While the extreme cold temperatures of late are tough enough to deal with, turning the key on in a car with a dead battery makes it that much worse.
Apparently, a number of residents from the area have found out that below-zero temperatures can zap their batteries, said the owners of a couple of towing services in the Bradford area.
At Donovan’s Towing on Minard Run, owner Donovan Sevrey said he has seen an increase in calls both from people with dead car batteries and those who have locked themselves out of their cars while warming up the vehicles.
“People let their cars warm up and they lock them, so we’ve done a lot of those today,” Sevrey said on Wednesday. As for the batteries, Sevrey noted, “When it gets cold like this, it takes a toll on a lot of stuff.”
He said for those who want to make sure their car batteries aren’t on the brink of dying, there are tests that local garages can conduct to determine if the device is weak. As for advice on avoiding the lockout, Sevrey said he always tries to keep an extra set of keys somewhere accessible, especially in the winter.
At Rain or Shine Towing on Derrick Road, owner Brian Schine said he, too, has been called out for cars with dead batteries and lockouts in recent days.
“The majority of vehicles (with dead batteries) are the smaller (four cylinder) vehicles … they put the smaller batteries in those and they can’t withstand the temperatures,” Schine explained. “If you have a smaller, four-cylinder sedan usually there is just enough power to get them started. If you have to crank them and crank them it kills them pretty quick.”
He noted the bigger pickup trucks, however, usually fare better with their batteries than the smaller vehicles.
“The best thing is to have them inside a garage” during the winter, Schine said of smaller vehicles. “If you don’t have a garage accessible, you want to make sure you have your battery fully charged. You can go out and start them up every few hours if you want to guarantee a start in the morning.”
He said those who own vehicles with diesel engines should also make sure to plug in an electric-powered block heater on extremely cold days and nights.
“You plug them in and that keeps the inside of the motor a little bit warmer, which starts them up easier,” Schine advised.
