Modern batteries are more durable than ever before, but they still need regular maintenance, just like your vehicles. Without this maintenance your battery will suddenly die on you at the worst possible time.

There’s a few issues that can affect your batteries’ performance that you need to avoid:

Sulphation
Sulphation is when crystals build up on the lead of your battery plates; this leads to serious long-term damage and compromises its performance. The battery loses capacity to charge and you’ll be replacing it prematurely. To help solve this problem you could look at a good smart charger with a desulphation mode which can dissolve sulphate deposits and help restore your battery.

Acid stratification
Ideally you should avoid letting your battery charge drop below 50% to give you a longer battery life. If your batteries become deeply discharged, the acid and water inside them can stratify, or split into different layers. This can call for the assistance of a specialty charger like the MXS 7.0 from CTEK. This kind of smart battery charger uses a distinct reconditioning function that remixes your battery’s water and acid levels, restoring their performance.

Undercharging/Overcharging your battery
Avoid at all costs! The myth that your alternator alone is enough to keep your batteries fully-charged still persists, but if your alternator is all you use to maintain your battery levels, you’ll be hunting for jumper leads!

A jump start can create a huge surge of voltage overcharging and evaporating the water in your batteries, leading to permanent damage.

Again, in this case Bainbridge Technologies recommend the use of a high-tech, smart-charger in conjunction with regularly topping up your water levels.

Using a smart charger will help optimise performance and extend the life of your batteries so they’re ready to go to work – or enjoy the good times – when you are.