profdant139
Southern California
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Joined: 11/14/2005
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I usually check my battery water every month. (These are group 31 flooded marine batteries from NAPA.). I almost never have to add any water.
I keep the batteries hooked up to a Battery Minder Plus, one of those pulsating things.
This summer and fall, due to some fairly serious medical issues in the family (but not my immediate family), I skipped my usual battery water ritual for about four months in a row.
When I checked them the other day, five of the cells on each battery were fine. On both batteries, the sixth cell (the one nearest the positive terminal) was down about a half an ounce -- almost not down at all, but still different from the other cells.
The specific gravities of the cells were uniformly good, according to my tester.
I'm not worried about this phenomenon, but it is puzzling. Why would one particular cell lose a tiny amount of water?
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Lwiddis
South of Lone Pine, California
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Half an ounce wouldn’t, doesn’t, concern me. I’m a Trojan guy...batteries and university. lol
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Ed_Gee
Central Oregon coast
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One cell using more water was the first sign I had of my wet cells going bad.....
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Lwiddis
South of Lone Pine, California
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Half an ounce?
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MEXICOWANDERER
las peñas, michoacan, mexico
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Like using a thermometer and finding temp at 98.7 F
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Ed_Gee
Central Oregon coast
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Let me rephrase - one cell starting to use more water than others was a very early symptom of battery starting to think about going bad...... not to say you don't have another year or so of good life. The fact that the SP of all cells was good and equal indicates nothing to be immediately concerned with.
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time2roll
Southern California
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I agree it is a sign of the cells getting out of balance. How old is the battery? Could yet have a long life ahead. Half ounce is hardly enough to lose sleep over. Probably get worse over the next six years.
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Gdetrailer
PA
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Joined: 01/05/2007
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Such obsession..
There is no "perfect" battery, every one will have cells which will vary how much water is used slightly, at the end of the day, 1/2 ounce is peanuts.
I don't dote or obsess over my batteries, I only check them ONCE A YR, typically in the spring before we start camping. This yr due to the virus, we didn't camp.. So, I didn't bother checking the water..
Recently decided to check to make sure TT is ready for winter I checked the water..
Took about 2 ounces per cell for a yr and half sitting on charge with my PD9160 with Charge Wizard.. I do not directly measure exactly how much water I added to each cell, I use store bought 16 oz bottles of water.. This yr only used ONE 16oz bottle over all six cells.. I add only enough to get close to the fill ring.
In my case, top of the plates were not exposed and that SHOULD be what you are concerned about.
Replaced my last set of GC2s at the 9 yr mark and they were using average of 4 ounces per cell (TWO 16 oz water bottles)and not holding as good of a charge as I wanted.
As long as you have a decent charging setup which drops to 13.2V your batteries will not use much water.
Your batteries are fine, don't sweat slight differences in water consumption, just don't allow the water to drop below the top of the plates and you are good to go for a long time.
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MEXICOWANDERER
las peñas, michoacan, mexico
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Ponder This Dept...
Ford motorcars as far back as 3 cell batteries almost always corroded the positive terminal on the positive grounded battery. I thought this may disappear when Ford electrical systems changed polarity and voltage in 1956, but it didn't. Tar top batteries did not change things. Remember pennies stuck in the tar? The days of baking soda followed by a glob of grease. And all batteries were deep cycle. Kids. Park on a grade with a young lady turn on the radio listen to the vibrator when the tubes were warming up and silently curse as crashes of lighting static screwed up Fats Domino or Chuck Berry. While the positive cable slowly corroded.
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BFL13
Victoria, BC
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Joined: 02/15/2006
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My battery book says charging is also an oxidation process that corrodes the positive plates with prolonged overcharging (as when the float voltage is a bit too high I guess).
The positive post is to the first positive plate in series in the battery, so would it get corroded more than the others and would that make for more gassing from its cell than from the others?
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