Batteries and acid

The last couple of batteries I bought were shipped to me dry, and then I went to wally world to buy the $3.00 bottle of acid.
When checking one of my batteries lately, the electrolyte level is down and the instructions say to add distilled water.
My question is: I still have some acid left over in the bottle, can I add that to the battery NOW instead of distilled water?

Generally, no. If you originally filled the battery to the specified level with acid, all you should add afterwards is distilled H2O to maitain the electrolyte balance.

Post edited by: Mcdroid, at: 2007/05/07 10:17

I agree. My last battery came dry with the acid in a separate bottle.
The instructions said to only add distilled water after the fact. Can't remember why, but followed the instructions.

Thanks for the input. I didn't know if adding more of the acid a year later would mess up the electrolyte level or not.
That's probably why the instructions say to add distilled water! :whistle:
I had to ask...

Here's my understanding --

Battery fluid is a mixture of water and sulfuric acid in the supposedly correct ratio of water to acid. Only the water component evaporates. The acid component does not evaporate. So the decrease in volume results from evaporation loss of water (with no loss of acid). Adding water only should re-establish the correct water-acid ratio.

That does make sense.
I never thought of it that way, the water evaporating from the acid.

had a bud who did add new acid to his battery when it was low, I only remember him putting one battery in that bike and he rode it for years.
I didnt think it would work but he showed me

Hmmmmmm

I feel a test coming on!
:evil:

Patton wrote:

Here's my understanding --

Battery fluid is a mixture of water and sulfuric acid in the supposedly correct ratio of water to acid. Only the water component evaporates. The acid component does not evaporate. So the decrease in volume results from evaporation loss of water (with no loss of acid). Adding water only should re-establish the correct water-acid ratio.

This is correct. I'm no battery expert but I have been working around power plants and prime movers for 30+ years. It is a HUGE NO-NO to add acid to a battery to top it off. Once the initial electrolyte level has been set only the water will evaporate...the acid will stay. Adding clean DISTILLED water (NOT tap water!) will keep your battery at it's peak chemical condition. Remember...the battery is a CHEMICAL device. Keeping the chemistry right, without trace elements like flourine, clorine, etc is best.
Here we ALWAYS use distilled or dionized water for our Diesel generator batteries.

BATTERIES NEVER DIE . . . THEY ARE MURDERED! :ohmy:
i]Author Unknown[/i

Speaking of distilled deionised water ................has anyone ever tried tasting it ? :sick: I could'nt believe it would taste as bad as it did.

If you add some lemonade packs to the distilled water, it tastes OK... probably doesn't do much good in the battery after that though...