At BMS all of our car batteries online are covered under a warranty between 4-5 years, this can be found under the specifications on the product page. This warranty covers all faults caused by manufacturing or materials. As batteries are a perishable good there are a few things that can cause the battery to become faulty due to misuse and these are not covered under warranty.
What isn’t covered under warranty
Over discharge – All starter batteries need to be kept above 50% state of discharge, 12.1V. If a battery is discharged past this state then sulfation will start to occur. You can read more about sulfation from our blog, “How do I prevent my car battery from going flat?” If you file a warranty claim and that battery is measuring below 12.1V then this unfortunately won’t be accepted. Over discharge can be caused by any parasitic drain from the vehicle, most commonly interior lights being left on. It can also be caused when you don’t allow the battery to be fully charged by the alternator, find “deep or over cycling” below to read more about this.
Incorrect application – The car batteries recommended by our registration finder are equal to or above manufacturer specification. Fitting a smaller, less powerful or the incorrect type of battery for your vehicle will result in a shortened lifespan and premature failure.
Wear and tear – Every battery has a finite number of cycles that it can go through before it loses its active mass, and in turn its capacity. Vehicle with high uses such as buses, minibuses, taxis and trucks will often put a battery through this finite number of cycles over a much shorter amount of time, causing a battery to reach the end of its life after only 12-24 months. Due to this batteries used for these applications will have a shorter warranty period. More details on this can be found here.
Physical damage – Any damage that occurs to the battery terminals or casing during fitment will not be covered. This includes the battery being dropped, connectors being hammered onto the terminals or if any connectors are not properly fastened. If your battery is damaged upon arrival then we need to be notified within 48 hours to rectify this.
Overcharging – If a battery is charged at an excessive current or voltage then it may overheat and the electrolyte inside will start to evaporate. This overcharging will cause an accelerated break-up of the active mass of the plates and the battery will lose performance. This is usually very obvious as there will be a strong smell of Sulphur (rotten eggs) when charging the battery. When off charge the acid levels will be low and there may be a black coating on the filler caps. You can read how to appropriately charge your battery from our “How do I prevent my car battery from going flat?” blog.
Deep or Over Cycling – Every time you start your car you will be using a percentage of the battery capacity to turn over the engine. This takes the alternator about 20 minutes to put this charge back in. If your engine is being switched on and off frequently or if you are making frequent short trips then the battery won’t be receiving a full charge and ultimately will cause sulfation to build up on the interior plates, which is not covered under warranty.
How do I claim under the warranty
If you believe that your battery is indeed faulty and does not fall under one of the above factors not covered then you will need to fill out our warranty claim form to be approved by our customer support team. You can request this by emailing [email protected].
Along with this you will be requested to have the battery tested. You can get the battery tested from Halfords, Kwik Fit or some local garages and this needs to show the voltage and the cold cranking being measured from the battery. Once you have this test report simply take a photograph of it and send it through with the warranty claim form.
If the battery voltage on the test report measures below 12.1V then this won’t be approved as a warranty claim. For a faulty battery we would see a voltage measuring above 12.1V and a cold cranking below what it is rated at.
For example, a test report for a battery accepted under warranty may look like:
Voltage: 12.5V
Cold Cranking Rating: 600CCA
Cold Cranking Measured: 230CCA
I think my battery has a down cell
In some circumstances a battery measuring below 12.1V may still be accepted under warranty and this could be down to one of the cells in the battery failing. Car starter batteries contain 6 cells measuring at 2.1V each, this is why a fully charged battery would measure about 12.6V. Another example of a faulty battery would be if one of these cells failed, in which case the battery would measure about 10.5V. If a battery test report came back measuring 10.5V then we may be able to accept it as a successful warranty claim.
To read further about our warranty claim process you can visit our warranty page here.
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