ijk@hropus.UUCP (Ihor J. Kinal) (01/16/86)
Recently, my wife's car's battery started to fail to hold a charge real well. After getting a new battery, I took a look at the old battery: it's a maintenance-free Delco 50, about 6-7 years old. This battery has no old-style battery caps; instead, it has 2 plastic covers. Prying off these covers, I found battery caps that were glued on to the tops of the ceels, plus little holes to discharge charging gases. MOST of the cells were totally dry: IN FACT, I managed to get almost 2 quarts of water back into the battery. I'm not sure if the battery is salvageable - it still refused to take much of a charge, but I'll try hooking some lights to it and seeing how much capacity is left. THE POINT of this article, is that maintenance-free batteries can need water over their life-time. What can the typical consumer do?? I'm not sure, but here are some thoughts. 1). Buy only normal batteries, and make sure you add water periodically. Disadvantage: most top of the line batteries are now maintenance-free - if you want the added starting power, you can't get it. 2). Buy maintenance free batteries with open cells & covers. I have an 8 year old Sears Die-Hard with this construction. Unfortunately, most netters have had bad experiences with Die-Hards (I seem to be in a minority). And I don't know of any other maintenance-free batteries with such covers. 3). After the warranty on your battery is expired, you may want to consider taking the caps off (if you do, please be careful; wear eye-shields, etc, since battery acid is fairly strong stuff). You can probably glue the covers back on, or perhaps throw them away, and install individual battery caps. If your friendly auto store doesn't carry them, J.C. Whitney does. 4). The preceding applies ONLY to wet-type maintenance free batteries. A new type of battery is hitting the market, where the electrolyte is more paste type (e.g., the TORQUE STARTER). These can probably be recognized by the lack of such plastic covers (also, the TORQUE STARTER states it can be mounted in any position - you can't do that with other batteries, because the acid would leak out). I believe that Rickels (a store chain that may be local to NJ) has a CHAMPION battery on sale for $49.95; it looks like a paste job also. MAIN DISADVANTAGE of these batteries is their very limited warranty (1-2 years). I hope this article is of some help. Ihor Kinal ihnp4!houxm!hropus!ijk
paver@milano.UUCP (Bob Paver) (01/19/86)
If I could get 6-7 years of life out of any battery, I'd give it a decent burial and not worry about removing the caps!
essachs@ihuxl.UUCP (Ed Sachs) (01/20/86)
> Recently, my wife's car's battery started to fail to hold a charge > real well. After getting a new battery, I took a look at the old > battery: it's a maintenance-free Delco 50, about 6-7 years old. > I wouldn't complain about any battery that lasted 6-7 years. That's pretty darn good for any car battery (I usually feel fortunate if they outlive the 60 month warrantee). -- Ed Sachs AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, IL ihnp4!ihuxl!essachs
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (01/20/86)
In article <216@hropus.UUCP> ijk@hropus.UUCP (Ihor J. Kinal) writes: > >THE POINT of this article, is that maintenance-free batteries can >need water over their life-time. What can the typical consumer do?? Contrary to popular belief, opening a maintenance-free battery and adding water as necessary _does not_ void the warranty. While they don't need to be checked as often as other batteries, they should be checked periodically. This generally entails prying up plastic covers with a screwdriver or similar tool. All the usual precautions for working around batteries should be taken. I note that few manufacturers are making maintenance-free batteries any more. They're usually called low-maintenance now and are easier to service. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp(+)TTI 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Geniuses are people so lazy they Santa Monica, CA 90405 do everything right the first time. (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe