Battery Maintenance advice.

[lilredtdi]

Watched a bunch of videos on youtube for the proper way of adding water and epsom salts to top off battery.

Too much difference in methods for me to feel comfortable.

What do y'all do?

BTW- My truck starts great. I just replaced the GP's and controller and cleaned all of the battery and starter solenoid terminals. It was about 34 deg F here today and she fired up immediately after cycling GP's. Just want to properly care for my expensive batteries.

 

[Kalashnikov]

Suppose to add distilled water and fill up the cells IF it is serviceable.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Whats with the epsom salts? Never heard of such a thing putting that in a battery, not in all my 80 years. Steam distilled water is the only liquid to put in a battery if the cell cover pops off. If that type battery, check level about every month, oftener if lots of start stop or long cranking and high auxilliary use. Keep the tops clean, cable connectors tight and clean.

 

[RLDSL]

Emsom salts are used in ill fated attempts to desulfate batteries, in all the things ive read, you arent supposed to leave the stuff in while actually driving on it, its only supposed to be put in during a clean out charging and dumped and replaced with fresh acid. From all reports from battery companies, it really doesnt work, axcept as a short term fix, and the new acid probably has more to do with it.

 

[RLDSL]

In retrospect, a while back I went looking for the battery additives they used to sell in JC Whip-me and one under the Minnkota brand and thyve been removed from the market, aparantly because the things just dont work
Best way to get rid of battery sulfation is to not let it happen in the first place, by keeping a strong charge on the things, and setting a trickle charger on when not in use.
Ive learned my lesson and have an onboard trickle charger and try to remember to plug in when I'm not going to be using the thing for a bit

 

[lilredtdi]

Thank all of you for the insight.

Sometimes you should NOT research things on the web..........LoL

Before even searching, I said to myself; Just go get a 75 cent bottle of distilled water and top off to the measurement windows. That is what I shall do.

Anybody have any experience removing the covers from the sealed batteries? I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the tops are actually removable and can be topped off the way the ones are with removable caps. They are just made to *look* like the tops cannot be removed.

Makes sense to me if they are made of the same components perhaps the manufacturers made them supposedly serviceable so you could not extent their lifespan and have to buy new sooner.

 

[tanman_2006]

I wait until the batteries die then go get new ones. My only battery service techniques are battery blankets since heat kills and extra thermal wrap if the truck tows alot.

I typically get 4-5yrs out of mine OR they die under warrenty.

 

[rhkcommander]

With a great charger, 40a plus, and distilled water you can flush the crap up after a few tries. good to waken a bad battery to useable again, but it takes time. And probably won't be good as new but better than nothing. Done it on about 4. One lasted three months but that car had a bad alternator too IIRC. Other battery held a charge sofar for about 5 months but haven't had a load to it yet. Speaking of which I need to check it again. We have an old van that drained it and it was dead flat. a day of flushing, charging and it was back up to 12.6v and staying around there.

Its not a 100% reliable fix. if you pour the acid out of a battery its good to have lots of baking soda nearby. acid + base = water, salt to put it simply. if you spill some on yourself it can neutralize it.

most have plugs you can pop out. might want to wear eye protection too

 

[RLDSL]

On the subject of cooling, that got the gray matter churning ( that's always dangerous and I got to thinking it might not be a bad idea to scrounge a couple of those little fender vents off something and retrofit them up front near the batts on each side and attach some ducting to gat a little more cool air going across them ( might need to just poke duct tubes down under the core support or similar to prevent the side vents from just drawing hot air out across the batts just a thought

 

[yARIC008]

I have been using this thing...

http://www.amazon.com/Xtreme-Charge...&qid=1358696744&sr=8-2&keywords=xtreme+charge

So far it has worked great. The van has sat for maybe 6 months at it's longest stretch without starting and this thing has kept the batteries perfect, it fires right up. It seems to bring them up to about 13.1 volts or so and just kinda keep em there with a very low amperage. It says it emits some super high alternating frequency to desulfate the batteries too which I'm not sure if it's 100% true, but so far it seems to not be hurting anything.

The one i bought in particular said it was for parallel battery circuits, not sure exactly what would be different over just a single battery circuit in terms of the charger but it was about $10 more. I don't see that one on amazon right now. I probably just paid for a sticker and that was it.

Anyways, not exactly sure if that's what you were looking for/asking for... if you're just talking about maintaining your batteries that you use on a daily basis then I don't really think there is much out of the ordinary you can do except don't deeply discharge them often.

 

[icanfixall]

Steak distilled water is all we should use to top off a battery. The reverse osmosis water is not distilled water no matter what they tell you. Its filtered water and thats all...

 

[chris142]

I've tried the epsom salt hoping to make a dead battery work again. Don't work. Just keep them charged and don't let them get low on water. Thats all you can do

 

[fsmyth]

The thing you are after is EDTA, not epsom salts. Never heard of that - its probably some
idiot watching you-tube and mis-interpreting what he saw. EDTA works on some occasions
and requires a distinct regimen.
You will have much better luck in general with a good desulfator.
Desulfators have gained a bad rep in some circles, but that is because 1) the mullets that
are using them are expecting immediate results, or 2) they have managed to latch on to
one of the many almost useless products sold by that name.
Desulfators DO work. Invest the time to find out how, the time to investigate which are
decent and which are not, and become knowlegible on what to expect.. Some batteries
you will find to be beyond recovery. Some battery constructions are less able to be
rejuvenated. Proper maintenance is an issue. etc.

 

[Maverick1701]

Suppose to add distilled water and fill up the cells IF it is serviceable.

this is all I do...add distilled h20