With what do I replace spilled lead-acid car battery electrolyte?
Hi, folks. Stupid question: I spilled about half the electrolyte from a lead-acid car battery. Can I top it up with distilled water, or will that leave the sulfuric acid concentration too low, even after a few charge-discharge cycles? If it needs sulfuric acid added, where can I obtain some (other than from another battery)? I know someone will want to tell me to just buy another battery, but this is a fairly new, $100 marine battery. Thanks. ---Joe
Where is the electricity in lead acid batteries?
I have 2 identical lead acid batteries (car batteries). The only difference is one is charged (Battery A) and the other is dead (battery B). If I swap the electrolyte - the acid - What will happen. Now understand this fully; I'm going to dump the fluid out of battery A into a vessel and battery B into a vessel and put the fluid from one into the other. Got that? Ok
Can I change the electrolyte of a car battery because of its weak voltage?
That is not a good idea. That electrolyte is pure poison: sulfuric acid with dissolved lead compounds. How will you dispose of it safely, without harming yourself, your family or the nearby ground and water supply?And it won’t do any good, either. If the fluid level is low, the battery needs only pure water, because only the water has evaporated, making the remaining sulfuric acid more concentrated, but not fully covering the lead plates inside. So top off the fluid with only pure water to fully cover and reactivate the full plates.If that doesn’t restore the battery, and it may not, that will be because the plates have crumbled into lead crumbles and/or lead sulfate crystals have formed on the plates, insulating them so that they are ruined for good.Batteries have a limited life, which can be shortened by poor maintenance, and after which they are only good for recycling back into new batteries by a factory.
Why should you take the Caps off a Lead-Acid 12V Car Battery when Charging it?
only reason you take the caps off is to add in distilled water to top off a low cell. if you dumped out any of the existing electrolyte in the battery you might as well toss it. you'll never get it to charge. caps are there to prevent it from evaporating and/or spillling out when driving around or handling. put the caps back on and drop it down to a 2amp charge and charge it overnight. also, the caps are there in case the battery overheats or shorts internally for whatever reason. when this happens, the liquid will phase change to a gas and if the caps werent there as a safety so they'd just pop off and the liquid/gas would bubble/steam out and dribble down the sides...well, you'd have a bomb and it would just explode everywhere. you can imagine the destruction/corrosion an exploded battery would wreak under the hood on metal/electrical components...
Does electrolyte change during the discharge of a lead storage battery?
The electrolyte in a lead acid batter is a diluted mixture of water and sulfuric acid. As the battery charge decreases, through use, the sulfuric component decreases as it becomes attached to the pure lead plate. When fully discharged little of the sulfuric acid remains.During the charging process the pure lead plate gives up the sulfur and the electrolyte resumes it’s or near original state.Google Lead Acid Batteries for a more formal explanation.
What happens if lead acid battery runs out of water?
Removing water in a lead acid battery is normally the result of overcharging, breaking water in the electrolyte into hydrogen and oxygen gasses that are expelled through its venting system. The concentration of sulfuric acid in the electrolyte (typically 38%) naturally increases with further overcharging. This often happens if a charging system voltage regulator goes bad and charging continues at a high voltage.As water is consumed, the electrolyte concentration increases and the electrolyte level in the battery drops with the loss of water volume. Eventually it falls below the top of the electrodes exposing them to oxygen from the atmosphere and charging gasses. The porous lead in the section of negative electrode exposed will react with the oxygen and sulfuric acid wicked from the electrolyte to produce lead sulfate that removes some further volume from the electrolyte, but reduces its concentration or prevents it from continuing to increase, depending on the charge rate.If charging is continued, the battery will eventually become virtually dry, but the electrolyte will also not be extremely high concentration because the sulfate becomes tied up in the negative electrode. Surprisingly, the battery will perform limited starting capability even when the electrolyte is very low because the typically used microporous separators remain saturated and conductive to ionic current.If not allowed to sit for a long time in this condition and if no other damage has been caused by overcharging, refilling the battery with water followed by a slow recharge may bring the battery back to life, but obviously not to its original condition.Thus, during a typical dry out scenario where current is not excessive on a continuous basis in service, the electrolyte concentration in a lead acid battery will never exceed a certain concentration and will never approach the concentration of concentrated sulfuric acid. There will always be a certain amount of water in the electrolyte even when the battery appears "dry".-
What happens to the density of electrolyte when charging a lead-acid battery?
Concentration and density are both indicators of an “amount of substance”. The main difference between concentration and density is that concentration refers to how much of a substance is present in a mixture, whereas density refers to the mass of a substance per unit volume. So i think the density of electrolyte remains constant.
Bubbling battery when charging , normal?
How old is the battery? How big is the battery? Is the side case bulging? Is the battery hot? Is the battery low on electrolyte? It should bubble a little, and be cool to the touch, if it's very warm, or bulging it may need replacing. ADDED: Side note* charging a battery produces an explosive mixture of hydrogen, and oxygen. Be careful disconnecting the battery charger clips. If there is a spark, it can explode. Unplug the charger BEFORE moving/removing the clips. ADDED#2 It may take some time to get the newly added water to chemically change to sulfuric acid (electrolyte) I would disconnect the charger leads for an hour or so to let the battery equalize. Then put it back on the charger high setting for 5 minutes, then leave it on it's lowest setting for two hours. If the battery voltage is below 12.8 volts after that, replace the battery as it's sulfated beyond repair. A battery is usually good for 5 years +/-. If it has gone dead more than 3 times, the battery life is extremely shortened.
Can I add battery acid to a battery if it is low?
First the safe answer, no never add acid to a battery, just distilled water. Now the real answer LOL, at least the one that worked for me many times in my youth. Older batteries can suffer from sulfation, a buildup of lead sulfate on the plates of the battery inside. This can effectively weaken the acid to water ratio. We would add an ounce or two of sulfuric acid and then top up the battery with distilled water. This often resulted in getting free batteries that we would manage to squeeze another six months to maybe even a year of life out of. Don't try this at home, LOL!