Hot weather battery blues. Fried Deka AGM's.

[WarWagon]

Scratch Orileys Super Start Extreme AGM (Relabeled Deka Penn ) from being able to take the heat. :firedevil: This summer has been especially long, hot, and humid.

Voltmeter was taking a unusual amount of time to recover from startup. Also noticed a plug in voltmeter was reading battery voltage 12.8-13.1 volt at the cigarette lighter plug and that started me looking at things. The headlights/dome light/cigarette lighter plug hot lead may take more repair to be ok. Cleaned all the connections at the power distribution lug, but, I don't think it helped.

They didn't make it through the 2nd summer being 1 year and 6 months old. Driver's side battery would drop voltage under load. Then when the load was removed the voltage would come back up and then 3-5 seconds later come up another few volts.

:skep:

I removed the tester after the second test did the same thing and then removed the battery. I was concerned that it might explode on me.

Looks like the passenger side battery was handling the glow plug and starter load alone. I caught it before that battery also failed from overloading/discharge. But from the semi retired status the 1993 has now sitting a week at a time this isn't a good sign.

Also Jogging in the AM isn't good for your health. The CEO of East Penn Manufacturing Co. was struck and killed June 20th. Looks like a DUI. :nonod:
http://readingeagle.com/news/articl...t-killed-east-penn-manufacturing-ceo-arrested

 

[scottm]

I just started a thread on a napa battery that lasted over 9 years for me!

 

[FellowTraveler]

I have Oddsey AGM''s 4 years now and dual CS130D generators only rare problems I've had in the heat are the thermal limiters in the generators shutting down charge when things get too hot I vented the fenders just beyond the inner vents and no more issues.

 

[WarWagon]

My bad I didn't post pics of the batteries trying to burst. Note swelling of the sides!

 

[ak diesel driver]

we get batteries like that here too. only from the opposite reason, freezing

 

[Will L.]

My hummer battery tray is isolated from the heat of the engine compartment. You all should really consider insulating your batteries. We did it in fleets, it always paid for itself. Remember the insulation that came factory on the batteries? That's to get them through warranty. They just didn't insulate enough to get max life.

 

[FellowTraveler]

The battery trays on the GMT400 are just behind the headlight openings and the leading edge of the hood/bonnet which allow for airflow at speed is it enough? Probably not!

Insulating the batteries could be a double edged sword under a GMT400 hood/bonnet moving them away from the radiator support exacerbates the problem of heat soak.

 

[RI Chevy Silveradoman]

DEKA AGM batteties

Did you take the batteries back and get them replaced? Surely they must be under some tupe of warranty, if not warrantied for full teplacement?

 

[WarWagon]

DEKA AGM batteties

Did you take the batteries back and get them replaced? Surely they must be under some tupe of warranty, if not warrantied for full teplacement?

Replaced with flooded cell normal batteries under warranty. No advantage to running AGM's in this heat.

 

[RI Chevy Silveradoman]

OK. Thank you. I think the advantage is better resistance to vibrations and anti-spill.

 

[C20ELEPHANT]

WarWagon, where do live in Arizona.? I installed 2 AGM's from BatteriesPlus here in Phoenix and I believe they are rebranded Odyssey with a 6 year pro-rated warranty. Have about 2 years on them and just recently installed an insulator around the passenger battery due to the heat being trapped in that corner under the hood. The Dmaxes trap a lot heat in that corner and water drips on top of the flooded batteries and fills them. No apparent swelling when I removed and hope it stays that way...

 

[WarWagon]

Consumer Reports singled out these brand batteries for early failures as they didn't even make it through their heat tests! Other AGM's do better, however, Optima's have cracked the case and generally die in 3 years here. Odyssey is one I may try someday - but I lack the motivation esp. when I read the Sears re-branded version also dies more than they should.

The Duramax factory battery set was good for 1.5 years and 88K before the passenger side cooked off...