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Posts: 159
| Battery consists of sulfuric acid and H2O (hydrogen and oxygen which is water)
When a battery starts to discharge (specific gravity) the water will start to
seperate from the acid. It is the acid on the plates that cause corrosion which in
turn causes premature battery failure(or better known as sulfation). Sulfation is the formation of lead sulfate on the surface and in the pores of the active material of the batteries lead plates. If the sulfation becomes excessive and forms large crystals on the plates, the battery will not operate efficiently or at all. Common causes of battery sulfation are in incativity, operating in extreme temperatures and prolonged under or over charging. All batteries are self discharging. Inactivity will rob your battery of needed power. Monitor the state of charge when your battery is inactive for a long period of time and charge as needed. When electrolysis (inducing a charge) it is the seperation of the water and the acid causing hydrogen/oxygen to accumulate below the plates sparking and than causes a battery to explode. A GOOD battery charger is designed to charge your battery and then go into a float voltage condition maintaining a rated charge so discharging of a battery is avoided. This is also why the gel battery was invented due to it's ability to avoid retaining sulfuric acid on it's plates during discharge, and also during traveling it has been proved that the lead will actually flake off, and if enough lead flakes off it will form a conductor and short out that cell. Harley Davidson was one of the first to introduce the jell battery due to it's vibration characteristics of their engine. They could not get one year out of their wet batteries, that is why they went to the gel cell. I have 5 AGM batteries on my boat for 4-1/2 years always plugging in
the chargers 24/7/365, and under a battery load test, every battery is still within
spec. I highly doubt I have 5 of the only perfect batteries in the world.
Hope this helps. Just my 2 cents
Edited by kurtg 4/23/2008 9:07 PM
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