Fried battery on Bravo BST

[John Kennett]

Looks like the internal battery on my Bravo BST12HP is knackered. It doesn't hold a charge, and gets hot while it's on charge. Had to resort to the good old Quicksilver double-action elbow grease pump at the weekend!

It's an easy enough job to get hold of a replacement battery and fit it, but I'm wondering what caused the problem as I don't want to make a habit of this.

What do you reckon?

[Leapy]

How old is it John?

[kubcat]

How often do you charge it and for how long?

[John Kennett]

It's about three years old. I charge it sporadically, and don't really keep track of how long it's on charge for. I suspect that longer may not be better, but there's nothing to indicate the charging progress.

[John Kennett]

I'm wondering whether a better charger might be a good investment.
Something like this perhaps?

Charger lead acid 6V or 12V/1.5A 230V MW126CPA - CEP0305 | Allbatteries.co.uk

[SPR]

once every 3 years is no bad! These batteries are not the latest tech..,

[kubcat]

+1 for 3 years is a good run.

The only chargers I have found that make batteries last a long time are the ones with lots of stages, but it would cost more than the battery and you would need to pull it out every time risking physical damage.

[John Kennett]

OK, new battery ordered

[BumbleAbout]

In my experience, the biggest killer of lead acid batteries is letting them go flat - if you can keep them charged at a reasonable level (i.e. over the winter put the battery on a top up charge every 6 weeks or so), then you can usually achieve 6 or 7 years life.

[Dino89]

sealed lead acid batteries have to be kept charged , if you leave them flat they will die very quickly , but 3 years is probably about right