Is Concrete Killing Your Batteries?? Here's Scientific Proof To End The Debate. FarmCraft101 Solar

Many times I have heard that setting lead acid batteries on concrete will drain them. I've always been skeptical, so I decided to test it. I use a set of 6 batteries which are for my golf cart and I set them on concrete, on wood, on a bench, and even outside on the dirt for almost 3 months, checking their voltages periodically throughout. I even load test some of them to ensure that the batteries are still capable of putting out power, not just giving a voltage reading.
The results? Watch the video! ;-)
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[@bobkelly2447]

WOW I believed that Myth all my life that setting the battery on concrete was bad !!! yet you definitely proved to me that it is not ! ...THANK YOU !

[@mdrew44628]

Great job debunking this myth that once held some truth. We move forward with every bit of ignorance we remove.

[@j-deezy321]

Never held truth

[@tonyioannoni4951]

Thanks for taking the time, and conducting a real good test, I appreciated it very much, and I will stop stressing about putting a battery on cement or any other type of surface...my father really put that "myth" in my head, one time he almost cracked my skull because I supposedly scrapped a couples of batteries.... they sat on cement one night....

[@GamingKeenBeaner]

I was just talking to my girlfriend about this and we were wondering how exactly concrete could ruin a battery and here you are with a video on it. One of many reason I love this channel.

[@1rustytree]

Great test! My father in law (RIP) was always on me to keep the trolling motor battery on the 1X8 in the shed!

[@olefriends]

i remember my dad telling me years ago when i was about 15 or so that it was vry bad for batteries to set on the ground now i am 65 and i just now found out that was wrong so i think my dad was the one who started that myth LOL thanks for this info great job

[@user-fo1hm3yt3p]

Right there with you brother.Glad my dad didn't tell me flatulence was an aphrodisiac,I'd still be a virgin.

[@acesup5845]

@@user-fo1hm3yt3p YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! That is AWESOME!!! I going to start telling my granddaughter that and start teaching her early.

[@danejurasley5957]

My dad said the same thing. I’m 62

[@dienekes4364]

Great experiment. Thanks for testing this! I've always wondered if this was true, but haven't had time to test it.

[@shoveljunk-americanpatriot7603]

Before I watch the whole video I’m going to guess it would be the cold temperature rather than the concrete. Excellent job. Thank you.

[@melvingray5707]

You covered everything, I'm surprised of how many guys still are say, thinking and teaching the old story about car batteries and concrete, Even when I go into some stores the batteries are sitting on wood, I've been telling others that it was true at one time, but the usage of plastic reversed that problem. Great video.

[@realvanman1]

Outstanding! It's about time someone did this. Eight people so far just can't accept that they're wrong. ;) I've been storing my extra batteries on concrete for a long , long time now, but there was a time, just like you, that I bought into the myth and kept my plastic cased batteries on wood lol. Thanks again for the great video.

[@tsmall07]

Thanks for doing the test! I always thought it was bunk

[@rhilliard377]

I wonder if it will cause the load capacity to decrease over time. But I agree that we improve manufacturing over time so maybe the batteries are made better.Good stuff!!

[@Follett2121]

Great video! great information in general

[@trevorreece6999]

I had an old codger tell me that is was an issue back in yesteryear when battery cases were made from a different material.... Well this is a good lesson on waiting till the end to post a comment.

[@just1ofgod]

awesome info had heard this one a number of times and always wondered about that.

[@davelaseer1344]

I watched only few of your postings & you seemed a smart man with good electrical skills. Why din’t you use your digital meter along with your load tester with the analog gauge. ?

[@frankellis2846]

Very well done.

[@majickman4321]

good information but your load tester when turned on, can do other useful things the 200, 400, 600 etc marks beside the yellow are for cca ratings. And if your truck battery is rated for >700 cca, you need to replace it as the cells are beginning to weaken. And in my experience, trucks don't normally use less than 650 cca.

[@vernvern1507]

I love your Chanel, I noticed the hockey sticks, is that a sher-wood twig from the 80s, if it is, I rocked thoes sticks for years on the ice

[@ulrichwilsenach4411]

Agree with your final findings - the batteries will be fine. HOVER, even today, placing batteries on concrete , is not a good idea if you are going to charge it. If the batteries boil over you WILL damage your concrete.

[@sanitarium017]

If the battery boils over you must be using a $5 charger. Jesus.

[@keithlincoln1309]

Love the science side of your research

[@cwj9202]

Excellent video debunking the myth and following that with the historical perspective. At @5 minutes you load test the group 31 battery pulled from your tractor - if it fails the test with that small load tester, you bet that battery is toast. Generally, one requires the use of a 500 amp carbon pile test to adequately test those group 31 batteries.

[@NuttyforNissan]

My long departed Dad use to rebuild the rubber batteries at Ford as an apprentice, it's not a pleasant job.

[@coalminer6278]

I was a believer in that myth! Thank you for busting it farmcraft.

[@danejurasley5957]

Hey, wanted to tell the creator of this video, good job. Must have been a lot of work making this. Thank you

[@karencrook8375]

Logic. So rare these days. Thanks! I just bought a new battery today and they warned me not to store it on concrete. I smelled BS. Your explanation makes perfect sense.

[@user-dc8fg4gc6b]

After reading this post on many threads I've thought of an idea of buying some fresh batterys test them and see if they have the same rate of discharge....but then I thought wait surly someone had conducted this experiment and I can just look it up and well needless to say someone has done the experiment good work sir .....but I think some people after a whole life of hearing this it just as common as the whole don't swim after you eat I think it would take alot of repeative information to finally make people realise and that being said I'm a currently charging my batteries and keeping them away from the concrete floor idk I believe your results but I still feel like it's suicidal to put my batteries on concrete lol

[@amiralozse1781]

GOOD JOB! But! You forgot to activate the WOOWOO alarm

[@toolman.dustin]

Great job, great explanation, the results are reported at 6:24.

[@Mrbanshee33]

Always wondered if that was true thanks

[@rider660r]

People are forgetting........the plastic compound has changed quite a bit since the 40's to the 50's to the 60's to the 70's and 80's to now............ Sitting them on the concrete floor for a length of time wouldn't just drain them it would ruin the batteries back then.......it may seem to be a myth now but it wasn't back then.

[@michaeljones4388]

When I parked my riding mower in the garage I always had to jump the battery at the beginning of the summer. Now that it sits under a lean to it always cranks!! How do you explain that?

[@morpheusmemnoch4160]

I don't know about losing electrons to the ground but I do believe it is a good preventative measure to have some sort of insulating layer between batteries and concrete, not for charge loss but HEAT loss. Batteries are more efficient at slightly higher temperatures and freezing temps can kill cells. so these days it really depends on climate

[@MyKillerson]

That's false false FALSE. Unless your battery is already dead, freezing temps will not effect your (modern car) battery life until around -74°f. Cold storage is actually better for your battery, extending the life span of the battery over all. Studies have shown that a battery stored at 90°f will discharge twice as fast as a battery stored at 75°f, with slightly diminishing returns as you go down in temperatures.

[@morpheusmemnoch4160]

@@MyKillerson My battery must have been dead then

[@blackdog6420]

I was actually taught not to leave them on the ground in aviation school for mechanics when I went to school and most of them were lithium batteries and they said do not leave them on the ground or don't discharge them... and it wasn't expensive school so I hope they weren't filling me with BS.

[@wildoutdoorsguy]

I was told this years ago never thought anything of it but always if I remembered put wood or something under them after being told about it, well I have a car battery that came out of my dead van that was a Good battery I had been storing it on Wood but my sister moved it sometime in the last 12 months to the concrete floor and the good battery now is 100% trash I was making sure to charge it to keep it as a back up battery anyway it was never left under 11 volts I went to use it the other day and decided to stick it on the charger before hand anyway it was reading 8 volts after being put on the concrete and now it won't hold a charge after trying to charge it it for a day it now reads 2 volts

[@byates59]

Glad to hear it, my batteries have been on concrete for 8 years!

[@lightmechanic2370]

I was told moisture condensing on the outside of the battery is much more likely on a concrete floor. Current leaks across the top of the moist battery, slowly draining it. Dirty battery top is more prone to current leakage. Batteries are much cleaner these days than older screw top cell caps and crude/aggressive charging systems.

[@blahfasel2000]

If this were the case, then putting the battery top half an inch further away from the concrete wouldn't make any difference whatsoever, instead the rule would be to not put the battery into a room with a concrete floor. The battery housing, be it glas, wood or plastic, is a bad heat conductor, and heat transport through convection in the electrolyte would only work if the warm side was at the bottom and the cold side on top. Therefore direct contact with concrete might make a difference in temperature at the bottom, but it is neglible at the top where the terminals are. As water from condensation doesn't flow upwards, the conclusion is that the premise doesn't hold. It's true of course that a dirty battery can lead to increased leakage, that's independent of the type of floor the battery is standing on though.

[@rustyaxelrod]

I think we just “like” this myth. I’ve sat batteries on a piece of wood so long now I’m not sure I could stop if I wanted to 😉. Thanks for this test and posting the results, I’ve always suspected it was boloney anyway. 👍

[@scootergem]

Lotta work there, or just bunch of time. Well you made a believer outta me. Good job, kudos even. Now to the part where you may wanna ban me from the site. Could you possibly do the test again with the positive connection to ground on one battery and then on another battery the negative to ground. I'm sure it would not be necessary to do one withe both leads to ground. I feel like a scoundrel for even mentioning this, I was jus' wondering... 🥺

[@FayazShaikh]

I am an automobile engineer and works as a diagnostic technician at a car workshop...I have a bet going on with my service manager on the same topic and am waiting for tomorrow morning to check the battery voltage which we left on floor!

[@FarmCraft101]

Which side of the bet are you on?

[@wendellsmith5626]

Sorry for the many posts! Feel free to delete the extras!

[@wendellsmith5626]

Just a comment or two... I have seen many old outbuildings (where you can see through the cracks in the walls) after a warm, humid front has passed. So much moisture collects that there are puddles on the floor! Your dirty battery will also have moisture condense. This can cause a small leakage of current across the dirt etc. between the terminals. The battery on the floor will continue to condense water as long as the concrete is at a lower temp than the dewpoint. If the battery is on wood, plastic etc. it will warm up faster, dry out, and reduce the amount of time for discharging. If you do not get wet floors in humid weather you will not likely have a problem. Oh, and keep those batteries CLEAN!!!

[@billykulim5202]

this is a same answer my grandpa tell me. it not about batteries leave on the floor are bad, its because if you spill something or moisture condense a long time it can cause your plastic batteries case to roots, so its better it have something to hold it above ground

[@terryrobinson1416]

Does your concrete have a plastic liner under to keep moisture out?

[@brian_2040]

From the interstate rep himself, it use to be a issue, but now a days technology it is not a problem.

[@linuxxxunil]

@realfixesrealfast said to use two load testers.

[@Vicmp40]

The ONLY way a battery grounds out from being left on the "ground" (most effective on dirt outside) is because it's been neglected for months and has a layer of dirt/dust on it. Dirty batteries can carry a charge on the plastic so it'll drain them out.

[@williamhastie2772]

Sceptics RULE !!!

[@Bob_Adkins]

I think I know where the myth came from. When a battery is sitting idle on the concrete, the months and years go by very fast, which of course kills the battery from self-discharge. If a battery sits discharged for even a couple of months, it won't recover when charged. LiFeP04 FTW!

[@kenl5217]

Cool. Thanks for the testing. I'm going to buy a load tester now. I have a child scooter that uses a small 12v battery. Will the load tester work on it the same as a 12v car battery?

[@FarmCraft101]

Sort of. With a smaller battery, it will not be able to maintain the same voltage under the same load. So rather than going down to 10.5 volts under load, it may go down to 8 or something, depending on it's capability. I think the load tester says its 100 amps, so if a smaller battery isn't capable of coming anywhere close to that, it wouldn't be much help. In that case, you could just put the battery under a smaller load, like maybe put a 1 ohm resistor across it and measure the voltage with a regular meter. A 1 ohm resistor would give you 12 amps (V=IR). Adjust resistance as needed to get the proper amps you are looking for and see if the voltage drops. Good luck!

[@kenl5217]

Awesome thank you very much

[@holgerbehrens186]

Thank you. Great idea and good effort. And so science and knowledge expands. One day someone may even prove the oposite that will hold true for a while :) But for now I will go with your finding.

[@pauljanssen2624]

This is true back in the day batteries were made out of asphalt type of material type of rubber not plastic so those batteries if you put them on concrete but go dead but now that batteries are made out of plastic plastic is an insulator and they won't discharge on asphalt or concrete it's nice to have a rubber pad or something underneath them in case your spills water filling them up bottom line new style batteries made of plastic won't go dead plastic is an insulator batteries have internal resistance so when the battery sitting for a while it will drain down slowly

[@kyrangerman519]

This! The casing for today's batteries are totally different than batteries made in the 50s. It's a myth now, but was true back in the day. Batteries have come a long way in my lifetime.

[@SteveandSusiesHomestead]

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!! Great job

[@thegrimmperspective]

I believe the condition of the battery and the environment in which they are stored on concrete has a lot to do with whether or not one should store a battery on concrete. Lead acid batteries prefer to to fully charged. So charging the battery before storage and adding a battery minder would be advantageous as well.

[@blainerueckwald]

Wes from Watch Wes Work would agree with you.

[@douglasthompson2740]

I believe the saying of don't store batteries on concrete derived from very dirty batteries (your tractor battery is getting closer) and the current that is carried by that damp dirt. This goes to ground through the dirt all the better because of moisture if the slab is wicking ground moisture. Now practically it is of no real concern in a dry environment however it might be a good reason to clean your batteries especially corrosion around the terminals to prevent that mini amp current draw. In a dirty oily commercial shop one can see where it just might get to be a problem. Down low is going to collect a lot more swarf, dirt etc even more so if they wash the car bays. Take care. Doug

[@chada472]

If the battery case is good they will not discharge. It happens when the case allows electrons to pass through the case.

[@cwf081166]

It is the cold that draws the charge from a battery and not concrete. Concrete take a long time to absorb and retain heat. Besides extreme cold weather can kill a battery while a battery is still in a vehicle.

[@Francois_Dupont]

thank you i keep telling people, but they just dont want to research this.

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

LOL, "drops back up"!

[@jasonbrown467]

this is what i do with folk lore that doesnt make sense...i test it for my self. all of my friends that come over and see my batteries in my basement concrete floor love to share their "wisdom" on this topic. hell i even had one tell me that the batteries sitting on my countertop in my kitchen would damage the battery because it looks like a rock based counter top, not realizing this was always about moisture passing from the concrete into the medium containing the electrolyte.

[@tykellerman6384]

Very interesting thanks I guess I can remove the wood

[@carlossolis3152]

They do die maybe not all but seriously they do

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

"Now we're gonna check the voltage with the 'real' meter"? How is this load-test meter supposedly "not real" for what its job is?

[@nfin8one]

This has a basis in truth. The old batteries first used in cars were made with hard rubber cases. The carbon in the cases caused electrical reaction and discharged them. For almost a century, they have been made of plastic which doesn't do this.

[@twwtb]

I had always heard the same thing. There was a rationale behind it, but different from the historical ones you stated. The idea was that concrete is somewhat conductive (is it? Maybe depending on the moisture content) and would form a capacitive couple between the concrete and the plates inside the battery. That would be to the small surface areas at the bottom edges of the plate which would not be a high capacitor value. This may seem plausible at the very small rates to affect a battery over the long term. (Almost anything could seem plausible if the rate is small enough or the time span long enough). It doesn't seem likely that a capacitive coupling, which is open circuit in DC, would result in the DC discharge of a battery. Maybe they were thinking that it resulted in a miniscule short between the battery plates since no insulation is perfect? Who knows? I think the length of your test is enough to disprove the theory for all practical purposes.

[@Hornblas189]

I have so many old timers to confront now.....

[@electromechanicalstuff2602]

The tale started back when battery cases where made of carbon cases from what Ive heard

[@davedivesdeeper]

I’ve always head that, and always argued that it shouldn’t do anything. I wont show my Dad though, he’d be heart broken

[@watchtherocks12]

that's nice of you.

[@thore3964]

The Concrete needs to have Steel Reo "re-inforcement" in its construction as it is inductive to the electrolyte in its discharged state which has a different name, The affects of the scale solphate will cause cell damage making the Battery unrecoverable by charging, ask your self why would this ingenious youtuber risk destroying 3 batteries. Seriously how much are Car batteries today, Maybe he sells batteries and makes a margin on each sale, As a Mechanic if I have to remove a battery from a customers vehicle it is not placed on the floor, and if anyone in the workshop relocates on to a concrete floor they will be out the door or paying for the customers replacement Battery.

[@williefleete]

I think the "myth" does have some truth, it wasnt draining the battery, but it was slowing the chemical reactions of the acid/metal when the battery sits on cold concrete/ground, the side effect is it *appears* to be a flat battery and hence "discharged" when in fact the battery is just cold, even on modern cells a cold cell will appear to be flat but when warmed up will work fine

[@David_in_Thailand]

I've never heard of that myth and I worked in the cement production industry for 44 years. Considering concrete is non conductive, thankfully, the believers must also think that cable insulation can conduct too.

[@chipellis3031]

A good 12V battery should be at 12.8 V. If much less it's going bad. Assuming your crappy voltmeter is accurate...

[@emerson2you]

Are they lead acid batteries if so then yes it will kill

[@Watchyn_Yarwood]

There you go again, confusing the issue with facts!

[@elicovington3932]

To answer the question? YES You can put the battery on the ground!

[@tek4]

When the tale started the batteries were nothing like what we have today. Electrolyte would leak and was a potus case

[@cumulo25]

A few years ago, a guy told me this and I thought he was an idiot. The same guy later told me the Earth is flat, then I knew he was an idiot.

[@umuJG]

Oh well, how do I go back to my wife and admit I was wrong about this?

[@Billydevito]

Ha ha ha! I scored a used battery from a backup generator at work that gets new batteries every 2 or 3 years and forgot it in my garage for nearly 2 years. I finally did a cleanup and found it again and thought it must be dead from sitting on the concrete that long. To my surprise it not only held voltage, but it started my car when it had a flat battery. This exploded the notion that a battery stored in direct contact with the concrete would go flat. Your experiment validated my findings and that is what is needed to prove a hypothesis. Thanks for your video. I can corroborate your results. Cheers.

[@billneu9520]

Jon, interesting where this myth came from. I believe today it is still a good idea to keep lead acid batteries off concrete because when putting heavy battery down you could cause the loose particles in the battery to sink to the bottom and may short out some of the cells. So I always put my stored batteries on a soft surface like a piece of pine thanks for your video great stuff. Bill N LI NY

[@nishbrown]

The only danger is the risk of setting a plastic case battery on something (sharp rock or screw) that will pierce the case. I'm in battery wholesale and I still get this question every day.

[@HappyfoxBiz]

you're smarter than me However the reason why the standard battery load tesers won't work is because the car batteries are designed to give high amperage kick with start with the slow charge over time, where the house (G-cart) batteries are designed to give a small and consistent amperage throughout with a fast recharge. It's hard to do a definitive test on this but I say that you busted this myth They probably said that concrete myth is because of the fact that concrete is cool and people don't tend to take care of their batteris during the subzero months of winter leaving the battery susceptible to damage, concrete isn't insulation so of course, it's going to be a constant subzero. So the message stuck and the wood pallets allowing warmer air around the battery to stop it from dipping too far below zero.

[@stephenbinion6348]

I think it’s just leaving them dead is what kills them.

[@rrowland8757]

You actually load test a battery by holding it long enough that the heating coil starts to smoke!

[@susans7091]

Thanks for busting the myth!

[@madrabbit9007]

I had always thought it was a myth but I'm glad to see proof.

[@GoodPimpofTheNorth]

It wasn't always a myth!!!! If you do your homework, you will find out that at one time it was true, due to battery design. In the the first 1/4-1/3 of the 20th century battery's we're made of lead, acid, and GLASS. The lead and acid were encased in GLASS!!! That battery was then placed in a WOODEN box to protect the GLASS cased Battey. So if you placed those batteries on concrete, the wooden box would absorb moisture from the concrete and swell. The swelling would crack the glass inside and all the acid would drain out and the battery would be "drained" so to speak.

[@GoodPimpofTheNorth]

I knew I should have waited till the end to post my comment

[@dang5203]

LOL! I need to find a better channel to watch! 😂 Thanks for the testing info

[@sighpocket5]

Nice!!! ( still will not put them on concrete or any abrasive material )

[@seansenneka8280]

Did your floors have iron rebar?

[@middleway1885]

Boop

[@josecfish5297]

The only way a battery would go bad sitting on ground would be if you accidentally sit it down on a small sharp object that pierces a small hole in its plastic cheap case and causes it to leak all it’s acid.

[@charlesthornburg5248]

This is for batteries that are still usable but unable to properly maintain a quality service of your need. Or long-term sitting of a not proper maintain if it has dropped to a low voltages and rate ........ just know what a myth origin is and don't conspiracy.

[@HelloKittyFanMan.]

"On the ground or on concrete"? Ground often _is_ concrete, isn't it? (Maybe the word "other" would fit nicely in there somewhere....)

[@larryiowatexasrooster9317]

👍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🗽🙏🏻

[@jackeyster5885]

It's interesting where this myth came from. It's from a time when batteries came in wood boxes. The acid in the battery would slowly permeate through the wood, and form some kind of complex with the concrete that was conductive. This would discharge the battery. The advice got passed down by word of mouth for 70 years, and here we are.

[@Fornaxfornax1]

Wait one minute! We know extreme cold kills batteries. Here in Scotland I wouldn't be happy about leaving a battery on the concrete in winter. The air temp might be cold but surely the concrete will actively cool the battery even further. I'd like to see if temperature has any bearing on the experiment. I try not to leave digital callipers in the workshop over winter because I know they'll be dead when I next pick it up. Surely this has a bearing on the question. You did the experiment in very dry, warm summer conditions. The experiment has a flaw. We need to account for temperature.

[@lawsonspedding6136]

Who cares if it’s a myth or not, putting it on a piece of wood is no big deal, is it ?

[@michelerjgross7339]

Ok but I too at the shop I was working at and the myth was true we did 3 brand new batteries off the shelf and the one on the ground did discharge at a SLIGHTLY faster rate maybe a volt every 3 days compared to the one we had on the bench and you said that your meter wasn’t correct working condition so wether or not that your looking at the drop in charge THE TRUTH IS IT IS TRUTH but it does take a bit of TIME now I’ll say again it will happen we used brand new batteries off the shelf and with a GOOD WORKING CONDITION, and it proved the myth and yes it was a fact in older tech and it has gotten way better over the years with advancements in tech so yes you are correct on the history but the myth is still true as I have personally proved it a few times, I am a ase master tech by trade and also work as an auto electrical tech master grade so on that note the only thing you proved is that the tech now is better than years ago

[@budthatsmyrealname]

i think some low budget mechanic charged a battery and left it on the ground over night and came back and the battery was dead, thinking batteries last forever. and started telling everyone he left the battery on the ground overnight and his battery died. i think this person didnt realize batteries have a life span and will one day die no matter what

[@j-deezy321]

Even if it was true I see the same people putting battery on things that are grounded to the earth anyway LOL