Car Battery won't charge after sitting for a Year

Question

I have a main starter battery and a leisure batter in my van. They have been left unused for around a year with my van off the road. I am now trying to get it up and running however I am unable to charge either battery.

The main battery is around 14 months old and the leisure is around 3 years old.

I have a main charger which I have connected, however the charge gauge does not move when I connect the positive and negative leads to the batteries. When I touch the positive and negative leads together, they spark and the charge gauge moves. I therefore believe that the charger is working OK.

Could there be something wrong with both batteries that is not allowing the current to flow around the battery from positive to negative and therefore stopping them from being charged?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Timo Geusch · Accepted Answer

I assume the battery is completely dead? Multimeter not showing anything?

There are a couple of chargers that will try and revive a battery (Accumate/Optimate for example) that's pretty much completely dead, but your average parts store charger needs some charge left in the battery before it'll work.

Even if you get the batteries recharged, you've already severely shortened their lifespan unless they're deep discharge batteries. In fact you might already have ended up with two large paperweights but I'd still try to recharge them and see what happens.

If you're storing batteries for longer than a couple of months I would suggest that you'll recharge them from time to time or hook them up to good trickle/float charger (not the 4.99 special). These batteries really don't like standing around discharged.

ManiacZX · Answer

There is an option for attempting to recover a completely dead battery described defined on Optima's website.

From: http://www.optimabatteries.com/product_support/resuscitating_agmbattery.php
  
  Recovery Option #2: The DIY Solution
  
  This is a recovery method for the do-it-yourselfer using the equipment
  you've got in the garage. With this option, you're going to trick your
  charger into charging the deeply discharged AGM battery.
  
  Here's what you need:

Battery charger
  Jumper cables
  A good battery, preferably above 12.2 volts (It can be an AGM or
  flooded battery, it doesn't matter.)
  The seemingly dead, deeply discharged AGM battery
  A watch or timer

Now, here's what you do:

Hook up the good battery and deeply discharged AGM battery in
  parallel—positive to positive and negative to negative. Do not have
  the charger connected to the battery or turned on at this stage.
  Now, hook up the good battery to the charger. Turn on the charger.
  The charger will "see" the voltage of the good battery, and start
  providing a charge.
  After the batteries have been hooked up for about an hour, check
  to see if the AGM battery is slightly warm or hot to the touch.
  Batteries naturally become warm during charging, but excessive heat
  may be an indication that there really is something wrong with the
  battery. Also discontinue the process if you hear the battery
  "gassing"—a hissing sound coming from the safety valves. If it's hot
  or gassing, STOP CHARGING IMMEDIATELY!
  Check back every hour to see if the AGM battery has charged to
  10.5 volts or above. If it has, disconnect the charger from the wall
  outlet and remove the good battery from the charger. Now, connect only
  the deeply discharged AGM battery to the charger. Turn on the charger
  and continue until the AGM battery reaches a full charge, or until the
  automatic charger completes the charge process. In most cases, the AGM
  battery will be recovered.

Car Battery won't charge after sitting for a Year

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