Why does a car battery with barely any use die if I don’t use the car for a half a year.
In: Technology
Entropy… Energy seeks equilibrium. This concept is why the coffee in a cup does not stay hot. The energy (heat) seeks equilibrium with its environment, so the heat eventually dissipates.
It’s not quite as simple with a battery, but it is generally the same concept.
Batteries self-discharge. Electricity doesn’t like being all bottled up. The battery has barriers inside to keep a bunch of electrons on one side and hardly any on the other. But they seep through eventually and the charge equalizes, killing the battery.
Then when lead acid batteries run low, crystals form on the inside which degrades them and keeps them from charging up again. It happens pretty fast. You should always keep car batteries, and any lead acid batteries, charged to prevent this.
There’s a thing called parasitic draw, all electronics in the car have a very minute constant draw and over time it drains the battery. Also, shifting in temperature, natural decay and other chemical reactions causes the chemicals in the battery to lose energy over time.
Charging the battery revitalizes the chemicals and keeps the energy in.
any modern car with push button start, alarm, car starter , or remote locks uses power listening for the remotes.. when financing some cars seller/financers install covert GPS trackers that use up power as well. There are a few new cars that are infamous for killing their own battery in 3 weeks. (parasitic draw and poor/tiny OEM battery)
lead acid batteries need to be stored at full charge and topped off occasionally. if you dont do that it will get damaged
Battery discharge. It’s kinda like if you charge your phone to full battery then a year later the battery is dead. The electricity always needs to move somewhere, but it can’t just get used up bc it’s not on, so it ends up discharging.
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