Getting the most useful life from your forklift batteries is a big part of maximizing your return on investment. This all starts with making sure your motive power batteries are being properly serviced. Forklifts operate an average of eight hours per day and perform heavy duty tasks that cause significant wear and tear over time to both the forklift and its battery.
To ensure your forklift batteries receive proper care, it’s important to have the correct motive power tools for charging and battery watering as well as to allow for regular planned maintenance services. Here are a few tools you need to improve the safety and efficiency of your industrial batteries.
Forklift Battery Tools Your Warehouse Needs
Without the proper tools, your forklift batteries can’t be charged or watered effectively. Below is a list of the motive power tools your warehouse needs to properly maintain your forklift batteries:
- Battery status system: The Hawker BSS-40C is a critical battery monitoring tool for proper forklift battery management. Connecting directly to the industrial charger, the BSS-40C collects all recorded data on an industrial battery’s charge status for improved battery rotation, longer battery life, maximum run time, and increased productivity.
- Charger stand: Forklift battery charging stands keep charging areas organized and compact. All Hawker charging stands come in various models and are powder-coated and constructed from heavy-duty steel. Each model gives you the option of mounting it to the wall or your warehouse floor and can support several different industrial chargers, including the LifePlus MOD3, LifeSpeed MOD3 and the PTO MOD3 chargers.
- Battery watering system: Forklift batteries typically need to be watered once a week to perform at peak efficiency. Forgetting to water your batteries can cause them to become heavily damaged— leading to lower productivity levels and possibly making them inoperable. The Flow-Rite and Philadelphia Scientific watering systems are some of the most trusted in the market and deliver the results needed for your motive power batteries.
- Remote display: Hawker’s high-frequency remote charger are designed with cable lengths of 15 to 100 feet for chargers mounted out of reach or in a difficult location. This helps you know which charging unit is charging which specific forklift battery.
- Battery monitoring device: Want to receive forklift battery diagnostics in real-time to help maximize their performance and useful life? The Hawker Battery Boss WC is a compact, wireless battery monitoring device that monitors the parameters of your motive power batteries, including their:
- Battery voltage, capacity, and temperature,
- Electrolyte (water) levels,
- Number of charge cycles, and
- Total discharge time.
- Sequencer: If you own multiple forklifts, you will often have to charge multiple forklift batteries at once. The Hawker Sequencer is a charger control device allowing you to charge up to four motive power batteries at once and is available as a 4-port or 2-port unit. It also indicates when a particular battery is ready for use and operates on first-in first-out logic, reducing downtime and allowing your forklifts to maintain productivity while other forklift batteries continue to charge.
The data collected can be quickly downloaded to your PC or laptop and exported to be shared and viewed by others in your warehouse.
Why Proper Forklift Battery Service is Important
Forklift battery charging mistakes are a costly expense to your warehouse budget. They not only minimize your forklift batteries’ useful life, but they impact battery safety and efficiency levels as well. Using degraded industrial batteries can damage the forklift’s components, and while replacing your forklift batteries is necessary sooner or later, performing regular forklift battery service is the best maintenance strategy to keep them operating at peak efficiency.
Most industrial batteries have around 1,500 charge cycles and can last about five years before needing to be replaced (if charged once a day), so it’s best to avoid “topping off” your forklift batteries if they are at or above 70%. Charging your batteries more than once a day can cut their useful life in half and can lead to excessive sulfate buildup. The ideal range for opportune forklift battery charging is when they reach the 20-30% range.
Forgetting to water your forklift batteries and connecting them to a charger with an inappropriate charging voltage can all damage your batteries. These mistakes cost you money, time, and puts the safety of employees at risk. With proper forklift battery service and preventative maintenance, you can eliminate the risk of damage and costly repairs, while improving forklift and warehouse operational efficiency.
Do You Need Ongoing Forklift Battery Service and Maintenance?
Southern States Enterprises provides forklift battery and charging services from our trained and factory-certified technicians. We offer on-site and off-site industrial battery and charger repair and fully-stock our service trucks with an extensive selection of replacement parts and other motive power tools to meet your motive power needs. Some of the forklift battery services offered at Southern States Enterprises include:
- Road & In-Shop Services;
- Diagnostics & Repair;
- Battery Reconditioning;
- Planned and Guaranteed Service Programs; and
- Mobile/Remote Battery Washing.
Contact an SSE representative today to see how we can help improve the useful life of your forklift batteries for improved efficiency of your warehouse operations.
