I think one of mine may have quit. If you aren't close to your place, do you periodically replace yours as preventive maintenance, or just deal with the feeder being down for a bit until you get there? If you replace early, how often?

I always try to carry a spare new one in my truck and replace as needed.

I have replaced all of mine annually, but I'm throwing away money doing that. With a solar panel, I think I should get 3 to 4 years out of a battery. That's what some on here have indicated and also what the guy at Batteries + said. I'm gonna try to hold off this next year and remind myself that a few deer going without some corn for a bit is not the end of the world. I take this stuff waaaay too seriously.

Get blue tops

My 2 are 12v, on solar. I change them once a year. It's 4.5 hours to the lease, nearest place to buy them in the area is an hour away. It's probably the cheapest thing I can do to insure my feeders run year round every day and for me to avoid maybe missing a month of feeding during the time between trips in the off season. I know my batteries would last a couple of years but we had a summer that was brutal a few years back and my batteries just fried, totally failed. It's like the battery in my Ranger and truck, I'd rather change it when I plan it than when I don't.

I am in process of checking all 11 of ours over next couple days. I do a lot of preventative checking on feeders and cameras. Ounce prevention-pound cure etc.
The key is to put a volt meter on them with some regularity and make sure to check voltage during a test throw so it’s under load. Minutes ago I did that and it showed 12.2V then when hit test and it threw it dropped to 8.7. Not good. It will go right back up to 12ish but not good. Under test/load it usually drops about 1 V which is acceptable. Its been working but a sign of going bad. Alligator clips on volt meter helps a lot when doing this. I don’t keep records but with a working solar cam a batt should easily last 3 to 4 years and we run ours year round.

FWIW, the 2 AA in The Timer will last 6 years. I got the indicator on the feeder I bought from Ramball recently. I don't think those actually do anything other than maintain settings when the 12v is down.

^^^I've been putting off testing like this. Thanks for the info. Now I gotta find a voltmeter with alligator clips. That will save me some cussin'.

Agree on this, grey body and blue top0

You can buy the leads with clips separate on line.
Without clips it’s easy to be pushing on the connectors while avoiding the test corn and push them off or push the connectors off(that’ll add to any issue).

Great info here! I think my local place carries the blue tops (and that's typically what I use), similar to this ?



I know I replaced them in the last 12-24 months and they are on solar panels. If I can find my tester I'll check them.

I recently bought a slew of Duracells. 'Got the double-ended alligator clips on order though.

A little off topic, but not far. What type of connectors do you use connecting your batteries to the feeding mechanisms and to the solar charger that seems to work best for you? Have some that need to be replaced and want the easiest and best way to make good clean connections. Nothing burns me more than to go to the lease, get all my equipment ready and get there and then the feeder does not go off. Thanks for the help.

That's it.

This: TICONN 100 Pcs Nylon Spade Quick Disconnect Connectors Kit, Electrical Insulated Terminals, Male and Female Spade Wire Crimp Terminal Assortment Kit, on Amazon. I have the simple multi purpose strip/crimp tool. It stays at the lease and makes quick easy work. I had to replace a motor, cut wires, stripped ends, slipped these on and made it plug and go.

Yep Amazon has both the leads with alligator clip ends and it also has the alligator clips that just slip over the needle tips on your volt meter. Either will work.

I did not have good luck with the slip ons.

I use the blue topped batteries but I also keep an actual battery tester in my toolbox that can load test them. It’s a cheap tool to keep around that can find a problem before it actually becomes a problem but they should last several years before needing replaced.

On the connectors I use one of these style plugs cutting it in the middle and using the standard slip on battery connectors and crimp the poo poo out of them to the actual battery and use the other end wired to the feeder itself. I’ve used this method for well over a decade and not had a single issue,

I use to get 4 years out of most of my rechargeable 12 volts on solar panel. Now I'm lucky to get two. Lots of junk batteries out there.

Lots of old stock batteries being sold new.

These small sealed AGM/Gel batteries should read 12.8v t0 13.0v with no load. 12.1v is about 50% charge. The voltage drop under load depends on the load.

All of these types of batteries begin to grow sulfate crystals on their plates as they discharge below about 80%. They get cleaned off when the battery reaches full charge. Deeper discharge makes the crystals grow faster and if they sit too long at low charge, the sulfation goes from soft to rock hard like plaque which won't come off. The sulfation acts like an insulator and won't let the battery absorb a full charge, no matter how long you charge it.

Marc

Mark, sounds like you know your stuff. Thanks for the info-keep it coming as needed.
Do you are anyone know what causes batteries to corrode? Specifically talking about 6V with high amp hour on cell cams. Used to not have problem till recently. What changed was went to solar. It’s almost always on the negative. It corrodes so bad it eats the metal on the solar alligator clip as well as eats the terminal coming outa battery so it breaks off. It also causes the connector to “fuse” to the terminal.
Started using special acid stuff designed to clean them and then coating with a preventative spray for that purpose. Still getting corrosion.

Lithium grease can be your friend.

The neg cable/terminal on one of mine (12v) was badly corroded yesterday when I swapped the battery.

I switched to lithium, caught a sale. we shall see

How are you controlling the charging during freezing temps?

I’m not, I’m going to try not to unplug solar, as it’s only 1.5 watt tops during peak day light which is less then 5% of capacity majority of day. All my feeders the battery is inside the hopper, so I think heat from corn will not let it get too too bad.

What is this "freezing" you speak of?

'Sure wish you hadn't said that.

Come up above the Mason Dixon line some time and you’ll find out.

I read an article this morning that said due to a weak polar vortex, we could have 1-2 of those events again this year, where ultra-cold weather comes to TX.

Lord, I sure hope not.

I do need a "slight" ice event, sleet, etc. to light every $%^& brush pile on the place. I don't wanna think about how many there are. But not so much I can't walk in the pasture, which was the problem with the mega freeze.

North of the Brazos Rver is all Yankee land and I'll be avoiding that up there.

Yup, this is a good practive.

Some I can see on the cell cam is it feeding or not