Eight Tips For Successful Forklift Battery Maintenance for Your Fleet
Thoughtful Operation and Forklift Battery Maintenance Will Increase the Useful Lifespan and Boost Your Fleet’s Efficiency
Your forklift fleet’s batteries are arguably the beating heart that keeps your forklifts running. And like the human heart, your forklift batteries need proper care, maintenance, rest and replenishment to keep them performing at an optimal level. Diligent forklift battery maintenance is a practice every fleet manager needs to embrace.
In this blog, we provide tips for managing your forklift battery inventory and maintaining it for peak performance and long life.
1. Rightsize Your Forklift Battery Inventory
If your warehouse or distribution center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you’ll need three batteries for each forklift: one to power the forklift, one to charge it, and one to cool it down. If your plant operates less than a 24-hour schedule, say two shifts, you’ll need two batteries for each forklift. Single-shift operation requires one battery per forklift.
2. Standardize Your Forklift Battery Inventory
Where possible, try to standardize on one type of battery that will fit into all or the majority of your forklifts. This will allow you to maximize the utilization of your battery inventory and reduce your battery inventory costs.
3. Implement a Battery Management/Maintenance Program
To get the longest life out of a forklift battery, it must be nurtured. This includes:
- Proper charging, neither overcharging nor undercharging the battery
- Taking a battery out of service when it reaches a depleted level, generally about 20% to 30%
- Inspecting the battery regularly for cracks, leaks, loose or corroded cables or connectors
- Keeping the battery clean and free from dirt and debris
- Maintaining electrolyte fluid levels and monitoring electrolyte strength
- Equalizing the battery regularly as prescribed by the manufacturer
The best way to organize all these battery maintenance and management tasks is through the use of an integrated battery management system such as M-Pulse FleetTM Software. M-Pulse Fleet allows you to enter battery usage and maintenance information to optimize the performance of your forklift battery inventory. It uses the data to tell you when a battery has reached the end of its lifespan and needs to be replaced.
4. Use the Correct Chargers
Lead-acid battery charging technology has grown by leaps and bounds. Smart chargers allow you to charge up your fleet’s batteries in the shortest time while avoiding overcharging and overheating. Check out M-Pulse’s selection of fast, efficient, and reliable smart chargers.
5. Designate Proper Battery Charging and Storage Areas
Your battery charging room should be clean, dry, temperate, well-ventilated, and equipped with proper battery-handling equipment. Employees should have proper personal protection equipment such as gloves, aprons, and goggles. Eye-wash stations, hoses and floor drains for washing down batteries that have leaked or overflowed are required.
6. Plan for Seasonal Demand
If you are in the retail business, a lot of your activities will take place a specified times during the year. You can plan for these times of peak demand by buying or renting forklift batteries when you need them. M-Pulse’s Quik Ship battery delivery program can provide you with the batteries you need–in a flash.
7. Invest in Proper Employee Training
Knowledge is power, and nowhere is that more true than in the operation and maintenance of forklifts, which are one of the major causes of industrial accidents. Although these tools are powerful and incredibly useful, they can be dangerous if not operated carefully. The same holds true for managing your forklift fleet’s batteries. Forklift batteries are very heavy pieces of equipment filled with corrosive liquids that require extreme care when being handled. Your staff needs to thoroughly respect and understand the proper procedures for removing, charging, cleaning, and reinstalling lead-acid batteries.
8. Partner with a Trusted Forklift Battery Specialist
M-Pulse’s national team of factory-trained technicians can help you keep your forklift fleet running at peak efficiency. Leave the battery maintenance to us. Our technicians can manage and maintain your forklift batteries–topping up fluids, inspecting cables and connections–and, using our M-Pulse Forklift Battery Maintenance Software, provide you with regular reports on the health and level of utilization of your forklift battery inventory to help you right-size that inventory.
When you need to buy or rent replacement batteries, let M-Pulse be your source. Our Quik-Ship Forklift Battery program can quickly deliver a replacement battery to your facility. We also back our batteries with a 5-year Warranty!
Need to buy or rent a new or reconditioned forklift battery charger? We can do that! And we do more than batteries! Do you want to outsource all of your forklift maintenance? Yup, we do that too.
Learn more about how M-Pulse can make your forklift fleet a model of efficiency. Contact our team today!