PITTSBURGH — AAA East Central says each winter a majority of the calls they receive are about dead batteries. Last winter, they responded to more than a quarter million battery-related calls and replaced around 60,000 batteries.
“Batteries typically go bad every 3-5 years,” said AAA Service Driver Phil Haley.
Phil Haley is a AAA service driver with Jeff Critchlow Auto Body. He’s already replaced 65 batteries in the first 21 days of Jan.2022. By 10 Friday morning, AAA East Central had already received 80 calls about dead batteries and more than 300 dead battery calls the day before. Kim Dudt placed one of those calls about her SUV she purchased about 4 years ago.
“Every so often when it was cold out, it took a little bit more to start and in the back of your head you’re like well you should get it checked,” said AAA Member Kim Dudt.
If your battery is more than 3 years old, AAA suggests getting it checked sooner rather than later.
“You may have a problem that you’re not even aware of,” said AAA East Central Spokesperson Jim Garrity. “The summer sun breaks down the battery and it’s a really cold morning that actually kills it.”
Haley says charging the battery can only get you so far.
“As they get older, they don’t take a charge like a good one or charge for as long,” said Haley. “So if you have an older battery in your vehicle you can run it for an hour after you get it jumped, but that doesn’t always ensure. If it’s bad, it’s going to die again.”
When it gets cold like this, Haley suggests starting your car up at least once a week for 30 minutes or more and start your car earlier on a cold morning in case you need a little extra time to deal with a dead battery. AAA says they received a majority of the dead battery calls before 7 a.m. as people are trying to get to work in the morning.
This browser does not support the video element.