How Long Do Car Batteries Last UK

Introducing How Long Do Car Batteries Last UK

Around the world, battery lifespan varies a lot. In some countries, there are local brands that are cheap and not so well made. Temperature plays a huge role, too.

Different types of car battery have different potential lifespans, for example a AGM batteries should always last far longer than a traditional lead acid batteries.

Then there’s how you treat the battery. Each of these factors plays a significant role in how long it’s likely to last.

By the way, we’ve also asked and answered: how long does a car battery last without driving?.

The Brand

No matter what brand you choose, if you check the reviews you’re going to see some complaints. You’re going to see people saying it’s a waste of money, didn’t work well from the start. That’s the case for ALL battery brands.

Understand that traditional lead-acid batteries have some inherent flaws that cause them to degrade if they are treated a certain way. The way some people use their car battery is ill-matched to how the car battery wants to be used.

We’ll go into that more on the ‘How You Treat Your Battery’ section. The point is that even the best battery brand can’t cope well with poor treatment.

In the UK, we’re lucky that the brands available at the major automotive retailers are solid. As you may expect the components and build quality of the major global brands like Exide, Bosch, Varta and Yuasa are superior to the smaller battery brands. But you’ll still find plenty of people talking on forums about how they got 6 years and counting out of an eighty quid Lion battery or Powerline battery.

Temperature

Members of the Car Battery Geek team have experience of Arizona, in the USA. Meeting with fleet owners there, they were told that the fleet owners were getting as little as one year out of their batteries. As you can imagine, they weren’t overjoyed about this battery lifespan!

The lesson to be learned is this: no matter the quality of the battery or how well you treat it, if it’s constantly subjected to high temperatures of 30 degrees plus, then it will die pretty darned fast.

So, if you’re joining us from the UK, think yourself lucky. There’s nothing you can do if you live in a hot climate to improve battery lifespan. In the UK, our climate is pretty cool. It’s neither exceptionally hot nor exceptionally cold (just the occasional foray into both).

This moderate climate is certainly what batteries want. As a result, the only way you’d get as little as one year out of a battery is if it’s a dud from the start, or if you treat it exceptionally badly and consistently leave it discharged for a very long time.

Battery Type

AGM batteries (here’s how to charge AGM batteries) will last longest, followed by EFB batteries, then traditional/normal lead-acid batteries.

Normal lead-acid batteries

They have some inherent weaknesses, which result in weakened performance over time, and result in their eventual failure.

These weaknesses are:

1. the electrolyte (battery acid and distilled water mixture) within the battery becoming less well mixed over time. This lessens the battery’s ability to store charge and deliver power to the car. This is called acid stratification.
2. lead sulfate developing on the battery plates, which weakens the electrolyte and decreases the contact between the battery plates and the electrolyte, which means less of the power-producing chemical reactions can happen. This is called sulfation.

EFB batteries

These batteries (such as 100 EFB batteries) also suffer from sulfation and acid stratification, but significantly less so than normal lead-acid batteries. They have several design improvements that increase their resilience. Some of these are:

1. Lead plates have a special carbon additive

This results in improved DCA (Dynamic Charge Acceptance), so EFB batteries have better ability to deal with lower states of discharge. Therefore, they suffer less badly from sulfation.

2. Improved grid structure – more plates and they’re thinner

This allows for improved transfer of electrons and so higher voltage.

3. Polyester scrim

This fleece-like material holds the electrolyte in place more effectively, and thus reduces the likelihood and severity of acid stratification occurring. That’s because the scrim makes it easier for the sulphuric acid and distilled water to remain fully mixed.

4. Internal components harness vehicle movement

EFB batteries structure uses the inertial movements of the battery when the vehicle is moving to improve electrolyte mixing. This also decreases acid stratification.

As a result of these improvements, EFB batteries are more resilient and last longer than traditional flooded batteries.

AGM Batteries

These type of batteries have their electrolyte absorbed in glass mats. Since they don’t have free-flowing electrolyte, the electrolyte always remains well mixed. So they don’t have ANY acid stratification; they’re completely resistant to that problem.

Therefore, one of the main reasons for degrading performance and failure of a vehicle battery is entirely solved by AGM batteries.

AGM batteries also have the following major advantage over other lead-acid battery types:

Greater pack pressure resilience

What does that mean? Well, all lead-acid batteries have plates made from lead and lead oxide. These plates have active material that allow for the chemical reactions which store and deliver power. This active material sheds over time, in all lead-acid batteries.

However, AGM batteries can withstand pack pressure to a greater extent than any other battery. As a result, their active material sheds significantly less.

This means increased cyclic durability – so AGM batteries can go through many more charge-discharge cycles than other batteries, so they last much longer!

This resilience also makes them more resistant to the vibrations that inevitably come with moving vehicles. Flooded/traditional lead-acid batteries suffer badly from this vibration and degrade faster, but AGM batteries are better equipped to withstand these vibrations. That’s yet another reason why AGM batteries last longer.

For just one example, the top 096 batteries on the market are AGM type.

Battery capacity in Amp Hours (Ah)

By the way, you’ll also want to make sure you get the right size of Ah battery.

We’ve written extensively about how many Amp Hours is the car battery you need.

How You Treat The Battery

Lead-acid batteries want a very specific type of treatment. They want to be charged fully with a nice, high voltage and amperage (but not too high). Then after discharging to 50% (and no more!), they’ll want that same full charge to 100% again.

Notice anything? That it’s completely unrealistic and it’s very rarely what they’ll actually get? Well, yes.

Factors that decrease car battery life

1. Mainly using it for short journeys

If you only use your car occasionally for short journeys, it won’t be getting a full charge. Leaving it short of 100% full charge over time, will lower the maximum charge the battery can achieve.

So for example, if it only ever reaches 75% charge, that 75% becomes the new maximum charge it can achieve. This is called the “memory” of the battery. In reality, this is because being regularly left in states of partial discharge, have causes sulfation to develop on the battery plates, and the lead sulfate has become hard and remains encrusted on the plates.

For more on this, we’ve done the internet’s Ultimate Guide to Battery Reconditioning.

So just remember batteries are cruel, harsh sods, they never forget!

The solution:

Go for a longer journey once a week, for a few hours. If not, you should certainly use a battery charger to top it up to full charge. Get a desulfator-charger (here are the best car battery chargers in the UK for 2023, which will also remove the sulfation that has built up on the battery plates. Finally, use a desulfator (here’s a review of the best desulfator, F16 Pulse King), which will prevent any sulfation from ever forming in the first place.

2. Leaving the car unused for extended periods of time

Your car battery doesn’t like being left alone for too long. If it’s left in a partially discharged state, lead sulfate will form on the battery plates. Sulfation (which is the name for the process of the lead sulfate gathering on the plates) is just the natural chemical process that happens no matter what you do, with lead-acid batteries. But it’s accelerated and worsened if the battery isn’t used.

Many people found out how much their batteries dislike being neglected during the lockdowns in the recent pandemic. They didn’t use their car for several weeks, and found that when they tried to use it, it wouldn’t start. Some people even idled (here’s does idling a car charge the battery) The reason is that the discharged state resulted in sulfation.

So be aware that no matter the quality or type of battery you buy, if you treat it in ways it doesn’t like, it’ll punish you with a shorter lifespan.

The solution:

Use a battery charger (the best one is the CTEK MXS10) to top up the battery at least once per week, and attach a permanent desulfator to prevent sulfation ever happening.

Summing Up How Long Do Batteries Last UK

So then, we’ve told you all the factors that affect how long batteries will last. Now, let’s give you a guide on how long you can actually expect, really answering our topic ‘How Long Do Car Batteries Last UK’.

Firstly, if you’re in the UK, you’re already doing a lot better than many other countries. With our mild climate, you’ll get much longer lifespan than people in hot countries.

Most people can expect 3-6 years from their car battery.

It’ll be closer to 3 years if it’s a lower cost brand AND you don’t treat that well, perhaps leaving it discharged too often AND never desulfating the battery with a desulfator-charger or desulfator device.

You can realistically expect 6 years or even more (even as much as 10 years) if you buy a higher quality brand AND you treat it well, not allowing too much time in a discharged state AND you use a desulfator-charger, and especially if you use a desulfator.