Disco 2 Battery health - when would you replace it?

Not technically a purely discovery question but the battery is in the disco so here goes!

When would you consider getting a new battery based on the heath check/readings?
Mine appears fine and after a top up charge last night with a CTek it’s fully charged but showing at 73% health - while I haven’t had any issues with it so far I’ve no idea when it comes to battery’s so just wondering at what point people consider a new one based on the heath readings from the checker??!

Lead acid batteries work best at temperatures between 20 to 25 degrees C. I wouldnt take much notice of the health check function in hot or cold weather. If its starting the engine without issue, dont worry.

Col

Colthebrummie said:

Lead acid batteries work best at temperatures between 20 to 25 degrees C. I wouldnt take much notice of the health check function in hot or cold weather. If its starting the engine without issue, dont worry.

Col

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Makes sense, thanks Col

Which CTech model do you own?
I have the MXS 7.0 and use the “Recondition” option for 24hrs on my Disco 2. It brought my battery from
68% charged / 765A / 12.45VDC
to
94% charged / 900A / 13.13VDC.

JUKE179r said:

Which CTech model do you own?
I have the MXS 7.0 and use the “Recondition” option for 24hrs on my Disco 2. It brought my battery from
68% charged / 765A / 12.45VDC
to
94% charged / 900A / 13.13VDC.

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I’ve recently bought the msx7.0 too. I charged it for 12hrs using the normal cycle and it came out with the details in the first post - might try the recondition option next time as that seems to have worked on yours

Did you disconnect the battery while you charged and checked it? If not the results are not so relevant

I'd be more interested in the resting voltage,

sierrafery said:

Did you disconnect the battery while you charged and checked it? If not the results are not so relevant

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I didn’t, no. I wasn’t aware that I needed to, Just followed the instructions with the charger

I don’t have another battery and don’t really want to disconnect/reset everything

kermit_rr said:

I'd be more interested in the resting voltage,

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Do you mean the 13.12v as shown on the tester or something else - and if the latter how are you measuring that?
(Batteries are not my forte as you can probably tell!!)

02Disco2 said:

I didn’t, no. I wasn’t aware that I needed to, Just followed the instructions with the charger

I don’t have another battery and don’t really want to disconnect/reset everything

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With battery connected to the vehicle you can't rely on any "health check" nor on a perfect battery reconditioning with a charger cos it works against the vehicle's electrics too but as someone said as long as it starts fine the battery is a keeper.

02Disco2 said:

Do you mean the 13.12v as shown on the tester or something else - and if the latter how are you measuring that?
(Batteries are not my forte as you can probably tell!!)

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Resting volts would be what the battery settles down to overnight. Ie fully charge, disconnect charger, leave overnight then measure voltage. The car needs to be asleep when you measure, otherwise you'll get an artificially low reading

sierrafery said:

With battery connected to the vehicle you can't rely on any "health check" nor on a perfect battery reconditioning with a charger cos it works against the vehicle's electrics too but as someone said as long as it starts fine the battery is a keeper.

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kermit_rr said:

Resting volts would be what the battery settles down to overnight. Ie fully charge, disconnect charger, leave overnight then measure voltage. The car needs to be asleep when you measure, otherwise you'll get an artificially low reading

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understood - thanks both

I tend to leave batteries alone until their CCA capacity is at or about what is needed to start the vehicle reliably - a TD of this sort of engine capacity needs about 450 to 500 CCA - so I'd suggest your battery is good for some time yet, and may benefit from the Ctek re-condition procedure as mentioned above....

This assumes, of course, that all the cells are still working - I.E. resting voltage is still enough for the vehicle electronics, as required...

IOW state of health is less important than actual CCA available .... when our generator battery wouldn't start our gennie anymore, and the FLT battery failed... you see where I'm going with this .... Gennie battery weirdly fits the forklift, and has been on it for years with about 23% health - the gennie is a 6 litre TD, and the FLT a 2 litre LPG

I try to recycle my batteries, I've a 10 year old one which won't start a Disco 1 anymore but it's been in a classic car for 3 years, always starts it. I've another car battery mounted on a ride on lawnmower.