Which Battery to Buy?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jesse,
The indication of a drop of two volts indicates a damaged cell. Check the case and I bet you find a flat spot on one of the corners indicating a drop. Any SLA battery will get hot once it achieves full charge. All current that is not used for reversing the chemical reaction goes into heat. In general, the heat confuses smart chargers. For that reason, all charging should be performed on room temperature batteries.
Our batteries should be able to make it through a summer (3 months) without being charged. Many old timers might recommend they be left on trickle charge but only certain smart chargers will switch on a trickle/maintenance charge periodically. We do not charge over the summer except when participating in post season events. However, once we are back in the shop on a regular basis, we top all of our batteries off. We use a multi-station smart charger that produces a 5 amp charge rate at full charge per station.

Not all chargers are created equal and yours may be intended for 50 amp hour batteries or above. If so, your charger may be producing significantly higher charge currents than the 6 amps stated for these batteries. High charge currents could result in heating and less than optimal charging. CCA testing with a car type test set will result in extremely high and possibly damaging current draws. I recommend the Battery Beak for quick checks and the West Mountain Radio CBA IV for controlled testing.