Lead acid batteries - water levels
 

Hi,

Can someone give me a general rule of how high to fill lead acid
batteries with distilled water?

I've seen sources that say to follow the battery makers
recommendations, or to look for the fill line.

Neither is available in my case.

I assume that I should fill them 1/2 inch to an inch above the plates?

Your wisdom is appreciated - and I'll pass it on.

Thanks,

Mike.
Beaufort, NC

"beaufortnc" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

Can someone give me a general rule of how high to fill lead acid
batteries with distilled water?

I've seen sources that say to follow the battery makers
recommendations, or to look for the fill line.

Neither is available in my case.

I assume that I should fill them 1/2 inch to an inch above the plates?

Your wisdom is appreciated - and I'll pass it on.

Thanks,

Mike.
Beaufort, NC


My *guess* is that anything above the plates is fine, as long as you don't
overfill.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

Are you saying that the batteries do not have a fill line? Sometimes
there is a vertical slot in the filler hole and you fill up to the top
of the slot.

Doug
s/v Callista

"beaufortnc" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

Can someone give me a general rule of how high to fill lead acid
batteries with distilled water?

I've seen sources that say to follow the battery makers
recommendations, or to look for the fill line.

Neither is available in my case.

I assume that I should fill them 1/2 inch to an inch above the plates?

Your wisdom is appreciated - and I'll pass it on.

Thanks,

Mike.
Beaufort, NC

Thanks for the replies - I'd still appreciate other thoughts,

but, it leads me to another question that could serve the general good,

I've always heard that to overfill is bad, but what exactly is the
reason for that?

What harm is caused? - I know that you wouldn't want to fill so much
as to overflow and get the top of the battery wet, thereby giving
electricity a path.

But besides that, how does overfilling harm the batteries?

Thanks,

Mike.

I suppose that diluting the electrolyte is a possible problem. And as you
suspect, that having electrolyte being squirting out through the vents
is a problem.

Doug

"beaufortnc" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks for the replies - I'd still appreciate other thoughts,

but, it leads me to another question that could serve the general good,

I've always heard that to overfill is bad, but what exactly is the
reason for that?

What harm is caused? - I know that you wouldn't want to fill so much
as to overflow and get the top of the battery wet, thereby giving
electricity a path.

But besides that, how does overfilling harm the batteries?

Thanks,

Mike.

In the 'good ole' days', before maintenance free car batteries...you
would fill until the water level touched the bottom of the filler tube.
It was easy too see when this happened...that surface tension thing...

Actually, a typical battery filling device would stop filling when the water
reached the end of the tube. At least the one my grandfather had did.
In any case, liquid batteries are a dinosaur anyway, not worth the risk.

Doug

"Don White" wrote in message
...
In the 'good ole' days', before maintenance free car batteries...you would
fill until the water level touched the bottom of the filler tube. It was
easy too see when this happened...that surface tension thing...

On Tue, 17 May 2005 18:22:16 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote:

Are you saying that the batteries do not have a fill line? Sometimes
there is a vertical slot in the filler hole and you fill up to the top
of the slot.

Doug
s/v Callista

No - just fill to the bottom of the filler tube - leave the slots in
the tube open, so that gases generated during charging can escape.



--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

Thanks again for the replies,

My batteries do have the filler tube and the slots

Peter's reply makes a lot of sense with what I see on this end.

Thanks all,

Mike.