Another Battery Problem (won’t fully charge)

[Sammyslab]

I have a 22 Lariat with slightly over 8,000 miles. I don’t drive it much as you can see and it sits a lot in the garage. When I bought it new, it came with an H6 battery and the truck kept sending me texts that it was going into Sleep Mode and that I should drive it to build up the battery charge. This went on for a couple of years until it went out of warranty a couple of months ago when I was at the dealership for an oil change. I mentioned all this to them and asked about a larger H8 battery. They installed one but now I can’t get it to completely charge with my Battery Tender.
The original H6 would always top off with the Battery Tender after a day or so but this new H8 won’t after a week!! It’s never turned GREEN yet!
Is there something wrong with this new battery?

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[Porpoise Hork]

What type of charger is it and what is the battery's resting voltage? This needs to be checked about 60-90 minutes after the truck has been powered off as it may take that long for the various modules to shut down and battery to stabilize. If your battery tender is has a low amp output, it may not have enough umph to maintain the H8 and supply enough to the truck as well during the shut down cycle since the draw on the 12v system can by as much as 5 amps at times even after key off. Another thing to note is Ford set the default 12v State Of Charge to 80% (really bad on AGM batteries for longevity) and it may take a very loooong time to bring the H8 to full capacity with just a maintainer. You might want to update the SOC to 95-98% with Forscan and then charge the battery with a standard AGM charger like the Noco Genius 10 and let it complete a full optimization cycle.

If I have not driven mine for 4-5 days I'll use a Noco Genius 10 for the H7 and a Genius 5 for the aux batteries to bring the 12v SOC back up to 100%. I have also noticed that the Noco on the H7 will pulse green "optimization" for up to 12-14 hours once the primary charging cycle is complete.

 

[Sammyslab]

What type of charger is it and what is the battery's resting voltage? This needs to be checked about 60-90 minutes after the truck has been powered off as it may take that long for the various modules to shut down and battery to stabilize. If your battery tender is has a low amp output, it may not have enough umph to maintain the H8 and supply enough to the truck as well during the shut down cycle since the draw on the 12v system can by as much as 5 amps at times even after key off. Another thing to note is Ford set the default 12v State Of Charge to 80% (really bad on AGM batteries for longevity) and it may take a very loooong time to bring the H8 to full capacity with just a maintainer. You might want to update the SOC to 95-98% with Forscan and then charge the battery with a standard AGM charger like the Noco Genius 10 and let it complete a full optimization cycle.

If I have not driven mine for 4-5 days I'll use a Noco Genius 10 for the H7 and a Genius 5 for the aux batteries to bring the 12v SOC back up to 100%. I have also noticed that the Noco on the H7 will pulse green "optimization" for up to 12-14 hours once the primary charging cycle is complete.

Thanks for your reply. This is very helpful information. The only charger that I have is a Battery Tender 1.5 Amp. From what you have said, it sounds as though 1.5 amps isn enough.
I’ve looked into a couple of different chargers. My has one of the NOCO chargers and he seems pretty pleased with it.
I am an old fart and not familiar with Forscan so changing anything in the truck operating system would probably not get done by me. Not sure if the dealership would change it for me if asked but I could try.
Thanks again for your help!
Ron

 

[Porpoise Hork]

You're welcome sir. Happy to help. You're right that the maintainer at 1.5 amps is unfortunately not enough to overcome the parasitic draw from the system and charge the battery as well. The Noco Genius 10 (only $10 more than the 5) would be ideal in your situation as the 5 while being able to charge the battery up may overheat causing it to reduce output or intermittently stop charging allowing it to cool down. I noticed this behavior on my Genius 5 when using it on the H7 which prompted me to get the 10. You can also get their quick connect battery leads making it simple to connect the charger when needed.

For Forscan, the dealer won't touch it. Your best option if you want to have changes made but don't feel comfortable with making the changes is to post up in the regional section to see if someone on your area could do it for you. https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/forums/southeast-usa.63/ Chances are pretty high that someone close to you would be happy to help out another forum member.

If you do ask for help with Forscan you might want to also look in the main Forscan thread to see if there's any other quality of life changes you might want done as well such as disabling the double honk or enabling Bambi mode where your fog lights stay on when the high beams come on for example. That way you can have several things done at once.

 

[SemperVee]

Just get a 4-6 amp charger from amazon and hook it up. I deal with this issue all the time with 3 agm batteries to deal with. I barely driver my 22 5.0 also so I routinely use the amazon charger to keep abreast of the FORD battery management way of doing things.

 

[Dadpool]

I second changing the parameters in Forscan, if you can. Had a similar issue on my 22 Ranger until I changed the percentage to 95%. Good luck!!

 

[Sammyslab]

I have a 22 Lariat with slightly over 8,000 miles. I don’t drive it much as you can see and it sits a lot in the garage. When I bought it new, it came with an H6 battery and the truck kept sending me texts that it was going into Sleep Mode and that I should drive it to build up the battery charge. This went on for a couple of years until it went out of warranty a couple of months ago when I was at the dealership for an oil change. I mentioned all this to them and asked about a larger H8 battery. They installed one but now I can’t get it to completely charge with my Battery Tender.
The original H6 would always top off with the Battery Tender after a day or so but this new H8 won’t after a week!! It’s never turned GREEN yet!
Is there something wrong with this new battery?

Update: I took your suggestions and bought a 5 amp charger/maintainer. Works great! Topped the battery off in no time at all!!
I don’t know how to do the reprogram so that’s out of the question for me unless I can find someone close to do it for me.
I honestly think that I can get one of the techs at the dealership to help if I ask. They like me there because I buy them all breakfast when I take my truck in for an oil change or for recall.
In fact, I stopped at the dealership this morning to check on a battery blanket for this larger H8 battery and while I was getting ready to leave, the assistant Service Manager caught me to tell me that there has been a new recall just issued for the Trailer Brake Module of which I just had mine replaced recently. He said that it was only a reprogram but it’s a 40 mile trip there and back for me to get done. Oh well!!

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