How to Know if You Have a Dead Cell
Having battery troubles? Yeah, we hear you. Near everyday, nosotros receive calls and comments about batteries that "won't hold a charge" whatsoever more than. Peradventure you lot've been in that boat before. To clear upwards a misconception: a battery isn't like a water bottle. You can't use upwards one-half now, and then wait and utilize one-half subsequently. It'southward not a tank of electricity. As well, batteries don't "leak" power like h2o can. What we're dealing with is a lead acrid battery in a plastic box that encases a delicate residue of chemicals which are ready to interact with each other to produce electricity when the load is applied.
If your battery is having trouble holding under load, then chances are it's a chemical effect.
How to test a battery:
Here are some ways to examination your bombardment at habitation, and decide if it's bad:
1) Inspect the Battery
Sometimes you tin can tell if your bombardment is bad by just taking a skillful look. In that location are a few things to inspect:
- Cleaved terminal
- Burl or crash-land in the case
- Crevice or rupture of the plastic
- Excessive leaking
- Discoloration
Broken or loose terminals are dangerous and can cause a short circuit. If a short did occur, there would exist some indication of burning or melting. When a battery brusque circuits, all the ability is unloaded in an instant. That produces a lot of heat, and sometimes fifty-fifty causes the bombardment to explode.
If the battery is still intact, merely there is a bulge in the case, this is usually a issue of existence overcharged. Other signs such as concrete openings in the instance are often caused past mishandling. Cracks, splits, and holes will not cause a battery to cease working, but for condom reasons the battery should exist labeled unsafe to use.
With wet-cell (flooded) batteries, water levels must exist maintained. If they are low, unremarkably refilling them with distilled water will aid. But, if the cells within the battery take been exposed to air for a long time, it can crusade a problem. When the plates within each cell are exposed to oxygen it can speedily dry the paste that surrounds the lead plates. When the paste has stale it creates a barrier that prevents the chemic reaction within the battery. This can also cause the sulfation that has already occurred to harden leading to a sulfated battery which is the number one cause of early battery failure. Nosotros strongly recommend checking the water levels prior to charging a wet cell battery since charging a dry out battery volition burn it up. If your battery has plenty of fluid in the cells, but the color is nighttime, or brownish, this is also an indication of a bad battery. Even if 1 cell is brown, it is rendered useless and therefore the unabridged battery is, too. Time to supplant your battery!
2) Take a Voltage Reading
The voltage of a battery is a proficient way to make up one's mind the land of charge. Here's a handy table with the breakdown:
| State of Charge | Voltage |
| 100% | 12.7 - thirteen.2 |
| 75% | 12.4 |
| 50% | 12.1 |
| 25% | 11.7 |
| Discharged | 0 - 11.6 |
If your battery is:
- Reading 0 volts, chances are the bombardment experienced a brusque circuit
- Cannot reach higher than 10.5 volts when being charged, then the battery has a dead cell
- Fully charged (according to the battery charger) but the voltage is 12.iv or less, the battery is sulfated
Sulfation is the natural byproduct when the battery discharges. Naturally, re-charging the battery will reverse the sulfation crystals and turn it back into electrolyte, fix to produce power once more. But if a bombardment sat, uncharged, severely discharged, and/or tuckered for extended periods of time, the sulfation will increase in size and harden onto the plates. This covers the surface area of the plates, removing the chemicals needed to produce ability.
Sulfation decreases the potential to attain a full charge, and it cocky-discharges the battery quicker than normal. Charging a sulfated battery is like trying to wash your hands while wearing gloves. At this point, charging alone will not restore the battery to a salubrious condition. The majority of replacement bombardment purchases occur when the original bombardment has reached this bespeak.
3) Load Examination the Battery
Your local automotive shop is more than than able to load test your battery, but information technology's quite easy to do at home and all you lot need is a digital voltmeter. For any load examination to exist accurate, the battery must exist fully charged and left to sit 12 hours earlier load testing the bombardment. A recently charged battery will hold a residual accuse from the charger, so letting the battery sit for 12 hours will release that residual charge and give yous a more accurate sense on how the battery will perform under normal circumstances. To the test...
Permit's utilise a motorcycle battery for an example:
- Remove the seat and betrayal the battery in your wheel so that you have access to the terminals. Practice not disconnect the battery because you will attempt to start the wheel.
- Concord the prongs of your voltmeter to the correct terminals on the bombardment.
- Now button the first button and watch what the voltage drops to. Information technology doesn't thing if the bike starts or non, what you're looking for is a voltage reading.
A healthy 12 volt bombardment should maintain a voltage range from 9.6 - 10.five volts under the load for a good 30 seconds straight.
For starting batteries nosotros don't expect you to run the starter for xxx seconds, and then if you see the voltage meter driblet within the voltage range and it sounded like a adept stiff start, and so you probably simply had a discharged battery. All the same, if under the starting load the voltage drops below 9.6v, then it is most likely time to supervene upon the bombardment.
For deep cycle application if the battery holds under load for a few seconds then voltage starts to steadily drop this would indicate a problem with the bombardment. If the voltage instantly drops to 0 volts, that is also a problem. We call this the open up jail cell. On a new battery, this can exist a result of manufacturing flaws, merely it also may be caused by sulfate crystal buildup.
A common occurrence with open cell batteries is that nether the intense heat of the load, ane or more of the weld pieces connecting the cells together is coming loose and separating. This volition cut the electric current, and voltage volition drop. When the battery cools off, the pieces will impact, barely giving a complete connection. This gives you a false voltage reading. Batteries with open cells may read fully charged in idle, but they fail nether a load test every time. Once a battery reaches this betoken, there is no going back. The best thing to practise is recycle the thing.
How to tell if a bombardment is bad or good: These 3 steps will help you test and determine if your battery is truly bad or getting in that location. Sometimes information technology'southward obvious if in that location is a failure, only other times it's not. Flooded batteries brand information technology possible to simply await inside the cells and decide if the bombardment has a physical defect. Just for sealed AGM and Gel batteries, information technology requires testing. The only tools you really need are a battery charger and a digital voltmeter. If your battery experiences whatever of the symptoms described in the steps to a higher place, and so maybe it'due south time to supersede the battery.
Look no further. Nosotros've got a wide choice of powersports batteries for your motorcycle, ATV, scooter, jet ski, or snowmobile. Only we also carry batteries for backyard mowers, wheelchairs / mobility scooters, UPS systems, RVs, and marine applications. Whether you need a starting battery or a deep cycle battery, we have the stuff. And all of our replacement batteries come with warranties to ensure that yous won't have whatsoever of these problems with your new battery.
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Written on by Stoney DeGeyter with BatteryStuff.com 
Modified on
How to Tell if Your Battery Is Bad in three Easy Steps
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Source: https://www.batterystuff.com/blog/how-to-tell-if-your-battery-is-bad.html
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