Left my gel battery in my IC this summer. Now what?

[RiverChuckNorris]

Yep, I'm an one-who-thinks-I-am-silly. I left my gel deep cycle battery in my IC (which I store outside) over the summer and just thought of it last weekend.

Couple questions to follow up: 1. Do I need to invest in a meter to check it (probably verify it's shot)? 2. Any suggestions on a replacement battery? 3. Does my IC charge the battery when we have the gen hooked up? (2011 8x16 ML edition IC)

Thanks for any info/suggestions.

[Hawg]

Why do you think it's shot?

[Nordern]

Bring it in to Fleet Farm and they can test for free it to see where you are at.

[RiverChuckNorris]

Why do you think it's shot?

Always been told you want to store batteries in a temp controlled environment occasionally trickle charging during prolonged periods of inactivity?

[brian6715]

I wouldn't worried about it, I am sure it wasn't great for the batteries but it shouldn't have killed them. Cold is much harder on them, IMO

[Hawg]

I bet you're just fine. Is it dead now, even that would surprise me if it wasn't hooked up to anything. Charge it up and try on something in your garage for a while.

[harvey lee]

I would guess also you should be ok, maybe minimal damage at best. charge it up and use it to see how long it will go. You may be surprised you may not need to go shopping.

My batteries stay in the IC all summer but I do plug the house in every month or so just to throw a charge into the batteries.

[ClownColor]

There shouldn't be anything wrong...i'd almist bet its still fully charged if you had it charged before storage. How many batteries are stored in boats all summer in warm garages? Gel batteries are awesome. Mine are fully charged even after 7 months of winter storage NOT on a charger.

[Ballyhoo]

I leave mine in my boat all winter. I make sure they are fully charged and they are fine in the spring. As long as there is not a draw on them they shouldn't go bad. I have no place to store them inside so I just leave them in the boat. I usually don't store the boat until late Oct and it is out in April.