Mike Yu, who’s been running Midtown Auto Service on Almeda Road for 25 years, sees a surge every summer in cars that just won’t start due to the heat.
“People usually blame the cold for killing batteries, but let me tell you, it’s the heat that’s the real battery killer,” Yu said.
Now, Rob Milstead from Texford Battery Company, just a stone’s throw away from the University of Houston, dug a bit deeper. He talked about how high temps mess with not just your car’s battery, but also those in your phone and laptop.
“Heat basically puts your battery on a slow burn,” he said, explaining that heat screws up batteries, causing them to fail.
A quick Google tells you that car batteries usually last three to five years, right? But Yu tells us the heat in Houston can slash that time by a third. Ouch.
Ideally, a car battery likes temperatures of 90 to 110 degrees, but here in southeast Texas, they’re often dealing with a scorching 140 degrees.
Milstead added that our phones and laptops work best in comfy temperatures of 70 to 75 degrees.
Sadly, both agree there’s not a lot we can do to shield our batteries from the heat, but they did suggest a couple of tricks. Yu says pointing a fan at your car’s radiator when it’s parked might help. Who knew?