Disclaimer: I don't know a lot about the technical aspects of batteries, nor
do I claim to !

I have three group 27 batteries and a 3 stage charger that stays on 24/7.
I'm guessing the charger does pretty well at adjusting it's rate, as I find
I only need to add a very small amount (one squirt or two from a bulb) of
liquid to the batteries every 6 - 8 weeks or so. I was using distilled
water as recommended but it occurred to me that, at some point, the battery
would have all water and no electrolyte left. I'm sure I'm flawed in my
thinking here, so enlighten me.

So anyway, I've taken to stoping by Sears and picking up the small
containers of electrolyte (they're cheap enough) and topping off with them.
Am I doing damage ? A good thing ? Makes no difference ?

thanks

jim bailey

Jim-
All reputable flooded cell battery manufacturers will warn against adding
electrolyte...only add distilled water.
Regards-
Charlie

Bad idea. If you added quite a bit, you might actually have to fully charge
them, dump the elextrolyte out, and dilute it back down to the correct
specific density.

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"Jim Bailey" wrote in message
m...
Disclaimer: I don't know a lot about the technical aspects of batteries,
nor
do I claim to !

I have three group 27 batteries and a 3 stage charger that stays on 24/7.
I'm guessing the charger does pretty well at adjusting it's rate, as I
find
I only need to add a very small amount (one squirt or two from a bulb) of
liquid to the batteries every 6 - 8 weeks or so. I was using distilled
water as recommended but it occurred to me that, at some point, the
battery
would have all water and no electrolyte left. I'm sure I'm flawed in my
thinking here, so enlighten me.

So anyway, I've taken to stoping by Sears and picking up the small
containers of electrolyte (they're cheap enough) and topping off with
them.
Am I doing damage ? A good thing ? Makes no difference ?

thanks

jim bailey

Jim:

When a battery is overcharged it "gasses" or some say "boils" the water
away. The later term is very incorrect. What happens if the battery is
overcharged (and all battery chargers overcharge a little bit) is that the
extra voltage above the cell voltage is breaking down the water (H20) into
hydrogen and oxygen. That is the gas bubbles you see. To replace the lost
water, you add water only.

Do not add electrolyte, because as others have already said, you will be
increasing the electrolyte concentration more than is desirable.

So, ONLY ADD DISTILLED WATER.

David

Thanks to everyone who replied ! Great information - I get it now...

Hopefully I haven't put enough in there yet to cause damage - what would the
symptoms be ?

jim

"djmarchand" wrote in message
news
Jim:

When a battery is overcharged it "gasses" or some say "boils" the water
away. The later term is very incorrect. What happens if the battery is
overcharged (and all battery chargers overcharge a little bit) is that the
extra voltage above the cell voltage is breaking down the water (H20) into
hydrogen and oxygen. That is the gas bubbles you see. To replace the lost
water, you add water only.

Do not add electrolyte, because as others have already said, you will be
increasing the electrolyte concentration more than is desirable.

So, ONLY ADD DISTILLED WATER.

David

On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 12:06:42 GMT, "Jim Bailey"
wrote:

Disclaimer: I don't know a lot about the technical aspects of batteries, nor
do I claim to !

I have three group 27 batteries and a 3 stage charger that stays on 24/7.
I'm guessing the charger does pretty well at adjusting it's rate, as I find
I only need to add a very small amount (one squirt or two from a bulb) of
liquid to the batteries every 6 - 8 weeks or so. I was using distilled
water as recommended but it occurred to me that, at some point, the battery
would have all water and no electrolyte left. I'm sure I'm flawed in my
thinking here, so enlighten me.

You never need to add acid to any battery. When a battery is charged,
the H2 in the H2O is converted to hydrogen gas, which bubbles up and
is exhausted out. As the electrolyte gasses, and the level drops, the
acid concentration INCREASES not decreases, until we add DISTILLED
WATER ONLY to the cells to control it.

When someone doesn't replace the water, the concentrated acid that
only covers the bottom half of the plates can now eat away the bottom
of the plates it touches FAR better than the maintained battery could.
So, it eats away the plates so bad it eats holes in them, that cannot
be recharged.

You can get a lot more out of a battery by increasing the amount of
acid in them, probably DOUBLING its capacity for ONE discharge! But,
the acid content in the electrolyte PROTECTS the plates from EROSION.
If there's so much acid in the cell that it eats away the edges and
makes holes in the plates before the cell goes "dead" from running out
of acid, the concentration of Lead Sulphate in the electrolyte starts
crystalizing and falling out of the intensely saturated solution.
Once lead sulphate has precipitated, it cannot be recovered. Also,
once the plates are "eaten away", the surface area of the total of the
plates drops and IT cannot be recovered. The trick is to have just
enough acid to eat away the SURFACE of the plates without eating away
the CORE of the plates before we run out of acid. Running out of
acid, not plates is when a battery cell goes "dead" and its voltage
drops because its internal resistance goes way up without acid. The
solution doesn't saturate and little lead sulphate crystalizes and
falls out of suspension, so the charger can force off the lead into
ions that rebond with the lead plates and we can get ALMOST back to
the previously charged condition, ready to be discharged again. Every
discharge cycle loses some plate surface to sulphation. Really DEEP
discharges because there's too much acid in the cells allowing it
REALLY loses a lot of lead and the plates shrink fast!

Don't add acid unless it's to balance cells and you know what you are
doing.

So anyway, I've taken to stoping by Sears and picking up the small
containers of electrolyte (they're cheap enough) and topping off with them.
Am I doing damage ? A good thing ? Makes no difference ?

Yes, you're simply ruining the batteries by loading them with acid.
They'll keep discharging further into unrecoverable oblivion and if
you took it apart you'd see big, unrecoverable holes eaten into the
plates.



Larry W4CSC

Maybe we could get the power grid fixed if every politician
regulating the power companies wasn't on their payrolls.