Cold Killing Car Batteries

Local businesses benefit

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By Heather Hintze
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Story Created: Jan 19, 2012 at 10:08 AM AKDT

Story Updated: Jan 19, 2012 at 10:08 AM AKDT

While these cold temperatures may be taking their toll on your home or car, some businesses are reaping the benefits.

If you have an older car battery, chances are these cold temperatures killed it. Batteries Plus is just one business getting a financial leg up when the temperatures go down.

As the mercury drops, Batteries Plus employees get more efficient at changing out car batteries, in part because there are so many more orders.

Managers say they’ve seen quite a boost in business, with about 70 people per day looking for more juice.

The shelves won’t be bare for long – the store has an order for 11 tons of batteries, which managers expect will only last about six weeks if the cold spell continues.

At the downtown Army Navy Store, managers say they’re seeing more people who are ready to spend their cold, hard cash to keep warm. The Coast Guard was there stocking up on extra-warm gear to send to the North Slope, but it’s ill-equipped out-of-towners who are also bleeding green when the temperature drops.

So if it’s buying clothes to keep toasty or spending the extra dough to ensure your car works, people in Anchorage are shelling out at these sub-zero temps, whether they want to or not.

It’s not just Batteries Plus here that’s seeing an impact with the cold weather. We also talked to cab drivers today who say they’ve been very busy shuttling people to and from their homes because of dead car batteries.

 

 

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Matt said on Thursday, Jan 19 at 1:15 PM

Go down to NAPA and buy an onboard Battery charger and plug it in with your bolck heater and you will never have a problem

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brandon said on Thursday, Jan 19 at 12:53 PM

dorks they have had batterie blankets for ever lol

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Rossum76 said on Thursday, Jan 19 at 12:26 PM

Shannon that is a great idea. I work with GPS units for my job and batteries that would normally last a full day would seem to die after a couple of hours in -20 to -40 degree tempatures. So when changing them out I would notice that some of the batteries that had already been presumed to be dead after warming back up were reading 100%. We have block heaters for the engines and I'm surprised that we don't have something similar for our car batteries.

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shannon makinson said on Thursday, Jan 19 at 10:34 AM

i used to take my battery out of my car and bring it in the house!

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