How Long Do AGM Batteries Last?

Without a healthy battery, you will not be able to start your car at all. In such cases, you will have to either call for professional help or get a replacement battery as soon as possible.

It can be avoided if you plan ahead of time and monitor the health of your battery at all times. One of the best decisions would be turning to an AGM battery instead of a traditional battery to get a longer lifespan and reliability. An AGM or Absurd Glass Mat battery was first introduced back in 1980 for professional military applications such as aircraft. It provided many advantages such as indeed lifespan along with a reduction in weight of the vehicle itself.

And now, you can get an AGM battery for your car easily. These batteries are currently the most popular choice for heavy applications such as power sport vehicles and commercial vehicles because of their higher power standards. But before you decide to get an AGM battery for your car, you should thoroughly consider how long it lasts and what are factors affect its battery life.

Today, we will tackle these questions and provide you all of the necessary information that you need before getting an AGM battery. We will also provide you some handy tips to maintain your AGM battery properly at the end of this guide, so make sure you stick until the end.

What Is The Lifespan of An AGM Battery?

Considering the fact that AGM batteries are considerably more expensive than traditional batteries, it is a valid query to ask how long will the battery last for you. Although, the answer is not as simple because the life of an AGM battery resides in many different aspects.

First of all, not all AGM batteries are built the same, and the minor differences in the production quality also have a major impact on its lifespan. As for the life of an AGM battery, the expectation could be anywhere between a couple of months to a couple of years.

Here are some important facts that will help you to get the right battery for your application also make sure that it has a longer lifespan:

• AGM batteries that are built with pure lead are proven to have a longer lifespan than their competitors. These batteries perform well and last significantly longer. Also, these batteries can be recycled after their servicing years to reuse the lead in AGM as well as flooded batteries.
• Apart from the differences in production quality, an important external factor is an environment in your region. We will take a brief look into this matter later in our guide.
• The type of your car and engine also impacts the battery life severely. In the case of a typical start/stop type of vehicle, the battery degrades at a faster rate as it has to start the engine numerous times. Thus, AGM batteries are a preferable choice for these types of vehicles.

With the help of the points mentioned above, you can easily get an idea about the approximate lifespan of an AGM battery. While the above mentioned factors should be enough, we will be taking a look at many other additional factors that have a considerable play in this discussion.

But before we talk about some additional factors that affect the life of an AGM battery, let’s try to understand what is a 12 volts gel battery and a 2-volt traction gel battery. We will also try to find out the approximate life expectancy of these batteries as we proceed.

AGM Batteries

The gel batteries are maintenance-free sealed batteries that are specifically designed to be installed on automobiles. These batteries contain a special material called gelled electrolyte, which keeps the acid stationary inside the battery. These batteries are completely leak-proof and perform pretty good considering an average of 1 to 3% of self-discharge rate every month.

If an AGM battery is completely charged and in an unused state, it offers an expected lifespan of about five to six years. After this period of time, the battery starts to degrade slowly, but still retains nearly 80% of its total capacity under normal working conditions. As the working temperature increases or decreases above or below the design limit respectively, the expected lifespan of an AGM battery is further reduced.

A standard 12 volts gel or AGM battery can carry up to 500 cycles of charge and discharge, considering that it will be charged from at least 20% battery level. Even after the six-year period is over, you might not need to replace the battery urgently as it can still be used even at 50% of its capacity. Thus, the average lifespan of a 12-volt gel battery is around seven years, considering real-life applications.

Traction Gel Batteries

The 2-volt traction gel battery, which is also called a robust gel battery, is specifically designed for extensive applications that require significant cycles of charges. These batteries are perfect for large systems that depend on heavy usage and an extremely long battery lifespan.

A standard 2 volts traction gel battery offers at least 15 years of lifespan without developing any problems whatsoever. Thus, it is capable of achieving somewhere between 1000 to 1500 cycles of charges, given that the batteries are recharged before they reach below 20% capacity.

Factors That Affect Battery Life

The average lifespan of a battery mentioned above is still a theoretical measurement of how long a battery lasts. In practical application, the actual lifespan of a traditional, as well as an AGM battery, might be considerably longer or shorter depending on the following factors. The factors that we are going to discuss below can potentially bring your battery life to half its expected lifespan. But, with proper maintenance and awareness of these factors, you can avoid that and also make your battery last longer than its design limit.

By taking care of the following factors, you can ensure optimal performance from your battery and also avoid any casualty that might lower the battery life. Here are the factors that affect battery life:

Time

We all know that batteries degrade over time if they are left unused. Thus, it is a major factor that impacts the battery life severely. The longer you keep your battery unused, the shorter its expected lifespan. Even if you drive your vehicle for a short period on a daily basis, you can expect a longer battery life compared to not driving your car for months at a time.

Also, you will have to recharge the unused batteries quite frequently compared to the ones being used on a regular basis. Once the battery is completely discharged, it loses its total capacity, and you will not be able to recharge it back to its original capacity. Thus, it is important to keep your battery in use and avoid keeping it in an unused state for a long time.

Temperature

Climate conditions also play a very important role in this scenario. In extremely cold weather, the batteries are unable to perform at their full potential because the freezing temperature slows down the chemical process inside the battery. It also reduces the batteries’ capacity to hold a charge, thus resulting in quicker discharges than usual. The impact of cold weather is more severe on an older battery compared to a newer one.

On the other hand, an extremely hot temperature is also not suitable for a car battery. Many studies suggest that car batteries are more likely to fail in extremely hot weather rather than cold weather. In theory, the average battery life is cut to half with a mere increase of 15 degrees of ambient temperature. This is caused by the heat generated by the acid and water mixture inside the battery and outside temperature causing slower heat dissipation.

Driving style

Your driving style can also be the cause of the faster degradation of your battery. But unlike most other factors, this is manageable on a personal level, and you can see quite a difference once you adapt a better driving style. Generally, this includes how often you turn on/off your car engine and also the number of peripherals powered by the battery, and how extensively you use them.

If you regularly drive through high traffic areas, it is recommended that you find an alternative route towards your destination. In high traffic areas, the battery is strained more than usual as there is an increase in peripheral usage and a rather slower engine speed which reduces the alternator performance. You can slightly reduce this by turning off the engine in extremely heavy traffic or simply turning off the AC and radio when in traffic longer than usual.

Condition of the charging system, including the alternator

The alternator in your car drives back the additional power generated from your engine back to your car battery. As the engine provides break power to the shafts, the alternator is also rotated, which generates the electricity, which is further utilized to recharge the car battery. This phenomenon keeps your battery alive while your vehicle is operational. It is also the reason why your vehicle is unable to start cold but works perfectly when you get it started and in routine.

If the alternator fails to deliver the charge to the battery, it will naturally discharge at a much faster rate than usual. You can even find your battery discharged within a year in normal conditions or earlier in hot or cold weather. The only way to effectively avoid this is to properly monitor your battery life and make sure it is performing as expected. Even a slight change in battery performance would indicate a problem with the charging system, and you can take care of that before it’s too late.

Regular car maintenance

Regular car maintenance is more than a necessity in today’s driving conditions. If you use your car on a daily basis, you will have to perform more frequent maintenance activities as your car is more exposed and utilized. While performing the routine maintenance check, your mechanic might alert you about problems with your battery or other problems in your car.

It is also recommended to get your routine car maintenance done by a professional mechanic to get the best results. You can also opt-in for various maintenance plans at these outlets so that you won’t forget about the next maintenance round.

Sulfating

Sometimes, the battery plates acquire sulfate buildup on their surface, which is called sulfating. This is a very serious problem and can completely destroy your battery if proper care is not taken at the right time. When a layer of sulfate is generated over battery plates, it starts losing the ability to hold the charge and degrades at quite a faster rate than usual. It occurs when the battery is deprived completely out of charge and can be avoided by keeping your battery active and charged.

Complete Battery Discharging

Once an AGM battery is completely discharged, it is quite difficult to receive it completely. It might be the cause of a faulty alternator or charging system which allows your battery to be left with zero charges. This significantly brings down the expected lifespan of a battery as the degraded components are not able to hold the equal amount of charge as before. Thus, if you want to extend your battery’s life expectancy, you have to make sure that it does not get discharged completely.

How To Maintain A Healthy AGM Battery?

Taking care of your car battery is very easy, and you can follow some helpful tips provided here to make sure it provides you with a longer serviceable period.

• The most important thing is regular maintenance of your battery. Apart from the technical inspection and health check, it also includes regular cleaning and external maintenance.
• Make sure you only charge your AGM battery with the charger that is suggested by the manufacturer of the battery. Different types of AGM batteries have different recommended chargers, which differ in terms of voltage capacity.
• In the case of lead-acid batteries, you should avoid partial charge as it can potentially decrease the ability of the battery to hold a full charge.
• Lastly, you should consider making some changes in your driving style if you are experiencing frequent battery-related problems. Also, make sure you check out your vehicle too in case there is a problem with battery-related components.

Conclusion

Buying a new battery for your car solves most car-related problems for most people. But, it is certainly not a permanent solution as the real problem might be with the car. Thus, it is necessary to find a perfectly compatible battery for your car and consider its life expectancy before you install it. After going through our guide today, you can easily find out the approximate life expectancy of an AGM battery as well as a robust 2-volt gel battery. We have also provided some helpful tips and factors that affect the battery life so you can try to extend your car’s battery life.