vent hydrogen.

This sort of battery (lead acid, or gel cell) tends to self-discharge very slowly, often holding a signifigant charge for many months (even a year or more?) -- which is good. But once they are discharged, they slowly ruin themselves. That's what will destroy them -- not so much time, but being left discharged for any period of time.

If the battery is dead (not charged) now, it's probably ruined. If not, it's probably ok. In the former case, you can try to charge it and it's possible it'll come back, and some people have had luck hitting them with (slightly) higher than normal voltages to bring them back to life, but I've never had much success there.

Used to spend a lot of time with battery charging during my national service days in the RAF. [ that dates me :o) ] We had a lot of success reviving dead batteries by emptying out the acid, washing out with distilled water then refilling with fresh acid. But it does depend on the reason they died.

Colin

Thank You for all the good information everyone. Good point. A dead field battery won't knock an expensive plane out of the air. It just might not let it in the air to start with.

Again Thank You So Very Much,

Wayne R. Russ

Kinda hard to do with a gel cell. . . .

I have just bought a field charger and reworked my flight / fueling / starting box. It is now two completely separate units, one being tools and stuff, the other being a fueler / starter box. The tools and stuff box has the field charger on it and I would like for it to have its own battery. I have a 12v 7amp gel cell battery left over from an APC that is completely dead, it has been living in my garage for about two years. I have the battery on the charger that came with my electric starter combo right now. If it doesn't charge I will try to jump start it with jumper cables and my truck alternator. I will let you know what happens in a day or so. Charlie

The battery appears to have taken the charge using the wall wart charger that came with the starter kit. It is currently reading 12.8 v, if the battery does not hold the charge I will report back again. Charlie

My bet is that it won't if what I read earlier was correct. The voltage was below 10 volts or so. That puppy won't bark!

-- Red S. Red's R/C Battery Clinic