Craftsman ZTS 6000 battery drain

[Gary Fowler]

My battery occassionally drains completely down in a short period of time. After a recharge, it works fine. I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen. This happened twice so far it 2 years and less than 2 days apart from full charge to zero charge. I am thinking that some switch must be shorting out but it seems that that would blow a fuse or burn up the wiring.
Any one have an opinion other than a bad battery. It has the Diehard battery in it and it it 2 years old which is about par for most batteries, but this mower has had less than 30 hours of use and holds a charge for months normally, then dies completely in a day or two. I keep a trickle charger on it when I am not going to use it for a long period of time, but even with the trickle charger on, it went dead this time. Sears Mechanic (was fixing a broken deck lift bracket) said batteries dont last very long and suggested replacing the battery but I feel that there must be an underlying reason for this happening. Maybe some fellow forum members have had this experience and found the problem.

 

[Soundguy]

think about what you said for a moment.

why would a switch shorting out burn wireing or blow a fuse?

fuses are sized to protect wireing. wireing is sized to handle the load they are intended to run. switches are also sized on load.

thus if you have a switch that is normally open, and it shorts closed, that circuit is energized. if that circuit was designed correctly, then neither the fuse nor the wireing should be damaged.

for instance. headlamp switch shorts... lamps come on.. and drain battery. wireing and fueses are sized fo rthat nominal load. nothing burns up.. nothing damaged.. but bat is dead.

do a lil diagnostics.

charge up the battery and leave it disconnected. see if it is an internal problem to the battery. some self discharge when they age, or if conductive salts can make a track across the battery top.. ( clean it ).

post back.

soundguy

 

[Gary Fowler]

The battery is not corroded and terminals are like new. The whole mower is like new even though it is 2 years old, it has only been used to mow about 4 times and it is cleaned after each use and stored inside when not in use. It has no lights and only other electrical items on it other than ignition/starter is an electric motor operated screw that raised the mower deck and the mower clutch.
I was considering that if the deck motor switch shorted and kept the motor energized that it would overheat the motor or short circuit the fuse or wiring unless it has a limit switch to stop it at upper or lower end. I dont think any of this will work without the key being on so that shouldnt be the drain point. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I suppose it could be a wire shorting out to the frame somewhere but that would seem to cause some major heat build up in the wiring. Once again, I am not home to check it out and only found it to be dead as I was leaving for the airport and wanted to reposition it in the shop. 2 days earlier it cranked perfectly. It did this about a year ago and I charged the battery and no problems again until last Saturday which makes me think that there is a wiring issue or something.

 

[Soundguy]

non use is harder on a battery than regular use.

 

[Gary Fowler]

That is why I bought trickle chargers for every thing that gets used very little, just to be on the save side. The trickle charger wouldnt keep it charged this time, so either the battery had a catastropic failure all at once or it has a pretty heavy draw down. I have asked my brother in law to go over and put the large battery charger on it after unhooking one of the terminals and we will see if the charge holds or even if it will take a charge. Last time it charged right up and had no problems for a year. I just put the trickle chargers on everything in Jan because I was not going to be around for a couple of months.

 

[tinner666]

Little late to this thread. Noobie too, so Hello!
Sometimes the lead plates get a buildup that flakes off. Sometimes these flakes contact 2 plates at a time and short them out. The result is an intermittant dead battery.