Wolverine battery warmer BH-60

shanemac

Active member
I picked up this battery warmer on Wednesday and plan to try it out when my new battery arrives. A few things to point out, the thickness of the heater pad is very thin 1.5mm which is good because of the tight space the battery fits into.... the cord is 71 inches long so it will reach from the battery box out to the front or side of van.

 

icarus

Well-known member
Wolverine's customer service is great! I ordered a unit from them on Monday, and it was here on Tuesday, this after a call from them to double check that I was buying the right product for the application.

Icarus
 

220629

Well-known member
Stupid question: what does a battery warmer do other then keeping the battery warmer?:thinking:
That's all needs to do. If you do an internet search I'm certain you can find a graph of starting battery efficiency vs temperature. As the temperature goes down the efficiency of the battery output also reduces.

It's the same catch 22 you get with air cooled air conditioning condensers. As the ambient temperature and humidity go up the condenser efficiency goes down, just at the time when you need the better efficiency. For the battery it is harder to spin a cold engine and that is when the battery is less efficient. vic
 

icarus

Well-known member
Lead acid batteries lose capacity as the temp drops. A battery at 0F

Battery capacity (how many amp-hours it can hold) is reduced as temperature goes down, and increased as temperature goes up. This is why your car battery dies on a cold winter morning, even though it worked fine the previous afternoon. If your batteries spend part of the year shivering in the cold, the reduced capacity has to be taken into account when sizing the system batteries. The standard rating for batteries is at room temperature - 25 degrees C (about 77 F). At approximately -22 degrees F (-27 C), battery AH capacity drops to 50%. At freezing, capacity is reduced by 20%. Capacity is increased at higher temperatures - at 122 degrees F, battery capacity would be about 12% higher
.

http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm#Lifespan of Batteries
http://www.batteryfaq.org/

Bottom line, warm battery, greater capacity, shorter life. Cool battery, less capacity, longer battery life.

Icarus
 

shanemac

Active member
Ok i suppose it wouldn't hurt if i gave a report about this battery warmer if anyone is interested.... At first i was kinda reluctant to use it seeing its not temperature regulated. Its been pretty cold the last few weeks and with over night temps around -30c i had to use it. I had the battery warmer plugged in after the van had been running and warm from a full days work(battery box temps around 68F before i plugged in), the battery box temps were maintained at 51f-63f ...better than freezing:thumbup:

The cranking difference is very noticeable compared to nights i never had it plugged in. For really nasty cold nights its a battery saver.
 

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