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Larry

(Richard Casady) wrote in
:

And they make them so you can't add water. *******s.

I'm certainly not defending "them", but modern batteries use an alloy to
hold up the soft lead plates that replaced antimony we used to use.
During the charging cycle, the antimony supports reacted with the water
in the electrolyte to form an oxide of antimony and hydrogen gas which
used to bubble a LOT during the charging, consuming lots of water in the
process that needed constant replenishment.

Now that antimony is no longer used, the percolating only happens if you
try to charge them too fast, a condition most boaters are guilty of
especially sailors trying to run the diesel 8 minutes per day. So, the
"maintenance free" battery was created that will run, in a proper
situation, for several years with no water added to it....all during its
service life. The public demanded it. No battery lasts very long,
except the Nickel-Iron-Potassium Hydroxide "Edison" cell noone produces
any more because of the nickel pollution and awful cost. It was the only
battery that was fully recoverable, not self-consuming. My ham station
ran for years on a group of cells from an old telephone exchange that
were nearly 60 years old! The guy I gave them to in 1978 is still using
them, simply adding distilled water as needed as they do use water.

Battery companies don't need to design in some conspiracy into lead-acid
batteries. They destroy themselves quite nicely no matter what you do...
(c;

Larry
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