Having enjoyed the thread about topping up batteries, I thought I'd 
start one of my own :-)

We recently bought a second hand battery driven car for our son, and 
find that there are two 6v batteries, wired in series, to give 12v.  I'm 
fairly sure they are motorcycle batteries.  They are described as 
sealed, so presumably don't require any further attention.

Two questions.

We have to turn the car on to one side, i.e. through ninety degrees, to 
get it in and out of the house (yes, every morning, and every evening!), 
and always remove the batteries first.  Is that necessary?  Being 
sealed, can they safely be turned on their sides?

Should we trickle charge it every night, irrespective of the use it has 
had that day?  I'm thinking more in terms of overall battery life, than 
the amount of power available the following day.

Thanks!

-- 
Graeme

"Graeme Eldred"  wrote in message
news:HrQmyhRLY5jCFw4b@binnsroad.demon.co.uk...

> Having enjoyed the thread about topping up batteries, I thought I'd
> start one of my own :-)
>
> We recently bought a second hand battery driven car for our son, and
> find that there are two 6v batteries, wired in series, to give 12v.
I'm
> fairly sure they are motorcycle batteries.  They are described as
> sealed, so presumably don't require any further attention.
>
> Two questions.
>
> We have to turn the car on to one side, i.e. through ninety degrees,
to
> get it in and out of the house (yes, every morning, and every
evening!),
> and always remove the batteries first.  Is that necessary?  Being
> sealed, can they safely be turned on their sides?


Without knowing the exact make and battery code this is an impossible
question to answer, some batteries are sealed and un vented, some are
sealed but have a vent via a plastic tube, some are nominally sealed
(the lid or stoppers are just designed not to be removed but are still
present and have vent holes), either of the latter two / could / leak
acid when turned onto their side.


>
> Should we trickle charge it every night, irrespective of the use it
has
> had that day?  I'm thinking more in terms of overall battery life,
than
> the amount of power available the following day.
>


If they are lead acid then trickle charging then won't do any harm,
I'm more worried about the fact that are being (sort of) deep cycled -
normally you should use leisure or traction batteries for such
applications.

In article ,
	Graeme Eldred  writes:

> Having enjoyed the thread about topping up batteries, I thought I'd 
> start one of my own :-)
> 
> We recently bought a second hand battery driven car for our son, and 
> find that there are two 6v batteries, wired in series, to give 12v.  I'm 
> fairly sure they are motorcycle batteries.  They are described as 


For this application, they should be deep discharge batteries,
which is not what you'd expect to find in a car or motorcycle
(whose batteries are damaged by deep discharges).


> sealed, so presumably don't require any further attention.
> 
> Two questions.
> 
> We have to turn the car on to one side, i.e. through ninety degrees, to 
> get it in and out of the house (yes, every morning, and every evening!), 
> and always remove the batteries first.  Is that necessary?  Being 
> sealed, can they safely be turned on their sides?


There's no problem tipping them to any angle for that.
I don't know if there's any issue with long term use at
strange angles, but there's no requirement to keep them
upright all the time that I know of.


> Should we trickle charge it every night, irrespective of the use it has 
> had that day?  I'm thinking more in terms of overall battery life, than 
> the amount of power available the following day.


I've got a number of things with sealed lead acid batteries
in them, and they all basically say the same. The batteries
lose some percentage of their charge when not being used, and
they are killed by being left flat for a long time, so it's a
good idea to charge them once a month during periods of non-use,
and ensure they are fully charged at the beginning of any such
period. Some of the instructions indicate to do a full charge
each month, others indicate just a short top-up charge is fine.

Having said that, I have a 12V 7AH SLA battery which was removed
from an alarm some 10 years ago during routine replacement, and
I do everything wrong with it, and it still operates at full
capacity when I need to use it.

-- 
Andrew Gabriel

Graeme Eldred  wrote in 
news:HrQmyhRLY5jCFw4b@binnsroad.demon.co.uk:


> 
> Should we trickle charge it every night, irrespective of the use it has 
> had that day?  I'm thinking more in terms of overall battery life, than 
> the amount of power available the following day.
> 

What others have said about the batteries is right, but IME you should use 
a conditioner, like optimate or accumate(there are others).

You leave these on for ever, and your batteries will be kept fine, and live 
for ever.  (well, mine have)

They are not chargers as such, and if your batteries discharge deeply you 
will need to recharge at .1xcapacity amps, BUT, if they are Gel at 
..05xcapacity.

Constant fast charging isn't good.

http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/    may help you (DIY battery FAQs)

mike

In message <428fa842$0$38043$5a6aecb4@news.aaisp.net.uk>, Andrew Gabriel 
 writes

>In article ,
>       Graeme Eldred  writes:
>>
>> We recently bought a second hand battery driven car for our son, and
>> find that there are two 6v batteries, wired in series, to give 12v.  I'm
>> fairly sure they are motorcycle batteries.
>
>For this application, they should be deep discharge batteries,
>which is not what you'd expect to find in a car or motorcycle
>(whose batteries are damaged by deep discharges).


OK.  I'm assuming they could be m/c batteries, but only because that is 
what they look like :-)

Yuasa NP10-6 described as valve regulated, sealed lead-acid type, 
rechargeable battery, 6v, 10Ah, Designed for standby use.

I have found it on the web :

<URL:http://www.mdsbattery.com/shop/productprofile.asp?shop=us&ProductGro
upID=538>

Described as 'Sealed lead acid Yuasa battery, often used in UPS systems 
and child's electric vehicles. '


>> We have to turn the car on to one side, i.e. through ninety degrees, to
>> get it in and out of the house (yes, every morning, and every evening!),
>> and always remove the batteries first.  Is that necessary?  Being
>> sealed, can they safely be turned on their sides?
>
>There's no problem tipping them to any angle for that.
>I don't know if there's any issue with long term use at
>strange angles, but there's no requirement to keep them
>upright all the time that I know of.


Thanks - they would only be on their sides for 30 seconds or so, whilst 
the vehicle is manoeuvred through a door way.

>
>> Should we trickle charge it every night, irrespective of the use it has
>> had that day?  I'm thinking more in terms of overall battery life, than
>> the amount of power available the following day.
>
>I've got a number of things with sealed lead acid batteries
>in them, and they all basically say the same. The batteries
>lose some percentage of their charge when not being used, and
>they are killed by being left flat for a long time, so it's a
>good idea to charge them once a month during periods of non-use,
>and ensure they are fully charged at the beginning of any such
>period. Some of the instructions indicate to do a full charge
>each month, others indicate just a short top-up charge is fine.


Wonderful.  Son seems able to almost flatten the batteries, on a sunny 
day, so I have been trickle charging almost every night.  Will keep in 
mind that a top up will be good news during winter, when the vehicle is 
less likely to be used.

>
>Having said that, I have a 12V 7AH SLA battery which was removed
>from an alarm some 10 years ago during routine replacement, and
>I do everything wrong with it, and it still operates at full
>capacity when I need to use it.
>

<Grin>  These are replacement batteries.  We bought the vehicle second 
hand, and the seller said the original pair of batteries lasted at least 
seven years, and were usually ignored for months at a time, during 
winter.
-- 
Graeme