Lawn mower battery struggles

I have an older Schumacher 10 amp/2 amp charger. It's fairly large. It does a great job and has an automatic shut off. However, I felt that a Battery Tender Jr. would be a better unit for maintaining my mower battery. The OEM battery for my Gravely is 5 years old and it fires the mower every time.
You know I had that particular brand name and I honestly don't know what happened to it but that really did work well and then after that broke like say 10 years ago I bought this $20 battery charger it's a very small unit it's probably cheaply made but it actually works
 
I use a solar powered trickle charger I leave on all winter Dec to April . Once or twice a month I start the lawn mower and run it for 5 minutes . My batteries, Die Hard, last at least 4 or 5 years they cost more but do last longer . Trickle charger I bought at Harbor Freight for $20 8 or 9 years ago,
 
I read that the US Navy did a study and found that the temperature difference between different parts of a lead acid battery causes a small current to flow internally. With this in mind, if I store a battery on concrete floor I always put it on a piece of wood so the floor doesnt cool the bottom of the battery so much.
 
I was just wondering how many of the people on this forum dont do anything with their lawn mower battery when storing it for the season. I dont put a tender on mine. All I do is unhook the negative cable and leave battery in the mower till spring and then I just hook cable back up and start it. I can usually do this for 4 years with no problems and on the 5th year I have to jump or charge it or get a new battery. Also if I do have a dead battery come spring, what amp do most people use to charge up a rider mower battery?
Yes , I got tired of buying good batteries. This year I tired of battery problems, where I store my machines does not have electric. I bought a 12V solar panel for $45, magnetic mounted, to put on one shed. The panel just pulls off to locate some other place. It also can be mounted on an automoble. This spring the mower started right up no problems. Also to stop 90% of fuel problems I use a Marine fuel conditioner, all year, people that use a conditioner also have no problems.
 
I use a solar powered trickle charger I leave on all winter Dec to April . Once or twice a month I start the lawn mower and run it for 5 minutes . My batteries, Die Hard, last at least 4 or 5 years they cost more but do last longer . Trickle charger I bought at Harbor Freight for $20 8 or 9 years ago,
This sounds very cool nice find.
 
Listen to all the above advise - its good.
I have never heard of a "battery tender" - do you mean trickle charger?
I have no less than four battery chargers (diffrent amp's). All of them go to trickle/standby charge, once the battery gets fully toped up.
I never leave my batteries on charge for more than 48 hrs - usually just overnight.
I get cranky if a battery only lasts 5 years - my best to date was 9 years. 😈
It is my understanding that a Battery Tender only charges a tiny amp/hr to the Battery and shuts off when the Battery is fully charged. I use one on my 2008 XLR which has multiple parasitic drains and it performed as it should during the Winter. The unit has a small green indicator light.
 
all lead acid batteries slowly leak electrons internally. A low charge accelerates sulfation on the battery plates. Sulfated plates are what kills batteries about that 3 to 5 year mark. The question is really how much batter capacity is left at 3 to 4 years. Is it enough to do its job. Charging a low battery is also harder on the mower charging system.
Not to mention that using the mower engine to charge a near dead battery can damage the mower's charging system. Usually, on a Briggs, it will melt the stator ring.
 
A couple years ago I bought a NOCO Genius1 charger described as an "automatic maintainer, trickle charger & desulfator with overcharge protection & temperature compensation for lead acid & lithium batteries." It's like a $30 item. I'm an electrical engineer and I don't know enough about batteries to understand what this thing does or exactly how to use it. Based on my bad luck with batteries, over the winter I disconnect my battery, store it in my basement and connect this charger a few times for a couple days. During the mowing season I'll use it periodically. It's too early to tell whether it will pay off but just this week I reconnected the battery to the mower after first installing this battery disconnect switch to the negative terminal. I wonder if the charger and disconnect switch would allow me to leave the battery in the mower over the winter since removing my battery is a royal pain because I have to move a hydraulic fluid tank out of the way to get to the battery.
 
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