Battery specialist Ecobat Battery is urging garages to get proactive with battery testing and make the most of battery profit opportunities that are increasingly in focus at this time of year, but are also available all year round. 

This year battery demand is expected to be very healthy as many batteries which were replaced as part of a post lockdown surge come to the end of their life cycle. 

Battery testing is the key to indentifying potential battery issues before they cause serious inconvenience for the motorist. Sadly however, despite it taking just a couple of minutes, workshops rarely do a battery test, which is wasted opportunity because as Ecobat Battery, has found, statistically, 27% of the vehicles that enter the independent workshop either need their batteries recharged or reconditioned, and a further 11% need a replacement.

What all this means is that almost 40% of the vehicles they service daily has a battery issue, and so it is little wonder that 40% of roadside breakdowns are due to battery failure, which is business lost to independents and gained by the breakdown services.

To encourage and assist workshops to introduce a battery testing culture, Ecobat Battery can, through its motor factor customers, provide them with point-of-sale support material that includes battery testing report cards, counter displays, A4 leaflets and A2 posters, which are available in a choice of Lucas, Exide, VARTA or Numax branding.

Ecobat Battery point out that even when disconnected, a typical lead acid SLI (starter/lights/ignition) battery will self-discharge at the rate of 0.1-volt per month, which means that a fully charged battery at 12.7-volts will be discharged to the point that it would struggle to start an engine (11.8-volts), in just nine months.  This natural discharge process is obviously exaggerated when the battery is connected because it is the only source of power to the vehicles electrical system when the engine isn’t running, so its numerous electronic devices, clock, alarm, remote locking mechanism etc. – all constantly draw power, further increasing the rate at which it discharges.

Opening and closing the vehicle without driving anywhere puts more pressure on the battery as it can draw as much as 50-amps to do so, and should there be a parasitic drain because of a problem somewhere in the vehicle’s electrical system, the issue is further exacerbated.

When these real-life scenarios are combined with cold weather however, the pressure on the battery moves to an entirely new level because when the temperature drops to freezing, the battery can lose up to 35% of its power, which is why cold weather shows up battery problems so intently.

When it comes to why most batteries reach their end of life it is generally due to a process called sulphation, which is a chemical reaction that takes place in the electrolyte within the battery when the voltage drops to 12.4 or below, which causes lead sulphate crystals to build up on the lead battery plates. This reduces the battery’s capacity and cranking potential and signals the beginning of its demise.

For further details, please visit Ecobat Battery at: www.ecobatbattery.com