AGM battery reliability

[Floyd]

Well It looks like the AGM battery in my Ranger was designed to expire the same day as the truck warranty.
It will still start but it has taken to going to battery saver mode after 24hours parked in a heated garage.
It apparently will no longer hold a full charge and will drop to 12.0V in less than 24hrs.
Now I understand "keep alive" draw, but that should not be this bad. the battery is just getting weaker.
Am I missing something? This is my first AGM Battery.
Does anyone know a good reason not to switch to a flooded lead acid battery?
I have never gotten less than 6 years on an OEM battery in a new car,
then I read that life expectancy on an AGM is 3-1/2 to 4 years.
The price is likely 2-3 times that of a flooded battery with half the life cycle.
I did read from a battery maker that an AGM battery should be manually charged once a month to get maximum life from it.
What say all y'all?

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[AzScorpion]

Mine died at 18 months and was replaced under warranty. Since then I added a maintainer and use it most day as I don't drive it a lot. There's so much parasitic draw on these now it's almost a must have. It'll be 2 years in April with the new battery and zero issues.

 

[Beez]

I think you might find this "YouTube University" Battery Comparison video very helpful:

 

[AzScorpion]

Floyd, I also made a thread on the proper way to charge these AGM batteries here.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...nd-how-to-properly-charge-your-battery.22516/

 

[Bsthroop]

What I have read says that AGM should have a longer life than flooded. But they also need to be maintained near full charge or they lose the ability to take a full charge. I believe the reason Ranger batteries have a shortened life is due to the BMS maintaining them at 70% charge. This keeps them on the borderline of sleep mode and reduces their life. I hypothesize that charging them to 90+% and using a battery maintainer if not driven daily would significantly increase battery life.

 

[Joeiconic]

The way I drive my car and truck, both are parked for 3-4 days each week. I commute during the week using my car and I usually drive the Ranger over the weekend. Both have AGM batteries and I have a CTEK charger set up in the garage with pigtails attached to both vehicles. I swap the charger back and forth to the parked vehicle and it takes about 30 seconds. No issues with either to date.

 

[CB750F]

Well, this is a little disconcerting but the truck is driven 6, if not 7 days a week for a minimum of 1 hrs.
If mine dies too soon I'll look into a charger. Hmm, that would be too late....
Maybe I need to look more into Forscan....

 

[MountainGoat]

What I have read says that AGM should have a longer life than flooded. But they also need to be maintained near full charge or they lose the ability to take a full charge.

If this is true it'd mean Ford is intentionally sabotaging battery life by setting it at 70%...

 

[Azhang253]

I think these newer vehicles kill batteries faster, especially with auto start stop. Our CRV factory battery lasted 1 year. Unfortunately it died at the mall at 7PM, and we needed to get it home, so we had to just buy a battery at O Reillys instead of the warranty.

 

[Floyd]

Mine's not gone yet, but it is pretty pathetic.
My truck gets driven regularly and often for long trips.
I'll charge it some more and let it soak on a maintainer.
But I am not optimistic.. I guess all change is not improvement.

 

[gtyates]

Using Forscan I reset my max charge on the battery to 90%. Since then I have stopped having issues of "deep sleep", slow screens, non-responding proximity sensors, etc. occur. It baffles me that Ford set the charge level so low on these batteries. My thought on using a battery maintainer is that you would be charging the battery to full from a source external to the electrical system in the truck, so there will be a conflict between the BMS and what the system thinks the battery charge level is. Again, just my thought on this, I am not an electrical engineer..

 

[Feldgary1630]

My 2019 AGM battery is doing fine so far but only driven 12,500 mi. I had a new 2020 that always went to sleep mode during my 8 months of ownership and many Maverick owners are having the same issue. Hard to explain other than programming or battery quality issues.

 

[Rp930]

The AGM in my wife’s mercedes made it 7 1/2 years. The one in my Ranger made it 3 1/2 years. Could just be a quality issue. I’m hoping my replacement goes longer

 

[Bsthroop]

If this is true it'd mean Ford is intentionally sabotaging battery life by setting it at 70%...

Their reason for setting it lower is when the alternator is not working as hard you get better mileage. Works in theory but not in reality.

 

[Floyd]

Floyd, I also made a thread on the proper way to charge these AGM batteries here.

https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...nd-how-to-properly-charge-your-battery.22516/

Great article, My battery may be OK after all. If I learn something Ill report back!

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