Tips on How To Keep Your Lawn Mower Battery Charged

Many homeowners do not think about it very often, but making sure that your lawn mower battery stays charged is important.

Without the proper care and attention, and by not maintaining the battery correctly, you run the risk of the battery will not charge properly, which only leads to big time frustration when you go out to start it up, and it just won’t start.

The good news is that you have a number of options you can choose from to help keep the lawn mower battery charged and ready to start the mower next time you head outside.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the tips you can use that will help take care of the lawn mower battery and ensure that it stays charged so you can use it when you want.

How To Keep Your Lawn Mower Battery Charged

All it takes is one time of deciding you’re going to mow the yard only to find it won’t start because of a dead battery.

With the proper care and attention to the battery, you will find that it will stay charged without dying out on you and making it hard to take care of your yard.

Some of the tips that you can use to help your lawn mower battery stay charged includes:

Charge It Often

The first thing that you need to consider doing to help your battery stay charged and be ready to handle all of the work that you demand from it is to charge it often.

All of the lawn and garden batteries that you want to use are considered flooded lead-acid batteries. This means that they need to go through a regular charge cycle to work properly. If you do not complete this, the battery will begin to crystalize and they can lose their ability to keep a charge.

It definitely does not have to be a hassle to keep your battery charged. A maintenance charger is a good way to help your battery stay fully charged when you plan to keep it in storage.

Occasionally just check the battery and see if it is wearing down or if you need to charge it. The charging can take just a few minutes at a time so if you remember to do it regularly, it will not slow you down.

Keep The Battery Clean

Another thing that you need to check is how the battery looks. If it is wearing down and looks rusted and dirty, then chances are the power could be discharging from it faster than it should.

If you notice corrosion on the terminals of the battery, it is time to clean them. A terminal cleaner or a wire brush is a good place to start. There are a few solutions that you are able to use to help keep the battery clean and to remove all of the corrosion. You can use the wire brush from before to help get into the hard spots and then clean off with some distilled water when you are done.

This is what you need to do to remove the rust and other issues. To help prevent this corrosion from building up in the first place, you need to use some anti-corrosion gel to keep the battery as clean as possible.

Fil Up the Battery

You may have to fill up the battery that you use in your lawn mower to make sure that it stays charged. This will really depend on the type of lawn mower that you have though. Some batteries, such as sealed lead acid batteries do not need this kind of maintenance while others, like flooded lead acid batteries do need to be filled regularly.

If you have a flooded lead acid battery, all you need to do is to check the water level inside of it. If it’s low, add distilled water.

If you’re not sure what type of battery you have, take a look at the battery and see if it has removable caps on top. If it does, this is a sign that there is water inside the battery. If the water runs low, the battery will not run as efficiently and you may end up with a battery that does not stay charged.

Choose the Right Battery

Choosing the right battery for the lawn mower that you want to use can be important. It may not seem like a big deal, but one size does not fit all when it comes to the lawn mower that you are using.

Just like with your car, there is a specific type of battery that will work in the lawn mower, and you need to take the time to figure out which one is what you need.

Most lawn mowers and other types of garden equipment are going to use both a 5 and a 12 volt battery. But you need to pick which one of these two is going to do the work for your needs.

Look at the owner’s manual to see which type of voltage you need so you do not underpower or overpower the lawn mower.

Close the Terminals

If your lawn mower isn’t starting and the battery is acting like it’s not charged, checking the terminal connections should be the first thing you check.

When the connections on the terminals are not nice and tight, they’re just not going to to a good job of charging, or staying charged.

When a loose terminal connection is found in the lawn mower, it is going to mimic a faulty battery when you try to run the machine. This alone is a big problem because you may assume the battery is running out long before it does.

This is just one of the problems that come with loose terminal connections. When these terminal connections are not as tight as they would like, it can lead to a low charge rate as well as corroded terminals and wires, which can cause some more issues when you are ready to mow your lawn.

You should check on the terminals often to make sure they are tight and re-tighten any of them that need it as well.

Check the Wires

It is important to have a solid connection between the battery and the lawn mower starter to make sure that everything works well. As I mentioned above, this all starts by making sure that the terminal connections are snug.

After that, you need to make sure that the wires themselves are in good conditions. If the wires are frayed, burned, or corroded, then there is a very good chance that the starter is not getting the current that it needs to function.

With bad wires, there’s also a good chance that the battery not getting the power that it needs to stay charged. If this is the case, you can always change the power leads when you see that they are frayed or burned.

Keeping Your Battery Charged

The most important thing you can do to make sure that your lawn mower battery stays charged is to simply take care of the battery and the wires that connect to the battery.

Doing this will not only help keep it charged and full of power when you need it, but it can also help make the battery last longer.