Re: (ET) FW: battery care

["Tim Humphrey" <hump evgrin com>]

Ahhh the ever popular risk management assessment....

What happens if I do not water this battery ??.

a. nothing
b. it sparks across the plates and explodes.

What happens if I water this battery with (relatively) unknown water??

a. nothing
b. It is contaminated with potentially damaging minerals and shorts
the battery out.


Given just those options and information, I would agree with your decision.

However, if the electrolyte was still slightly over the plate tops,
then I would have done nothing until returning home.

You were only in danger if the plates were exposed. Do you keep it on
a maintainer when not in use? I had a motorhome once that was left
plugged in to shorepower all the time by the previous owner. When I
bought it, the 1 yr old house battery pack was completely bone dry.

-- 
Stay Charged! (but not overcharged!)
Hump

The most important substance needed to make a successful project is
the "glue" that makes you stick to it! -- Lee A. Hart

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu
> [mailto:elec-trak-bounces cosmos phy tufts edu] On Behalf Of Steve Welch
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 10:10 PM
> To: RJ Kanary
> Cc: Elec-trak
> Subject: Re: (ET) battery care
>
> No...I was away from home - on the road without many options.
>
> On Aug 7, 2008, at 10:05 PM, RJ Kanary wrote:
>
> > Depends on the mineral content.Ever have that water analyzed ?
> >
> > RJ
> >
> > Steve Welch wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> A quick battery care question:  I was camping last weekend with
> >> our  trailer.  It has a large 12v non-maint free house battery.
> >> I  happened to check the electrolyte & discovered it was lower
> >> than I'd  like.  Evidently I had missed it in my routine prep
> >> checklist.   Anyway, I tried a number of local stores looking for
> >> distilled water  to top it up, and surprisingly, found none.  I
> >> ended up using well  water filtered through a Brita carafe, as I
> >> didn't feel comfortable  letting it go till we got home.
> >>
> >> I have always used distilled for batteries...  Any harm in a bit
> >> of  non-distilled getting mixed in??
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance,
> >>
> >> Steve
> >> Alltraxed E20
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
> >> https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak
> >>
> >>
>
>
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