How to make your forklift battery last longer - Our top five tips

Forklift batteries should last around five years or about 1500 cycles, but to get the most life out of it, it needs good care and maintenance. Here are our top five tips to keep your battery in tip top shape.

1 – Don’t charge for a quick 20 minutes over lunch

This is what we call opportunity charging. As tempting as it is to plug in for a quick charge over your lunch break, it’s doing your battery more harm than good. It causes excessive heat in the battery, reducing its efficiency and over time this habit will cause your battery to stop charging all together.

A healthy and well maintained battery should last a full 8 hour shift and not need a quick charge over lunch.

2- Don’t let your battery get below 20%

Overusing your forklift battery will also reduce its life span. Once the battery has discharged by 80%, we recommend putting in on charge for a complete charge cycle. Don’t interrupt the charge cycle unless necessary until it’s complete.

3 – Frequently check the water levels

Forklift batteries need sufficient water to operate at their capacity. We recommend checking the water levels once a week after charge. Open up the cap on two or three of the cells and check that the water is covering the battery element. If it’s not, you will need to top up the water. Our single point watering systems and watering guns are the easiest and safest way to top up water levels in a forklift battery.

4 – Never top-up the water levels before charging the battery

If your forklift battery needs a water top up, only ever do so once the battery has completed a full charging cycle.

5 – Use distilled water

Although this isn’t absolutely necessary, using distilled water can help to increase the life span of the battery.

Is your forklift battery not lasting a full 8 hour shift like it used too, or not charging at all? Call us on 1300 953 829 to arrange a battery inspection. Read more about our forklift battery maintenance services.