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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | I stored my batteries in the basement and charged them twice over the winter. I discovered this weekend one of the battery burped acid all over my floor. I’d say the puddle was about 1.5 ft in diameter. Cleaned it up with baking soda.
Is this battery bad? How the heck did this happen? They didn't tip over.
If you are curious, it was the generic fleet farm trolling motor battery.
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | Normally a result of over charging. I've seen it also on corroded cables |
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Posts: 53
| Had the same thing happen to my batteries last fall, pretty sure my charger cooked them. I've replaced the charger and the batteries. Had to clean up a bunch of it out of my battery compartment. Baking soda and water and all the dried up battery acid went away. |
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Posts: 5874
| Why did you store them in the basement? |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | Thanks for the info guys. I guess the problem was my new "smart" charger. It's one of those fancy chargers that is supposed to stop charging once the battery is full.
So is there anything I should do to fix the battery? Is losing some of the acid a big deal? Where can I get more to refill it if I need it? |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
You can refill it with distilled water. What is going on when you charge it is you are creating a chemical reaction between the lead plates and the water. Depending on how things are, it is worth a try, but I wouldn't expect it to be rock solid, and would be leery of the battery holding up when needed... Worst thing you can do is try...
Here is a link for a little reading on the chemical composition of lead-acid batteries. It lays out the chemical reactions that take place during discharge and charging. In your case, you are in a nutshell, looking to pull the acid back out of the plates. This is where you use distilled water to top off the battery...
Steve
Edited by VMS 4/29/2014 11:43 AM
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Posts: 153
| they sell acid at auto zone |
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Posts: 20
| When do you guys top off with distilled water? If you do it right before you recharge the batteries it can spill some out of the battery. If it is overcharged the inside of the caps you remove are usually black.
rw |
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