Page 13 - Ready for IMPACT Battery Blog

This post on how to parallel charge a dead motorcycle battery is a continuation of our segment on Motorcycle Battery Testing but can be applied to all types of lead acid batteries. It is a temporary yet important aspect to diagnosing a bad battery. It also helps answer the question: Can I test my motorcycle battery with just a charger & voltmeter? The short answer is YES, kind of...

If you have a more permanent parallel setup, such as what is used by boat or RV owners, you should jump over and read our Perfectly Balanced Charging tutorial. You will discover how a simple tweak to your set up could save you untold lost dollars and time.

But back to diagnosing a bad battery... It is absolutely amazing how many consumers and so called professionals misdiagnose a battery as "bad". A large percentage of those so called failures were batteries that were unnaturally discharged and salvageable or were tested by an inexperienced or shady professional.

So What is this Parallel Charge?

Energy Products initiated the Battery Partners program in January of 2016. Their goal is to advance the business of all Battery Specialists by being a single source mixed product supply chain solution. Terry McGee, the SLI Division Manager for the Battery Partners program summed it up this way, “We are not just a shop trying to sell you something. We work with you, our partners, to provide solutions to take your business to the next level.”

The customer centric culture within Energy Products fits with how we at Impact Battery strive to do business and serve our customers. If the first annual Battery Fest was a small taste of what Battery Specialist like us can expect as we partner together, then I think our customers and staff will enjoy what the future holds.

I have to be honest; if you asked me what I thought of Detroit a few months ago, I would have said it brings images to mind of what has gone wrong with urban America. Since January I have made several trips to the Motor City. Now

What a great question! What is it about the Lifeline AGM battery that makes them so popular and dependable? RV and boat owners seem to ask for this brand more than any other despite it costing more than other private labels. If it were just a fad, strong marketing or another ‘me-too’ battery this trend would have subsided years ago, but it hasn’t. This type of loyalty can only draw one conclusion…Yes they are that good! Read on as we review the success behind Lifeline batteries.

Concorde: The Driving Force Behind the LifeLine Battery

Concorde Battery Corporation has been manufacturing batteries just outside Los Angeles, California since 1979. Recently, Concorde opened a second manufacturing facility just outside Atlanta, Georgia. They operate under four application specific brands: Concorde, Lifeline, Chairman and Sun Xtender. The Concorde label designs aircraft batteries and batteries for shipboard use utilized by militaries the world over inclusive of the U.S. Military and several Commonwealth

During the summer of 2016 IOTA Engineering unveiled their new dual function Solid State DC Charger Power Supply. This SDC series converter charger incorporates design suggestions from both commercial and retail users that currently enjoy the very popular DLS series power supplies and chargers. Let’s take a moment and review some of the highlights.

Solid DC Charging Performance

Have you ever experienced erratic AC power fluctuations? Perhaps the rolling brown-outs in California or the sudden voltage spikes that occur in rural America are something you are familiar with? Or does your generator put forth an erratic modified AC wave form instead of a pure sine wave? The IOTA Solid-DC Series keeps your DC loads operating perfectly, with clean, safe DC power. This avoids potential damage to your systems caused from errant DC voltage. No matter how unpredictable your AC line voltage, the SDC1 provides unparalleled protection against such dangers. To say it another way, they can handle the roughest

So how do you make a dead battery start? If it is dead, shouldn’t you just replace it? We are going to cover 5 ways to start a dead battery even without jumper cables. I’m willing to bet that most of you have never tried or even considered idea number five!

#1 – Find a Charger

Should you find yourself at home, the obvious first step would be to dig out and connect your charger. I could write countless articles on how and why selecting the proper chargers is important, but let’s keep it really simple: Use a Smart ‘Trickle’ Charger. Using grandpas old 1950’s style automotive charger or some gigantic beast mode charger may actually cause more harm than good.

#2 – Use Jumper Cables

The old tried and true method when stranded out on the road. The problem is, either you have to have a pair with you or you need to wait for a passer-by to come along with a set of cables. And if you do have them, you still need to wait for someone to stop and offer the use of their vehicle and battery.

#3 – Use

To see the latest Impact Battery BBB Review please check out the Better Business Bureau’s Central & Eastern Kentucky listing. Impact Battery has been accredited with the BBB since 2011 and is currently in good standing with an A+ rating.

Yes Impact Battery is Still in Business!

Impact Battery was founded in Oregon towards the end of 2009 and was first accredited by the Northwest BBB in 2011 before transferring primary operations to Kentucky in January 2013. At which time the Central & Eastern Kentucky BBB took over the accreditation and listing. Each of the regional Better Business Bureaus are independently operated and this has caused a great deal of confusion for our customers!

When we left the NW region they placed a note on the top of their listing in bright red capitol letters stating: IMPACT BATTERY IS BELIEVED TO BE OUT OF BUSINESS! We informed them of the move to KY and provided documentation that we were still very much a thriving entity that had simply moved. We requested they

I was looking under the hood of my Suburban yesterday pretending to know what I was doing. I wanted to see if I could figure out what was causing our heat to be blasting when the air conditioning was on the coolest setting. In true fashion, my mind started to do what it does best; lose focus on the task at hand. I couldn’t help but notice we have a Drakon Group 34/78 battery installed. And so I pondered…

The other day in our ‘What’s What in the Battery World’ series we compared the Optima RedTop, BlueTop and YellowTop batteries. The focus of the post was to determine how you could decipher which color Optima was best for you and your application. Specifically, we focused on the Group 34/78 size as a guide to understanding the differences. As I stared at this Drakon battery, I wondered “Who made the best sealed AGM Group 34/78 battery? What is it about some of these brands that make people so loyal or perhaps fanatical? Is it based solely on performance or some type of advertising or is

I was reading about an innovative company known as Advanced Battery Concepts (ABC for short) out of Clare, MI. They have developed a BiPolar battery technology that promises to propel the lead acid battery industry into the limelight once again. For this age old industry, thought to be in its twilight years, fighting against competing technologies, such as lithium-ion and NIMH Cobalt, this truly is remarkable. But what makes this technology so extraordinary? And perhaps more importantly, what is a bipolar battery and why should we care?

A Short Historical Foundation

I will attempt to keep my terminology and definitions ultra-simple and relate examples of them to names and brands you may recognize. To begin, let’s start with the inventor.

The concept of a bipolar battery has been around for nearly 100 years! Pyotr Kapitsa, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978, first introduced the theory behind bipolar batteries back in 1924. This Russian born scientist is famous for many discoveries

How many of you know the history of Power Wheels? They have quite the colorful past that spans over 30 years. Included in this history lesson is the rise of a global giant and the black eye of numerous product recalls. We will also provide a quick link to our What’s What in the battery world helping you select the correct 12 volt battery for your toy.

Power Wheels Origins

Does the name Pines of America ring any bells? Probably not, but this innovative company from the early 80’s pioneered the battery powered ride on toy. This pioneer, which invented and ushered in the multi-billion industry, was purchased in 1984 by a company called Kransco.  A couple years later they settled on the Power Wheels brand name to market their investment. They licensed the rights to use popular attractions and adult vehicles, such as the Jeep Wrangler, to help bolster their appeal. Within six years Kransco Power Wheels was selling 1,000,000 plus battery-powered vehicles per year.

Then in 1994, the hundred