Some interesting Battery info:

[Ozz]

Battery life?
Freezing battery?
And the old wives tale, the cold concrete floor storage...
These are from 'experts' I found on the Internet, hopefully not a bunch of drunks posting nonsense.
At what temperature will a battery freeze, and then????
A fully charged battery is safe from freezing well past 60 below zero. A battery that’s only half-charged, though, could freeze by the time the temperature hits 15 below. Make sure your car’s charging system is working properly before winter arrives, and consider having the battery’s state of charge checked from time to time during the cold spell. If the battery does freeze, take it into a warm place or wait for the weather to warm up to thaw it out. Don’t try to jump-start a car with a frozen battery.

How long will a battery last?
Replacement batteries should meet or exceed their warranted life—that is, a 60-month battery should give service for at least five years. OEM batteries can last four or five years before needing replacement. Climate, driving habits, and other factors affect battery life, so a precise prediction is not possible.

Storing batteries on a concrete floor….
I always thought that sitting batteries on a concrete garage floor would suck out the charge. If it were true, wouldn’t direct contact with the ground do the same?…but is the concrete myth even true?
No, it’s not true at all. Through the automotive ages, when a guy works on his car (in the garage) and he has to remove the battery, does he pick up the heavy thing, lift it high and put it on a flimsy shelf where it can break the shelf or fall off of it? Or, does he do the normal common sense thing of hefting it out of the car and lowering it onto the floor? Of course, he puts it on the floor, which in most garages, is made of concrete. The only thing that ‘sucks’ the power out of the battery, is the act of leaving it out of the car for many months at time uncharged to slowly sulfate itself to death. It would do the same thing if it were sitting in the living room on a coffee table along with Harper’s Bazaar. In fact, the concrete floor ‘may’ actually help keep the battery alive longer than a shelf or the coffee table would, because it is usually ground temperature and thus, cooler, which is better for storing a battery for a long period of time.

[doofus]

Don't ignore the health benefits of hefting a pair of truck batteries up to that top shelf! I personally find it exhilarating and manly, in an extermey painful way...

[camper4]

Good myth buster info. Thanks you!

Having lived where winter temps get to minus 20 or lower, a weak battery, in storage or not in use, tends to get weaker as the winter time passes and it gets colder. If the battery is on its last legs and you don't know it, it can freeze and crack the housing on the cell that was weakest. Upon thawing, it runs a weak acid onto what ever is below it. Not good.
I recommend battery maintainers or better yet, removing batteries for winter storage and putting them where they will not get real cold.
My humble opinion.

[CamillaMichael]

Glad to hear the garage floor is ok with batteries! That is where our Montana battery sits (plugged into a Battery Tender) when we are not on the road...speaking of which, we have been back "home" for almost a whole month...can't wait to get back on the road!

[BillE]

The deal with batteries on the floor WAS true.

Back in the day when the case was made from rubber, there was carbon (guess there is still carbon in rubber, LOL) and due to the fact that dirt would accumulate on the case, the combination made nice path to (literally) ground. With the plastic cases, the problem ended.

Bill

[Ozz]

Interesting, I think another possible explanation is that a very dirty and corroded set of posts can drain the battery from the - to the + terminals over a period of time, they could have interpreted that as a problem storing it on concrete.

[Jdrobone]

Bill is right on. Saw it a lot on old aircraft batteries we had on Guam. Small cracks in the rubber along with overcharging leaves a residue that will conduct current between the two posts - (only place it can conduct to, when out of service.
Jerry

[richfaa]

When we stored our Rv's for the winter in Norhern Ohio we never removed them from the rv's. We did keep power to the rv and we did cover the battery compartment with insulation of some sort. We never lost a battery. We also left batteries on the cold concrete floor of the garage with no ill effect execpt they ran down during the winter,

[Waynem]

quote:Originally posted by Ozz

Interesting, I think another possible explanation is that a very dirty and corroded set of posts can drain the battery from the - to the + terminals over a period of time, they could have interpreted that as a problem storing it on concrete.

Absolutely correct Jim. If you take a current meter and place it on the plastic top near the positive and negative terminals you may see current flow through the dirt and grime. Always good to paint some baking soda on the top from time to time and flush good.

The newer cleaners and protections are real good. (that yellow stuff for cleaning, and red stuff for protecting.)

[Ozz]

I buy the Red stuff, I like that. Usually clean with whatever I have near-by.

[Tom S.]

Actually, I was told not to store batteries on the cement because of the acid. That is to say, set them on pieces of wood so if there was any acid on the battery (or leaking from a crack) it wouldn't get on the concrete and cause the surface to spall.

[mail2us]

Tom, same story here.