Maintain Your Forklift Battery To Extend Its Life And Keep Your Forklift Running
There are a number of ways to make sure your forklift is properly maintained to keep it running well. Your forklift battery is important, and with good maintenance you will be able to extend the life of your battery. Forklift batteries will last roughly 1,500 charge cycles, but many last much longer when you charge it correctly and take good care of it. It's useful to remember that forklift batteries aren't designed to be hooked up to a charge all the time, as this will reduce the battery's ability to accept the charge.
Know When to Charge the Battery
While you may want to charge the battery on your forklift whenever you have time, this is not the right way to keep your battery charged correctly. Once the charge on your battery goes below 20%, it's safe to charge the battery again. As soon as the battery is at 100%, you need to stop the charge. When you overcharge the battery, you can greatly decrease the life of the forklift battery. In addition, you should never stop a battery from charging when it's in mid-cycle.
Forklift Batteries Need to be Equalized
Equalizing your battery helps protect the forklift battery from stratification, or the process in which the battery acid within sits at the bottom in a higher concentration. This causes the battery to struggle to hold a charge, and equalizing the battery stabilizes the acid and water within the battery once again. This is done by hooking the battery up to the charger, and utilizing the equalizing setting. This is done every five to ten charges in order to keep the battery in top working order.
Water Level Should Be Optimized
To work efficiently, your forklift battery needs to have the correct level of water. After charging your battery five times, open up the battery and check the level of fluid. Make sure the fluid is covering all plastic elements of the battery. Look in every cell of the battery, and add water if the fluid levels are too low. When you are topping off your battery with water, you will need to make sure that the battery is 100% charged first. Use water that is clean, as dirty water is not safe for your forklift battery.
Even when you take good care of your forklift battery, eventually they need to be replaced. Whether you purchase a new forklift battery or choose used forklift batteries, it's important to know how to extend the life of every battery you purchase.