Removing the battery (or not?)

[Jonathan]

FWIW, I remove my battery while the car is stored over the winter and keep it in the basement sitting on a piece of wood. I put the charger on it about once per month until it reads 100% and then remove it. I also don't feel comfortable about leaving this sort of electrical thing going unattended in my home for extended periods of time.

I also didn't know there was supposed to be a rubber mat under the battery. My car doesn't have one of those, but it soon will!

[DMC5180]

I got the battery charged up and put it back down in the garage, but I guess I'll have to put it back in the car anyway because I didn't get the fuel stabilizer in before the snow started and I didn't realize you had to run the engine to get it through the whole system.

I cleaned off the rubber mat today so we'll see what happens when everything goes back in. It looks like there's a metal strip along the side of the compartment that the mat was supposed to be attached to?

Arrgh, we keep getting teased with 40-50F temps during the day but then it's down below freezing at night so I guess the roads are staying salty.

You Drive your car enough, with continuous fresh fuel, that you really don’t need to worry about adding fuel stabilizer. It certainly doesn’t hurt anything, but don’t feel bad if you didn’t circulate it. You’ll be just fine.

In All my years of ownership, I’ve never added Stabil or a similar product too the Tank for my 4-5 month winter storage season. I’ve had Zero fuel related starting issues in Spring.


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[Ron]

FWIW, due to their shells being made out of hard plastic, placing a modern battery on wood is useless nowadays.

[Jonathan]

FWIW, due to their shells being made out of hard plastic, placing a modern battery on wood is useless nowadays.

What was/is gained from putting a battery on a block of wood while stored outside the car anyway? Was it as an insulating barrier for the physical cold of a concrete floor? Or as a non-conductive barrier to help ensure current doesn't pass somehow and drain the battery?

[DMC5180]

What was/is gained from putting a battery on a block of wood while stored outside the car anyway? Was it as an insulating barrier for the physical cold of a concrete floor? Or as a non-conductive barrier to help ensure current doesn't pass somehow and drain the battery?

https://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/battery.asp



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[Ron]

More, from manufacturer:

Q: Can I store my batteries on concrete?

A: Many people have the impression that when batteries sit on concrete, energy “leaks out” or they are ruined. The short answer is that letting modern batteries sit on concrete does not harm or discharge them in any way.

However, this legend is historically based in fact. The first lead-acid batteries consisted of glass cells that were enclosed in tar-lined wooden boxes. A damp concrete floor could cause the wood to swell, breaking the glass inside.

The Edison cell (i.e. the nickel-iron battery) that preceded the rubber-cased battery was encased in steel. Those that weren’t isolated in crates would discharge into concrete quite easily. Later battery cases used primitive hardened rubber, which was somewhat porous and could contain lots of carbon. A moist concrete floor combined with the carbon in the battery cases could create electrical current between the cells, discharging them.

None of this is a problem with modern batteries in their hard plastic shells. In fact, concrete is generally an excellent surface on which to place a battery. The electrolyte in a battery sitting on an extremely cold floor with very hot air around it could stratify, causing damage from sulfation; whereas concrete provides good thermal mass to buffer any temporarily extreme temperatures in the battery compartment.

[DaraSue]

After all that, today I ended up firing it up and taking it around the beltway. It was 55F out, roads were mostly dry although I hit a couple of wet patches halfway around. All together it was about 35 miles and I'd put 2 gallons in, ended up right back around 1/8 tank as I got home.

Does anybody else have this gas can? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Briggs-St...023G/235991081 They made it so wonderfully safe and ecological that I couldn't get the nozzle to work at all and had to just dump it in through a funnel. I swear I can still smell the fumes on my sleeves and my face has been itchy all day.

[Alex Brooks]

After all that, today I ended up firing it up and taking it around the beltway. It was 55F out, roads were mostly dry although I hit a couple of wet patches halfway around. All together it was about 35 miles and I'd put 2 gallons in, ended up right back around 1/8 tank as I got home.

Does anybody else have this gas can? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Briggs-St...023G/235991081 They made it so wonderfully safe and ecological that I couldn't get the nozzle to work at all and had to just dump it in through a funnel. I swear I can still smell the fumes on my sleeves and my face has been itchy all day.

I have the 6 gallon version and tired to use it on my Mercedes I had to use a screw driver to hold the filler flap open, still got gas on the car and on me plus they drain so slow. I’ll only use it for lawn epuipment now (snow blower , leaf blower ,mower ) but never on a car again.
Glad to hear you go a good drive in I hope to go for one today.