Interstate battery problems

I bought 2 new interstates last year, had them plugged in to my onboard charger all winter… checked on things periodically through the winter and now the charger is showing trouble with both banks. I unhooked the charger and hooked up to a different battery and it worked fine. I then grabbed my meter and both of these batteries are dead. 0% reading. I assume they are toast… never had issues with interstates before so I never needed to worry about warranty. My question is can just take them into any dealer and replace them or do I have to drive to the place I bought them from. That place is a ways away and I can’t find a receipt. Also they didn’t punch out the date on the top.

A quick google search yielded this.

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/support/warranty

Should be able to take them to any dealer. The build date is built into the serial number. It used to be a letter for the month and a single number for the year. A5 would be Jan.2015 Not sure they still do it that way.

It’s odd they’d both be bad like that. How was the fluid level in them? Any chance it was a charger issue?

Yes both being dead is very odd.

I’ve taken Interstates back without the receipt but you might be shorted some warranty time.

Well… it appears that the maintenance mode on the on board charger did not keep up. The batteries were drained by kind of draw on them (weekend project). I hooked up a regular charger and the one came back to life and is taking the slow charge now. Will get the other going today as well and see how they last on the first trip out. I will just have to plan on new batteries again and hope for the best.

…and a new charger.

My battery charger in “Auto” mode doesn’t always shut itself off. Check your fluid levels, good chance they have evaporated below the tops of the cells.

I take my (Interstate) batteries out of the boat at the end of each season. Bring them to the heated shop, apply cleaner & protectant to the terminals & fill the cells back up with distilled water. Then I charge them once every 2-3 weeks with a trickle charger, til spring.

My brother says I’m wasting my time. He doesn’t do anything but wait for them to die, then go buy new ones.

jbg1219 wrote:

The batteries were drained by kind of draw on them (weekend project).

I was going to mention this the other day.

You might be able to shorten up your weekend project if you have a stereo radio that has a memory built into it. It doesn’t draw much but it will take a car battery out of service if it sites long enough.

I’m not sure about other brands but the Lowrance “puck” style gps antennas draw voltage whether for Lowrance unit is on or not.

All of the above (and more) can be eliminated by simple disconnecting your batteries when you winterize your boat. No connection equals no draw.

I just recently added a $20 battery disconnect switch to my battery. I left the motors and onboard charger on the terminals and switched my fuse block so that everything else could be turned off.

Many on board chargers need to have a minimum voltage at the battery before they will start charging.