house battery question

[Happyheart]

when checking the water in the house batteries, is it necessary to disconnect the batteries to do so. if not, does the electricity need to be disconnected first. please excuse my incorrect punctuation and non use of capital letters, my keyboard decided to act up on me. probably too many sticky fingers from my grandson. thank you in advance for your help.

[Dusty_R]

I've added Trik-L-Start to our mh and found that now our batteries go threw very little water.

[RedRollingRoadb]

Get a batteries watering system. https://www.flow-rite.com/ is one and you readily find it online.

[Chum_lee]

Happyheart wrote:
when checking the water in the house batteries, is it necessary to disconnect the batteries to do so. if not, does the electricity need to be disconnected first. thank you in advance for your help.

Unless you can't access the battery tops in their mounted location (to move/remove/inspect them) then NO don't disconnect them unless you have a specific reason to do so. In fact, disconnecting them would INCREASE the chances of causing sparks/shorts which could be . . . . . . problematic, . . . . if charging/discharging gasses are present in your battery bay.

Prior to working/servicing the batteries, DO shut off all major loads (including the engine, generator, and shore power) and any chargers.

Clean up (neutralize) any spillage when you're done. Water with baking soda works great, and, it's cheap.

Chum lee

[Happyheart]

Thank you all so much! Appreciate the help! have a blessed day!!

[Lwiddis]

I agree with BFL and always wear safety goggles.

[pianotuna]

Best practise, remove any charging source. Wait. Then do what you need to do to the battery bank.

As I got tired of laying in the snow, I've moved to AGM batteries.

[DrewE]

For me it is necessary, because the batteries are mounted under the entrance steps and the outer one must be removed to get access to the inner one (and the cables are far too short to do that without disconnection).

If physical access permits, there is no need to disconnect the wires physically. It is a reasonable idea to electrically disconnect or disable any charging and avoid heavy discharging, which often can be done all at once with the battery disconnect switch that most RVs have.

[ksg5000]

I always disconnect the shore power about half hour b4 doing any battery work - I only disconnect the battery if I have to remove the battery to inspect/add water.

[Tom_Barb]

Removed the caps, and vent prior to disconnecting anything.

[wolfe10]

Correct-- turn off all charging before checking.

Hydrogen gas is part of what is "bubbling". It is explosive if you mistakenly cause a spark.

So, yes, safer to turn off charging half hour or so before removing the caps.

Necessary-- likely not. But a pretty easy/cheap safety precaution.

[BFL13]

If you can hear the batteries bubbling, yes disconnect before removing the caps so you don't get splattered with acid, and holes in your clothes. If no noise, no need to disconnect before removing caps to check electrolyte levels.

When charging the batteries the levels will rise, so only fill to the bottom of the slots. That leaves room for the levels to rise. Otherwise if you overfill, they will spill over out of the caps when being charged.