Have you ever added water to the car battery?
- Thread starter MoneyJohn
- Start date
In HOT climates I imagine you need to add water, colder climates you probably will never have to add water.
Used to back from late '70s to late '80s, no longer.
Ideally you need to check if level is low and how much to add and what concentration the fluid is and has to be. Then add distilled water and sulfuric acid.
Motorcycle batteries often come dry with acid mix in a separate container as they may become dead if stored (filled) for a year or longer without charging.
Ideally you need to check if level is low and how much to add and what concentration the fluid is and has to be. Then add distilled water and sulfuric acid.
Motorcycle batteries often come dry with acid mix in a separate container as they may become dead if stored (filled) for a year or longer without charging.
A big no on adding additional acid to FLA car batteries. Acid is NOT consumed during charge and discharge cycles. If additional acid is introduced to the electrolyte solution, the acid concentration will be greater than needed and the battery will just sulphate more quickly.
You didn't quite read it, I said ideally and I said to check concentration and adjust if necessary. Water doesn't get consumed, it evaporates and so does acid.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
I check them about every 12-18 mos and I too do not recall having to top off any batteries in years.
You are so right. Everyone always said and lots of us did, we used distilled water and tried to do all the things they said to do years back.
One day I was thinking about that with the water added to batteries and to radiators etc.... Then I thought back to my early young after school
times working in service stations. We had a regular hose pipe with a special low flow nozzle for adding water to radiators and even had this
pint sized plastic bottle with a small tip for adding water to batteries to avoid overfill or prevent splashing battery acid and water all over. We always filled the battery bottles from the plain city water pipes. Now a days most manufacturers call for certain types of coolant and lots of them
make sure to say on the packaging "pure coolant use - no water - do not mix coolant types and do not add water." Things change. Use plain
water or distilled water in a battery today and I doubt anything is affected. I am careful though with the radiators and make certain that I use the called for coolants and never add water. I usually keep a bottle or two of factory coolant in my shop but I hardly every have to add any coolant either. I am OCD and check the car tires , under the hoods etc at least 2-3 times a month. Easy when you dont have a job to be busy with or show up to every day.
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Why distilled vs bottle spring water?
Spring water is high in mineral content . Bad for batteries .
Neither of these are quite true. Hydrogen and oxygen are cracked apart from the electrolyte solution via chemical reaction and released. Very little water is lost to evaporation except in extremely hot weather.
Sulfuric acid doesn't evaporate or get used up, either. What happens over time is that sulfates from the sulfuric acid the solution eventually get permanently deposited on the lead surface of the negative plates, and the electrolyte loses acidity as a result. As the battery ages, if one adds additional sulfuric acid, it can give the battery a little kick, but it will just speed up the process of sulfate deposition on the negative plates and kill the battery all the quicker.
I see a bunch of 51 series batteries (Honda) that need to be topped off.
They're not much bigger than my lawn tractor battery.
In many cases the bracket makes it impossible to check without removal.
Used to sell Interstate batteries and the 51R's were a big mover.
They're not much bigger than my lawn tractor battery.
In many cases the bracket makes it impossible to check without removal.
Used to sell Interstate batteries and the 51R's were a big mover.
Some coolant is only available 50/50 premix, but if it's available as concentrate like original green, DexCool, and G05, I'll buy the concentrate and a 99 cent gallon jug of distilled water to mix it with. You get double the coolant for often less than $5 more.
By the way, Home Depot sells distilled water. It's near the sump pump backup batteries, since those are deep-cycle batteries and occasionally need water added. Makes me wonder why auto parts stores don't sell it.
If I'm wrong then thank you for the correction and detailed explanation.
Yeah once , nice dad memory when I was 16 my father showed me how. Never did it again.
Sorry if I came across as argumentative, my know-it-all tendencies flare up sometimes.
I did another battery investigation, this time at Canadian Tire. 100% of the batteries were maintenance free. Many had decals across the top but no evidence of cells that could be opened, some had non openable caps, and as a bonus one had a glowing green cell eye like the old AC Delcos. Enjoy.
No, and if I'm driving 50 miles a day and the battery is 8 years old, I'm replacing it in the first few hours it's giving me doubts.
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I'm going to say by my reply,you guys will figure out I'm an old Fart.Our batteries had screw in tops,we added distilled water carefully and transferred as needed with a bulb.I did this while servicing car,on trickle charger. You watched the activity, sometimes you could extend the battery life by water and level and knowing which cell was a bit weaker.A lil float bubble tester and it was all good.A little distilled water,to keep the level up to the ring,keeping the plates from drying out is how and I what I believe when I see removable caps
