Is Your Battery Ready For Winter?

If You’re Not Sure, It’s Probably Not Ready

Did you know that hot and cold affect your battery? It’s true! Extreme heat can be bad, so can extreme cold. Your best operating temperature for a vehicle battery is going to be warmer than -4 degrees and under 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Certainly, vehicles can work well in either scenario. However, for best battery effectiveness, the outlined range is to be considered. 

In wintertime, the extreme cold can actually reduce the effectiveness of battery conductivity. With lead-acid batteries, there’s a conductive medium through which varying charges have some level of interaction. Usually, this medium is “water”. As you may realize, water evaporates over time. 

The battery under the hood of your car will generally have a certain amount of distilled water that is contained inside two reservoirs within the battery itself. You can reach them with a bevel—or screwdriver. Basically, you use the screwdriver to pry off the “lid” on each water receptacle. 

The sort of water in the battery is distilled, and over a year or two, it will evaporate. When it does, your vehicle will have trouble starting, and you’ll have a difficult time keeping a charge in your battery. The thing is, if you just replace the distilled water in your battery, you can extend its life for a few months longer than you’d be able to otherwise—maybe even a few years. 

Methods Of Battery Maintenance

Simply pop the lid with a screwdriver, and put in the distilled water using a funnel until it’s even with the top of the cylindrical receptacle. Especially during winter, you want to do this, because extreme cold snaps will freeze the water, and as it thaws out, it can evaporate—especially in desert areas like Wyoming.

Something else that happens with your battery over time is alkaline buildup around the battery leads. You’ll see this as a light blue or greenish residue around the areas where your battery connects to your car. This stuff is toxic, try to avoid touching it with your bare fingers, and if you do, wash them off. 

That said, you need to clean the leads every year or so. This makes your battery more conductive. So, essentially, in October or—if you’re reading this in December—right now, you need to check how much water is in your battery, and clean the leads. If water is low, replenish it using distilled options. Be sure to disconnect the battery first. 

While it’s disconnected, clean up all the leads using a rag you don’t mind throwing away. Do this every year—or every six months, if you’re really passionate about vehicular maintenance—and you can keep your battery functioning years after the expiration date on the little sticker.  

Keeping Your Car Batteries At Their Best During Winter

In winter, when it gets cold, your vehicle may have trouble starting. Assuring the battery has clean leads and enough water in its reservoirs makes this problem less impacting. To learn more about winterization for your vehicle, be sure to explore our blog at Anybody’s Autos!