The $400 insurance claim that made me rethink outdoor battery storage

Last winter in Denver my neighbor's car battery died after sitting in an unheated shed for 3 weeks. He filed a claim for a jumpstart and dead battery replacement, which cost his insurer about $400 with the tow and all. That got me thinking about how I store my own spare batteries, so I built a small insulated box with a 12V trickle charger for around $60 in parts. Now I keep both my daily driver and project car batteries hooked up through a simple timer that cycles 15 minutes on, 45 off. Has anyone else dealt with cold weather killing stored batteries, or do you just pull them inside? I'm curious if the heated pad route is worth the extra power draw.

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elizabethf8516d ago

Timer's overkill, cold actually preserves batteries better than heat does.