Batteries, left out in the cold. Bad parent!

Frost blanket or something that water will run off if it can get wet,
Cant do any harm to give a bit of protection,

An old blanket ir duvet will do the job in that case

Just think of them as rhododendrons and wrap em in a frost blanket

Box in the compartment with a bit of Quinn Therm board under and snugly around and on top should keep them safe

Very good point

Just make sure the aeroboard does not come into contact with any PVC cables or you could end up with a rewire job


??? What's the problem, never heard of this

In general it is used more often and most of them are also boxed into plastic housings with covers.

Keep 'em charged.

Lead acid batteries perform best in a relatively narrow temperature range -their performance declines at high or low temperatures.

In cold conditions, damage occurs if the plates are distorted by freezing of the electrolyte.
A "flat" battery (apart from the risk of sulfation) may suffer damage at barely sub zero temperatures, because the electrolyte is a very high percentage of water, while a fully charged battery will be ok down to -50C or more -because the electrolyte will consist of up to 30% sulphuric acid.

Excellent comment by Bounder on the possible interaction of Polystyrene and PVC.
Fires have happened because of PVC cable degredation after prolonged contact with polystyrene.

A lot of polystyrene is now “stabalised” but there is still some there that will literally melt the Pvc insulation off cables. So yeah be careful. The old white stuff was one of the worst

Any idea how dose the new stuff work like Quinntherm with the foil on.?
I saw a similar idea as the Hester pad wired in conjunction Heater's which were fitted into the frost plug ports in the side of the block to heat the water and into the sump to heat the oil.
They were working in really heavy snow conditions.

The old massey engines had a heater glow plug fitted into the intake air manifold. I have heard of guys fitting these into more modern engines to help the existing heater plugs for really cold weather. They just pull off one of the spade connectors, when it wasn't needed.
Malcolm

I know the ones Malcolm, they also need a diesel feed to them, only problem they take 15 to 20 seconds to heat also, I have no problem starting it when heated for 20 seconds, it will start with less heat but will turn over a good few times and fill the place with smoke when it starts.

Your right, Rambler. Sometimes we do go off topic.
Batteries lose storage capacity when it is cold weather. They are also affected by very warm weather, but we can park that one because it is only an once in a decade in Ireland.
Ally should have asked the question differently.
How do we stop batteries from getting cold?
Batteries produce their energy with a chemical reaction between metal plates and an acid. Low temperatures reduces this reaction.
Firstly, what are your batteries sitting on?
If they are sitting on a metal surface, the metal will always draw heat from the batteries. Put a good rubber mat underneath them, the thicker the better. A rubber door mat, cut to size would do the job.
If the battery has a metal clamp holding them into position, put a strip of rubber between them, if possible.
Most van manufacturers have rubber liners fitted but they are only 2 or 3 mm thick. Beef it up to 8 or 10 mm if your battery clamps allow it.
My leisure battery sits in a plastic box under the mh floor in the garage, so no metal surface but also no heating to keep it warm. Spray the outside of the box with expanding foam to insulate.

In work, there is a forklift which wouldn't start if the air temperature was under 5°c, regardless of the age of batteries. One of the Polish boys threw in some fibre glass insulation (yellow stuff in the attic) around the batteries and no problems since. It looks messy but does the trick.

Some where on this forum, it was stated that frosty weather reduces battery capacity by 10 to 20 % but this it also our biggest power demand with extra heating and lighting. In reality when a battery hit 50% discharged, it needs to be recharged.

For the tractor boys and their glow plugs, you have compression issues. On a really cold night, remove your injectors and do a compression test. With your engines cold the piston rings cannot seal the compressed air tightly to ignite the diesel. When your engine warms up, the metal expands with heat and the piston rings can do their job.
Malcolm

No need to do a compression test on my yoke, Malcolm. I know well the engine is goosed in it but it still starts fine after heating long enough and never uses oil between oil changes. I was going to change it for a newer one last year because the exhaust is lying flat, parelle with the bonnet facing forward and it was a health hazard because of the smoke. I cured that since by rotating it 90degrees on the exhaust manifold and extending the length of it, now the smoke is exiting the exhaust above the driver.

Afaik the type you are on about will not have a detrimental effect on the Pvc insulation. There is an issue with loading of cables installed in insulation, but that’s a whole different topic, I’d be fairly confident that it would be fine to use, although to my mind a previous comment on fiber wool would seem a lot easier to use to wrap around the batteries, just not very neat looking

Thats a nice set up!




That might explain why mine starts very well when I use the heater pad fitted to the sump. It tends to keep the whole engine relatively warm. That combined with pre-heated oil at 60°C makes for an easy crank over.

Yeah, even though mine has ~2200hrs on the clock, it has a lot of blowby so I have no doubt the rings are worn.

Sorry for the thread Hijack!

I’d say that’s the phone, Martin

Why 13.22 volts ?
Is the battery on charge, is there solar giving it a bit of a trickle charge. A good battery, off charge (rested for about 12 hours) and with no load, should be in the region of 12.7v

That’s a fine set up. Much bother connecting it in

Thanks for the info. That rules it out for me. I’d say there are about 6-7 cables connected to each pole of my battery, not such a simple job for me. Be grand. I’ll make do with my 5 little lights to tell me how they are faring out. Cool though