On Sat, 06 Oct 2018 20:14:02 -0400, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Sat, 06 Oct 2018 16:34:29 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 6 Oct 2018 15:10:19 -0400, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

Assuming you have pretty much a 12 month mowing season.
Mine is 3 1/2 years old and won't hold a charge for a week.




I have found it can be anywhere from about 2 to 5 years. They could be
like car batteries, some cost way less than others and hopefully the
more expensive ones will last longer. If you get 3 years out of the
average Walmart battery you are doing good.

If you have one that can be checked, do you look at the water level in
it very often ?

Water is good, terminals clean, charging system working OK, zero
current with the key off.
I am guessing it may just be a bad battery. A few minutes on the
charger and it starts, mow a while and it seems to be charged. (amps
go down). Then it is OK for a while.

BTW I am not sure why people trash Walmart batteries. Johnson Controls
makes them, along with a bunch of name brand batteries. The one in my
truck just failed (would not hold a charge for 3 few weeks, as often
as I use the truck), after 7 years.


Johnson Controls makes some of the best (and the worst) batteries on
the North American market today.
Lawn tractors are a VISIOUS environment for a battery - lots of
vibration. An AGM batterywithstands the vibration much better and it
MAY be cost effective to go that route.

I would blame vibration if I had a cell connector failure or something
but this just acts like an old tired battery. I really suspected that
I had a drain of some kind in the system when it was off but I don't
see anything on a pretty good amp meter. I am going to try it again
next week and if it is good, I may pursue the drain thing more because
I might just have a flaky switch or other contact that is open now.