You’ve heard of Santa and his dependable Christmas Elves. Haven’t you? A car battery is like an elf because it keeps different components running smoothly, just like Santa relies on his elves to keep his sleigh running all Christmas.
The best – and perhaps only – way to keep your car’s battery in tip-top form and ready to get you to all your destinations is to take good care of it, much like the elves take care of the runners on Santa’s sleigh.
Can you guess the elf entrusted with the vital responsibility of maintaining your car’s battery? You guessed it: you are! Puns and bad Christmas jokes aside, let’s look at nine practical ways to extend your car’s battery life.
1. Regularly test your battery
“Always know the condition of your car battery” is something you’ll likely hear from any mechanic worth their weight in gold.
Regularly testing your car battery helps identify issues that could diminish battery life. The best way to test car batteries is with a multimeter tester, which checks the battery voltage. If you don’t have one, visit your garage for testing.
2. Monitor electrolyte levels
Most batteries require maintenance, so you should check the electrolyte levels regularly. The electrolyte is a battery component that transfers ions back and forth between the battery’s electrodes, causing the battery to charge and discharge.
You can use several devices to track varied car issues, including your battery’s temperature and electrolyte levels, which you can test using an ELM-Series Battery Electrolyte Level Monitor.
For the die-hard fans of DIY hacks among us, distilled water is an affordable way to maintain a battery’s longevity and performance by maintaining neutral electrolyte levels.
3. Keep the battery clean
Gradual dirt accumulation around your car’s battery can reduce its performance. Rust and corrosion, for example, can cause charging and discharging issues, numerous electrical challenges, including shorted fuses, or, in worst-case scenarios, corrosive sparks that rupture your battery.
Since no one wants that, occasionally DIY-cleans the battery terminals using a baking soda and water mixture – using a 3:1 ratio. This simple hack can increase your car’s battery life by preventing corrosion and acid buildup.
4. Ensure proper charging
A car’s alternator charges a battery as you drive. As you can deduce, shorter trips won’t give your battery the juice it needs to charge fully over time.
Avoid that by taking longer trips whenever you get a chance to do so to give your battery enough time to charge fully. A good hack here is to batch most of your short errands to reduce the number of short trips and instead take one long journey.
5. Secure the battery
A car’s battery should not be loose; loosely mounted batteries can be prone to internal vibrations that may cause catastrophic damage.
There are no tricks or hacks here: just securely attach the battery strap or hold-down bracket according to the manufacturer’s directions. However, be mindful of overtightening the battery because you risk damaging the terminal ends.
6. Don’t leave lights and battery-draining accessories on
Unless you get a lot of happiness from jolly skipping and hopping over to the neighbor’s door, jumper cables in hand, don’t leave your vehicle’s headlights, radio, small LED lights, and other electrical lights on, especially overnight.
Since most of the components in your car rely on power from the battery, confirm you have everything turned off whenever you leave the vehicle parked.
7. Use a battery maintainer
If you don’t drive often, get yourself a battery maintainer. A battery maintainer turns on and off as needed and automatically charges your battery, a super useful feature that extends battery life, especially during long periods of inactivity.
8. Avoid temperature fluctuations as best as you can
Extreme temperature fluctuations are Grim reapers to your car’s battery life. For some perspective, extremely hot temperatures can cause the battery fluid to evaporate; on the other hand, frigid cold can cause self-discharge.
Given this, try to park your vehicle in a manner that avoids temperature extremes. For example, get a battery blanket or thermal wrap if you know you’ll be parking your car for a while.
9. Replace when necessary
Folks, who’s ready for some truth bombs? No amount of dogged diligence will keep your battery good forever since all car batteries have a lifespan – typically 3-7 years for most batteries – and will eventually need replacing.
With that in mind, when all else fails, remember that, unless you want to tie jumper cables around your waist in readiness for asking other drivers to jumpstart your vehicle whenever you turn it off, it’s better to replace your battery at the first sign of trouble. Otherwise, be ready for a dead battery that strands you at the most awkward moments.
Did you just say, “Okay! What’s the best way to know if my car’s battery is nearing its deathbed?” That’s a superb question. Inspection and testing are the secrets.
Conclusion
These protective steps may seem simple, and let’s not kid each other, they are, but if you follow at least five of them diligently for as long as you own your current car – assuming it has a good battery right now – they should help maximize the lifespan of your car battery and avoid any inconveniences caused by unexpected battery failures.
