Bought Miss gunner Jr. a Indian ftr jr (razor 500 electric bike all dressed up) for Christmas. The manual states DO NOT ALLOW THE BATTERY TO GET BELOW 32 DEGREES. We are hiding it in our shed where it will be 28 degrees tonight. it is a lead acid battery. Should I move it to the garage where it will be 40 degrees but risk Miss Jr finding the bike before I can move it again in the morning? Or is that just lawyer speak for we cant be held responsible?
Put a blanket over it with a light bulb underneath the battery. It works on airplane engines
In reply to pilotbraden :
Thats a good idea, but I don't think I have anything but flourecents and leds anymore. not even in a drop light. Crap.
An electric blanket or heating pad would do it too. However I can't believe that a lead acid battery would be hurt at 28 degrees.
Can you bring the battery inside?
Trickle charge it- that should keep it slightly warm.
The power supply in most LEDs will probably put out enough heat to keep it above freezing if you throw a blanket or two over the whole thing.
Help me with this. There are millions of cars parked outside every night with lead acid batteries when it goes well below 28, and almost all of them start the next morning. 
In reply to pilotbraden :
I might have a heating blanket. Your second sentence is what I was hoping to read. I normally wouldn't worry about it, it was just the way it was stated. It is currently charging so is warm but its still 36 degrees here.
In reply to Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) :
Right? I was really hoping that it would be fine.
Thanks for your help guys. I've got a plan, and will see how it works out. I'm just going to blanket it heavily. It is currently charging so is warm and I think even after I unplug it the blankets will be enough.
My understanding (which could be wrong) is that a discharged lead acid battery can freeze, but a charged battery cannot. So, the warning is probably a simplification of "don't let it get below 32 unless it's fully charged" which might be bit complicated for people to comprehend. It's easier to to just have a blanket warning.
In reply to flat4_5spd :
You know? That makes sense as another warning was not to let the battery discharge fully because it will permanently lower the capacity of the battery or completely prevent it from being charged.
gunner (Forum Supporter) said:Thanks for your help guys. I've got a plan, and will see how it works out. I'm just going to blanket it heavily. It is currently charging so is warm and I think even after I unplug it the blankets will be enough.
^^^ and it'll be fine.
In reply to flat4_5spd :
Not exactly true. Ask anyone that lives in Alaska or frozen extreme north but it does take more than 28 degrees to freeze it, like more than 20 below zero F. I lived in Fairbanks Alaska for a few years and saw a few frozen fully charged batteries. That's why we had battery heating blankets on our vehicle batteries.
28 degrees may discharge the battery some and shorten it's life some but what you're doing will work just fine.
Yeah, it'll be fine. AvE hasa video on it where he goes into the details on a motorhome battery pack that busted on him, but (I'm trying to remember) a trickle charger is what you really want. In trickling one, the pulsations of electrons flowing throughout the acid keep the molecules moving which keeps it from physically freezing into a solid block and killing the cell; it also warms it from within. That's all I remember i'm afraid.
It's currently-22c here. My battery isn't frozen...
Yep it seems to have survived. Im comfortable leaving it out there then bringing it into the garage and topping off the battery the night of the 24th.
You'll need to log in to post.
