Whether you’re storing your car long term or working on a project that involves your vehicle being garage-bound for a short while, it’s the item you haven’t thought about that will throw a wrench in the works. You brought the car into your garage for, say, a new engine and transmission, but while you’re slogging through that project, a dead battery could become the cause of frustration in the end. While you know the solution is a battery maintainer, what you might not know is why.
Hagerty, SCCA’s official insurance partner since 2019, also produces tons of fantastic content at its Hagerty.com/media webpage, and it’s there that author Kyle Smith recently dove into the topic of battery chargers and maintainers and (the interesting bit) how they work.
“One item often discussed in storage conversations is a battery maintainer, trickle charger, or battery chargers,” wrote Smith. “Because the batteries of our cars are designed to be used rather than to sit in storage, it makes sense that storage causes problems. Luckily, products exist to address them. But what are those problems and what, exactly, is a battery maintainer or charger doing to help reduce their effects?”
Smith explained that batteries are comprised of three basic components: anode, cathode, and electrolyte.
“The anode and cathode are the terminals, and the electrolyte is a chemical solution or material that allows subatomic ions to move between them,” the article states. “This electrolyte can be free-flowing, as in a traditional lead-acid battery, which will audibly slosh when you move it around, or held in place, as in an absorbed glass mat (AGM) style. When electrons and ions are moving from the cathode to the anode through the electrolyte, the battery is storing potential chemical energy, or charging. That energy is released when a load is placed on the terminals, and the chemical reaction switches direction, flowing from the anode to the cathode.”
The problem comes when a battery goes unused. To discover what happens to a sitting battery, Smith reached out to Carson Clarke, product developer for Battery Tender’s parent company Deltran USA.
Clark explained that maintaining minimum voltage is more important than charge and discharge cycles, which means should a battery sit fully discharged, damage can occur. To battle this, batteries not currently in use (or in vehicles that are run for less than 10 minutes at a time) should be placed on a battery maintainer.
“An external battery maintainer, also commonly called a trickle charger, charges the battery in order to keep its voltage in the ideal window, and it allows the battery to naturally discharge a bit, which keeps the electrons and ions flowing properly,” Smith wrote. “This small amount of charging does not require a large amount of current, though, hence why most battery maintainers are called ‘trickle chargers.’ They are essentially lower amperage chargers, since the battery does not need a large amount of energy to be topped up.”
There’s more to it than this, and for that read the complete article on Hagerty’s website (then scroll down to the comments section where the conversation continues). And while you’re on Hagerty’s site, consider joining Hagerty’s Drivers Club.
Photo courtesy Hagerty/Kyle Smith
