Charging Car Battery On Concrete Floor

There may be leakage across the terminals of a top post battery but that would be slight.

Charging car battery on concrete floor.

Cement and concrete floors provide a fairly good barrier between the car battery and extreme temperature changes that could otherwise cause damage to the battery cells. Naturally if a topic or concept is not very well understood people can fall prey to all sorts of rumors and myths that spread from generation to generation and the question of a car battery draining on a concrete floor is one of them. If it s acid spattered put it on somebody else s concrete floor or stick a board under it. The design of modern day batteries includes a hard plastic shell that eliminates the intake of moisture thus making the garage floor a great place to put your car battery.

A reader asked us to look into this myth because he was concerned about battery life in parking meters. Encased in steel an edison cell battery placed directly on a concrete floor would discharge more quickly than normal. Apparently he is under the impression that putting a car battery on a concrete floor would drain it. If a battery is clean you can safely put it on your concrete floor.

So here s the story. Before we dwell into the details the myth has some historical basis. These meters all use a 12v battery to either deliver main power or serve as a backup and these batteries sit on a sheet of steel set atop concrete or sometimes directly on the concrete itself.