Leisure battery sudden death syndrom.

[Nicholas123]

My main domestic battery has been sitting in the kitchen all winter & with the coming of spring I felt inspired to stick my battery testing device on it & see if it needed a charge (I have been doing this fairly regularly) but I was alarmed to see that the red warning light was lit up so I hastily put it on charge.It produced some odd readings on my LIDL battery charger but after a few goes it seemed to be reading a more healthy capacity but this does not last & in no time it is back to a reading indicating less than 12 volts.:ambivalence:
I think it must be kaput.Presumably for this to have happened something pretty drastic like the plates touching must have happened.Is this normal & is it totally beyond any hope,how does one know?

This is the second one of the pair that I now have 'in storage'.

 

[GrahamM376]

Sudden failure does sometimes happen and, if it's one of a pair in parallel and the other is of similar age, I would replace both. Not good to couple old and new as if the old one fails (as yours has) it could take the new one with it.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Sedimantation can short a cell. That's a sudden death.

 

[savageseadog]

Some modern electronic chargers don't like flat batteries

 

[Spi D]

Some modern electronic chargers don't like flat batteries

Indeed. A pre-charge with an old fashioned charger to at least push the battery voltage a little upwards often fools the intelligent chargers to believe the battery is OK to work on, hence initiate the multistage process that might revive the thing. At least for some time.

A new battery of suitable type and largest capacity I could fit (into space available and budget) would be on my shopping list.

 

[JumbleDuck]

...It produced some odd readings on my LIDL battery charger...

Indeed. A pre-charge with an old fashioned charger to at least push the battery voltage a little upwards often fools the intelligent chargers to believe the battery is OK to work on, hence initiate the multistage process that might revive the thing.

My Lidl battery charger can deal with flat batteries; it sticks in little belts of juice until the battery responds enough to be charged normally.