New battery voltage question

Mar 30, 2006 6 Replies

I bought a new 12V battery for the riding lawnmower. Put it on the charger for a day and the voltage was 13.8 while on the charger Removed from the charger and the voltage drops to 12.72. The battery cables were disconnected. Is this OK for a new battery? Thanks


Depends to some extent on the battery type and chemistry (and possibly the charger itself). If it is a lead acid (wet cell) then it seems about right after the surface charge has dissipated. The real test is how long will the lawnmower run for after charging it. Only then will you have some idea as to whether the Ah capacity is up to spec and/or whether the charger is doing its job correctly.

Actually, it's perfect for a new battery. Exactly what is supposed to happen.

Mark Z.

Absolutely.

While on the charger the charger determines the terminal voltage. The instant you take it off, it starts dropping (exponentially) until it reaches its "resting" voltage.

I use 12.5 for a normal battery that has been resting for a day or so as normal - but all batteries are a little different. A few tenths of a volt may be normal.

You are good to go. If it is 12.00 volts after a good charge and a day later, I'd worry about it

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What you are getting is very ideal for the battery. The nominal voltage with

25% load capacity connected to the battery, it should be 12.5 Volts. The tolerance can be about +- 0.35 Volts

The proper way to test a battery is to have a calibrated or known load on it. Then it is possible to work out the internal resistance of the battery to know if it is good or not. The rate of discharge for most gel cells is that under load, they are considered discharged after they drop 10 to 12% from their nominal voltage. To do all of this properly, you would need the technical information for the battery.

From knowing the Ampere hours rating of the battery, and knowing the total resistance of the load, it is possible to calculate the expected time for the battery to discharge to 10% below the nominal. If the battery meets the requirement or better, then it is considered to be in good condition.

In practice, a simple gel battery test would be to put a 12 Volt headlamp across it, and at the same time take a voltage reading. If the battery can keep roughly 12 Volts for a few minutes, then you know it should be working okay.

JANA _____ "George" wrote in message news:kn5n229tndepeulss0besiu90dovsqlioj@4ax.com... I bought a new 12V battery for the riding lawnmower. Put it on the charger for a day and the voltage was 13.8 while on the charger Removed from the charger and the voltage drops to 12.72. The battery cables were disconnected. Is this OK for a new battery? Thanks

Do yourself a favor, you got all that money invested in a riding mower and you short change yourself with a cheap dollar store charger. Get a Automatic charging charger that will charge the battery up fully, then it goes into trickle charge once the battery is full charged.. A battery that maintains a full charge will last a long long time compared to a battery that gets over or under charged. Those are the facts.

For all you might want to know about batteries go to:

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