A Blacktop Magazine Daily Driver Report:
I am trying to imagine a time before there were batteries. In the mid 18th century Benjamin “don’t call me Benny” Franklin first used the term Battery to describe a group of Leyden jars. In the same way a battery has multiple electrochemical layers or cells. The Leyden jar was used to store static electricity between two electrons on the inside and outside of a glass jar. The term was derived from the military as example, a battery of cannons.
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the first “battery” or Voltaic Pile in 1800 with a stack of copper and zinc plates separated by brine-soaked paper discs in a glass jar.
Today batteries are made for all kinds of uses. Because of the specific challenges of vibration, heat, recharge-ability and dissipation, automotive batteries have special characteristics. No more stacks of copper and zinc in glass jars.
Automotive Batteries – also known as SLI (Starting/Lighting/Ignition) batteries’ main purpose is starting the vehicle. Once started a generator or alternator are to perform the re-charge duty. SLI batteries also supply extra power necessary when the electrical requirements exceed the supply from the charging system. Batteries also serve as a stabilizer, evening out potential voltage spikes.
OK, Those first few paragraphs were straight-up Wikipedia paraphrasing. Electricity to me is still a freakin’ mystery. After re-wiring my ’56 Fairlane, you’d think I’d know a thing or two about circuits and voltage and electrons. Uh, NO. The Ron Francis kit was so simple to set up, almost too simple, till I grounded the Ignition terminal on the light switch housing and nearly burnt my car down. Then I got to know a bit more about the power in the lines.
Where does all that power come from? The Battery.
Well, after 3 years the battery in the 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited was about toast. There are some electrical issues going on, and maybe that battery was under quite a bit of stress. You know the stuff, wonky electric door locks and windows. The electric seat height adjustment is stuck, stuff like that. I don’t believe the battery has much to do with those issues but those issues may have an undue drain on the battery.
At the recent MPMC show we met with the guys from DieHard a Sears Holdings Company and they shared news about their new tire line and neat little wifi app enabled charger/maintainer. They shared that over 225 million DieHard batteries have been sold. It’s ranks #1 in brand equity as Most Trusted, Best Performing, Most Reliable and Most Preferred batter brand in American. DieHard has pioneered the modern thin wall battery design. We had to go with the DieHard Advanced Gold AGM group 65 battery with 775 cold cranking amps, which, during testing, not a single failure was reported in over 26,000 starts in temperatures ranging from sub-zero to over 100 degrees. The DieHard Advanced Gold has a free replacement warranty term of 3 years.
The AGM is a great selection for this application. There are plenty of electronics in the vehicle, unlike the aforementioned ’56 Fairlane. Also, what I dig about AGM batteries, is that they can recharge better after being drained down. A conventional lead acid battery begins to corrode when drained past 60%. If you left the lights on overnight, it would most likely drain to 20% and you would easily lose a third of the lifespan of the battery. AND you would most likely have starting amp issues. AND, AGM Batters are maintenance free! AGM Batteries glass material can discharge down to close to 5% and still recharge backup to full strength and durability. Worth the extra price. Our battery is sold at a bit over $160.00.
So I got busy cleaning up the terminal connections, spread a bit of dielectric grease and set the battery in, slapped on the terminals and ready she is.
Oh, why not give the battery a good charge overnight with the DieHard Battery Charger/Maintainer?
This is another handy tool. The WIFI Smart Battery Charger is fully automatic, determines if the battery is 6 or 12 volts, automatically puts in more or less charge depending on the battery needs, and moves from charge to maintenance mode so the battery is always fully charged. The wifi of the charger is connected to my internet modem and with an app on my smart phone, I can track the charging status. The app can handle multiple charges and you can turn the charger on and off with the phone! Anywhere in the world with an internet connection to your modem. How crazy is that? You can have your entire garage collection on DieHard maintainers and monitor them while on vacation or a business trip to Tuscany.
Check it all out at DieHard.com.
PS: They have a nifty LithiumIon Jumper too. See that in action soon. Billy’s truck (the Blacktop Baller) may just need a DieHard Advanced Gold AGM battery too.