General Battery problems?

[Sheepattack]

Hi - wondered if anyone can help?

I recently went to start my car only to find that the battery had gone flat. The car had been fine a couple of days before hand.

I just purchased a new battery, from a garage - it was a rather cheap reclaimed one for about £40. I put this in but stil lhad to bump start the car, which I drove for about 30 mins. I parked up and the turned the engine off and a couple of hours later checked it again and it started fine first time.
However the next mornign the battery had gone flat again . It keeps doing this - it wont hold the charge over night. Theres nothing on in the car - no radio, boot light etc and I'm assuming the cars mechaincally fine, i.e starter motor and the alternator as it will start again after I've used it for 5 mins. Do you think I just bought a crap battery, or could there be an underlying problem here?

Cheers for listening!
2002 1.2 Petrol Punto - 30000 miles on clock

 

[DaveMcT]

Go back and complain, they'll probably give you another.

Discharged batteries sometimes wont wake up again if they go down too low (like below 9V open circuit). You could try a recovery charger like an Optimate and see if that pulls it back.

 

[Sheepattack]

Thanks for the reply - I'm planning to take the battery back, I just wondered if there could be another cause for it not starting - is there a known or common problem here?

 

[DaveMcT]

Batteries dont like standing unused. They fur up with sulphates. Also plates can come loose or sediment builds up and shorts out the plates.

 

[jip0]

what whiteSei says is spot on

i would also recomend getting your altenator check to make sure thats not draining the battery

 

[19meza85]

i say its almost cetainly the alternator that has gone on it meaning it isnt recharging the power its using, a cheap easyish fix aswell, hoipe this helps ya