Lawn Mower Batteries move with the Times?

Lawn Mower batteries

Britain has experienced one of the mildest winters on record and for us gardeners it is the beginning of the grass cutting season. I am never sure whether or not the weather has anything to do with the grass cutting time or the increase in the length of the daylight hours that causes the grass to start growing, I know that they say it is when the temperature reaches 6 C, but as I say I am not too sure. Some say that grass never really stops growing but the cold winter temperatures slow it down during the winter months.

However there I was cutting my lawn with my trusty 10 year old Mountfield petrol driver mower, belting out smoke as it struggled with the length of the grass and thought about what type of mowers were on the market place today? I was thinking that perhaps the lawn mower had moved on with times, the same as cars were doing and perhaps going from petrol engines to battery driven mowers.

At the moment we sell a large diversity of batteries for different types of lawnmowers. These lawnmower batteries are used primarily as starter batteries, are thus made in a similar fashion to car batteries, they are starter batteries and not storage batteries. They come in all shapes and sizes from 12volt 4.5amp up to a 12volt 24amp AGM or a 038 battery that are used on some of the older cars.

These types of lawnmower usually have an alternator fitted to charge the battery when the engine is running, but a backup smart charger is always handy to have, for if you do not have a long engine running time or have say a small lawn to cut and the engine does not have enough time to charge and recover the battery. Also a smart charger should be connected up to your battery in the dormant winter season, preferably in a frost free garage or out building. This will keep your battery fully charge and in top condition, up to the point of re using it again in spring.

If you battery has an alternator to charge the battery and you suspect that it may not be working, then it is easy to check with a simple and cheap voltmeter. Simply run the engine at full speed and put your voltmeter across the battery terminals, the reading should be between 13 to 15 volts input, if it is not then you may have a charging system problem, it could also be a fuse or the starter solenoid. If the charging system is ok then you will probably need a new battery.

If you do need a new battery then the best thing to do is to get the exact information from your old battery, this is the same advice as for a car battery or a motor cycle battery. Get all the information from your old battery and also the measurements, length, width and height. This will help your battery retailer should there be a discrepancy with the part numbers. I always recommend that you buy a battery from a local supplier if possible, but there are some excellent battery suppliers of cheap batteries online now and they are usually delivered in a couple of days, depending on when you order your battery.

New types of lawn mower batteries

The latest type of mower that I was perhaps dreaming about is now on the market. It has all been possible because of the recent advances in other type of battery technology, such as Nickel Cadmium and Lithium-Ion. These lawn mowers are powered by the batteries, just like say your cordless drill. In my opinion the Lithium-Ion battery will give you a better service and will hold its charge for about 500 days, but will require charging after that time. Also the lithium-Ion batteries are lighter and smaller than the Ni-Cd batteries.

The new types of mowers are very clean, quiet and do not pollute the atmosphere like my petrol driven Mountfield mower, the also make little noise when you are cutting your lawn. To sum up battery-powered mowers are much quieter than petrol-driven mowers and are more economical as well, considering the extortionate cost of petrol. While the lawnmower batteries can be recharged a number of times, they eventually wear out, which means that consumers will need to purchase replacement batteries from time to time, still much cheaper than buying petrol.

These mowers are now being produced by many of the mower manufacturers, such as Mountfield and Black and Decker and only time will tell whether or not they will be as effective and reliable as my petrol driven now old fashioned mower.

Eric Roberts

Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the Garage and tyre and Battery business now for 40 years. I have worked for a couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a garage and MOT testing centre, here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.

Can Motorcycle Batteries Freeze

Motorcycle Batteries can freeze

Although we have had a mild winter this year (2013 -2014) I have still gone ahead and decided to write this post for future winters and also for my readers from other sides of the World, especially for the bikers in North America who have experienced an horrific cold and snowy winter.

Although this post is primarily about 12v motorbike batteries it also includes motor bike chargers and intelligent chargers that can also apply to car batteries and car battery chargers.

Most sensible bikers keep their bikes hidden away all winter and then when the spring arrives it is time to get their bikes out clean them up and give them a service, but what about the old battery and more important did the battery freeze if you were unlucky enough to have been in those -40 temperatures. Here in the UK we have watched this on TV and witnessed the problems that such low temperatures can bring, when the big

Weather like this could freeze your motor bike battery

thaw comes.

The coldest I have ever known the temperature to fall to was -19c in France, it was a nightmare all the water pipes were bursting the diesel in cars and trucks was freezing and also some car batteries froze up. As a guy who has being selling batteries for practically all his working life I was interested in which types of batteries had frozen. I found that the batteries were on older cars that still had their original batteries fitted say in-between five to seven years old. The battery acid (electrolyte) had in fact been watered down over the years without any noticeable effect, until the really cold winter came along. The batteries were diluted down and contained more water than acid and I came to the conclusion that this is what had happened.

So a 12v motorbike battery could freeze?

The secret lies in the state of charge of the battery. It would take a severely cold night to freeze a battery that was fully charged. But if a battery is discharged because of damage to cells, poor connections or a charging system that isn't doing its job, the battery could start freezing at the same temperature as water. A fully charged bike battery should take temperatures of down to -24.C, whereas a discharged battery will freeze at 0.c the freezing point of water.

How can you protect your motor bike battery in winter?

The 12v motorbike battery consists of 6x2.5v cells to make for a fully charged battery reading 13.5v when fully charged. If one of these cells is damaged for whatever reason then the rest of the battery will suffer, because the cells are joined in series. So in my opinion the first thing to do before the onset of winter is to charge your battery and check the voltage if it is bellow say 12 volts then the battery has a problem and should be replaced next spring. If the battery reads a full 13.5v, then the battery is good and should be removed from the bike into a frost free place, even perhaps in a safe area of the house.

You can check the voltage with a cheap voltmeter. You should then be prepared to keep your battery in a fully charged state throughout the winter months. You can do this with a motorbike charger, the regular type or better still in my opinion to use an intelligent charger. The intelligent charger will read the state of the battery all through the winter   and when the state of the battery falls the charger will automatically top the battery up to the full charge level, it will then go back to standby mode and repeat this all through the winter cold.

Another good piece of advice is that if you have to replace your motor bike battery then try to go for a good make. Here in the UK I would recommend a Varta motorcycle battery; these batteries are made by the Johnson Controls, who’s reputation for quality is second to none.

World’s largest battery makers

Eric Roberts

Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the Garage and tyre and Battery business now for 40 years. I have worked for a couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a company here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.