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Watering batts.

W

William P.N. Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nelson Gietz said:
I've been watering up the battery bank of golf cart batteries on my
system for the winter.
Was wondering how much to fill. The fillers are cylindrical, with two
slots up the sides. I've been filling 'til I see the miniscus... that is,
the water contacts the bottoms of the cylindrical tube. I'm assuming the
slots are "breathers" so when the water rises due to unreleased bubbles on
the plates, the H and O can still vent without burping too much water out.

That's all correct. [I'm assuming you aren't using these in golf
carts, as those sometimes overflow, and either need to be underfilled
or have Water Miser caps to prevent spillage.] I'm assuming you don't
do such agressive equalizing that your batteries are likely to
overflow...
Does anyone fill them higher than the bottom edge of the filler tube?
I'm looking at about 6 month intervals, so I don't have to put distilled
water in at below freezing temperatures.

I filled the golf cart batteries on my weather station up till the
slots were square, but with only 40W of panels I wasn't going to boil
them over. Now I use HydroCaps, and they barely lose any water at
all. [Hydrocaps can't be used for vigorous charging or equalizing,
but they work wonders for water conservation!]
 
N

Nelson Gietz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Folks,
I've been watering up the battery bank of golf cart batteries on my
system for the winter.
Was wondering how much to fill. The fillers are cylindrical, with two
slots up the sides. I've been filling 'til I see the miniscus... that is,
the water contacts the bottoms of the cylindrical tube. I'm assuming the
slots are "breathers" so when the water rises due to unreleased bubbles on
the plates, the H and O can still vent without burping too much water out.
Does anyone fill them higher than the bottom edge of the filler tube?
I'm looking at about 6 month intervals, so I don't have to put distilled
water in at below freezing temperatures.
Nelson
 
B

Bill Darden

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi Nelson,

Please see Section 3.2 in the Car and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ found on
www.batteryfaq.org. The key is that you need to keep the plates
covered at all times to prevent sulfation of the exposed portions and
not to overfill.

Kindest regards,

BiLL......
 
W

William P.N. Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nelson Gietz said:
The batteries are in a semi remote location near Lake of the Woods,
Ontario, in an uninsulated box where ambient can drop to -30 degrees C, and
I sometimes don't get out there for a month or so. The controller is set
for monthly equalizing, and I'm wondering how high a water level I can get
without them "boiling over".
Just over that "miniscus point" seems to be safest, so far.

Yup, I'd stick with that. If you notice signs of overflow you can
always back off a bit, but I'd be surprised if you did (I was!).
 
N

Nelson Gietz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Thanks William and Bill,
The batteries are in a semi remote location near Lake of the Woods,
Ontario, in an uninsulated box where ambient can drop to -30 degrees C, and
I sometimes don't get out there for a month or so. The controller is set
for monthly equalizing, and I'm wondering how high a water level I can get
without them "boiling over".
Just over that "miniscus point" seems to be safest, so far.
Cheers,
Nelson
 
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