Are Dead Batteries in the Winter the Result of Summer Damage?
A battery load tester is a great tool for measuring a car battery’s health. If car owners ever needed a reason to buy one, damage caused by summer heat is a good one. Why summer heat? We can answer the question with another question: are dead batteries in the winter the result of summer damage?
Cold winter temperatures can make it more difficult to start a car. In turn, continuous cranking can drain a battery very quickly. But, it is unlikely that winter temperatures will do long-term damage to a car battery. The same is not true for summer heat. As you’ve previously read in some of our other blog posts, heat can do a real number on car batteries.
Whether it’s lead-acid, AGM, or LFP lithium battery, heat is an enemy to be reckoned with; an enemy that car owners have no control over. There are some things consumers can do to reduce the harm of summer heat in most parts of the country. But, if you live in the southwest or certain portions of the southeast, heat is going to do its thing no matter what steps are taken. That leads us back to monitoring battery health with a quality load tester.
Battery Fluid Levels
One of the big problems with summer heat is that it can lead to battery fluid evaporation. Common sense dictates that car owners routinely top off their batteries to make sure this isn’t a problem. While that sounds good, you know that maintenance-free batteries are sealed tightly. There is no way to check fluid levels, let alone top them off.
As battery fluid is lost, the battery’s ability to hold a charge goes down. More summer heat leads to less capacity. In the winter, when a car owner needs maximum capacity for cranking a cold engine, a battery not working at peak performance is going to have trouble.
It’s enough to make any mechanic or garage owner wonder how many winter battery woes are actually the result of summer damage. There are not any hard numbers that we know of, but common sense suggests that summer heat has a far greater impact on winter performance than most car owners know.
Things Car Owners Can Do
Without being able to top off fluid levels, car owners face summer heat without any effective means of preventing it from damaging their batteries. Or do they? There are at least a couple of easy things consumers can do to help their batteries when the weather gets hot. Here are three of them:
- Park in the Shade – Whenever possible, parking in the shade reduces the amount of direct sunlight beating down on a car. In addition, this reduces the amount of heat that builds up under the hood. Even when parking in the shade only reduces the temperature by a few degrees, every little bit helps during the summer.
- Avoid Short Trips – Short trips that don’t allow a battery to fully recharge lead to a decline in battery performance over time. This degradation is exacerbated in hot weather.
- Keep Batteries Clean – Keeping batteries and terminals clean prevents the buildup of substances that can interfere with performance. Better performance means less wear and tear on the battery.
As an auto service professional, make sure you always have a reliable battery tester on hand. When customers bring their cars in for service, check the batteries. Let them know that the summer heat can do a lot of damage that will not be obvious until winter returns. The goal is to keep that damage to a minimum and make sure the customer is never stranded.
