Interesting. George Peroni at Hydrocap says to remove them before
equalizing. If they get to hot to touch either a cell is bad or you are
charging to hard. Peroni is an odd bird. If you both have the time he
will talk your ears off. Reminds me a lot of Mr. Surrette. I have had
the privilege of receiving sermons from both. :-)

Peroni takes a different position about equalizing. He claims that it
is not needed with modern 3 stage chargers and actually reduce service
life.

Jim Woodward wrote:

Surrette, says that they work fine and solve all problems, even during
equalization. Certainly if they don't work during equalization, they're
worth less (not "worthless", just "worth less").

I guess I trust Surrette -- the family has been making boat batteries for a
long time -- but I'll still have a vent above the battery box. I saw a
Hinckley 70 in Bermuda in 1996 that was going back to Maine to be repaired
after a battery explosion. They were gel cells, mounted under a bunk, with
no vent. Wasn't a pretty sight. Lucky there was no one in the stateroom at
the time. Even gel cells need venting.



--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

This was old man Surrette's son, IIRC, but they were cast out of the same
mold. Maybe it's genetic?

I only know what I read in Nigel Calder and learn from conversations with
people like Surrette and here. I certainly don't equalize blindly, only if
the hydrometer or a voltage test tells me that the cell voltages are
unequal.

It seems illogical, though, to put on caps to conserve precious distilled
water and then take them off for an operation that you know wastes a lot of
it. (Distilled water is easy to get in the USA, but try finding it in the
boonies....)


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


..
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:K3srb.12618$62.7550@lakeread04...
Interesting. George Peroni at Hydrocap says to remove them before
equalizing. If they get to hot to touch either a cell is bad or you are
charging to hard. Peroni is an odd bird. If you both have the time he
will talk your ears off. Reminds me a lot of Mr. Surrette. I have had
the privilege of receiving sermons from both. :-)

Peroni takes a different position about equalizing. He claims that it
is not needed with modern 3 stage chargers and actually reduce service
life.

Jim Woodward wrote:

Surrette, says that they work fine and solve all problems, even during
equalization. Certainly if they don't work during equalization, they're
worth less (not "worthless", just "worth less").

I guess I trust Surrette -- the family has been making boat batteries
for a
long time -- but I'll still have a vent above the battery box. I saw a
Hinckley 70 in Bermuda in 1996 that was going back to Maine to be
repaired
after a battery explosion. They were gel cells, mounted under a bunk,
with
no vent. Wasn't a pretty sight. Lucky there was no one in the stateroom
at
the time. Even gel cells need venting.



--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

try rainwater, try carrying 2 gals of distilled water, try stream
water in rural areas, try carrying a handheld tds meter to test all
your water even ro watermaker water. I've been all over the boonies -
maybe hard to find in high dry deserts - so carry water.


It seems illogical, though, to put on caps to conserve precious distilled
water and then take them off for an operation that you know wastes a lot of
it. (Distilled water is easy to get in the USA, but try finding it in the
boonies....)

So were can you even buy distilled water anymore. The supermarkets
have stopped carrying it. What is an alternative?
--

Buy a TDS meter for $29 or less and test water before putting in $$$
batteries - this one I have and works great -- I don't know where I
got it from but this place is as cheap as any

http://www.automatedaquariums.com/h_tds1.htm

BTW - lots of aquarium stuff is useful and cheaper than "marine" stuff

My distilled water in So Cal is .99 per gal and measures 1 ppm TDS

Got it from the 99cent store



On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 21:08:06 GMT, Marc Auslander
wrote:

So were can you even buy distilled water anymore. The supermarkets
have stopped carrying it. What is an alternative?

Marc Auslander wrote
So were can you even buy distilled water anymore. The supermarkets
have stopped carrying it. What is an alternative?
--

Odd. Every grocery store in this area carries it, in the "bottled
water" section. Wherever ironing must be done, distilled water should
be available.

Marc Auslander wrote
So were can you even buy distilled water anymore. The supermarkets
have stopped carrying it. What is an alternative?
--
Mark wrote
Odd. Every grocery store in this area carries it, in the "bottled
water" section. Wherever ironing must be done, distilled water should
be available.

Often carried in pharmacies as well. I think people like to clean their
contact lenses with distilled water.
I think department stores that have an automotive parts section which
includes batteries also sell distilled water. That's where I get mine from,
about $1 for 4L.

Our local auto store sells de ionized water to top up batteries. Is this
better than distilled?


Gordon Wedman wrote:

Marc Auslander wrote

So were can you even buy distilled water anymore. The supermarkets
have stopped carrying it. What is an alternative?
--

Mark wrote
Odd. Every grocery store in this area carries it, in the "bottled
water" section. Wherever ironing must be done, distilled water should
be available.


Often carried in pharmacies as well. I think people like to clean their
contact lenses with distilled water.
I think department stores that have an automotive parts section which
includes batteries also sell distilled water. That's where I get mine from,
about $1 for 4L.

My supermarket has both steam distilled and deionized, which is a functional equivalent.

--
Chuck Tribolet

http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/triblet

Silicon Valley: STILL the best day job in the world.


"Marc Auslander" wrote in message ...
So were can you even buy distilled water anymore. The supermarkets
have stopped carrying it. What is an alternative?
--

In article ,
"Chuck Tribolet" wrote:

My supermarket has both steam distilled and deionized, which is a functional
equivalent.


Bzzzzt, Wrong, would you like to try for what is behind Door No. 2???

Deionized Water is not the "Functional Equivelent" of Distilled Water.
You need to go back to High School and retake Chemistry 100 my friend.

Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @