Will adding distilled water to my deep cycle battery restore it?


battery backup
busboy asked:


I bought some deep cycle (golf cart) batteries about 6 years ago for a solar power backup system. However, I have neglected the system and the water in the batteries has since evaporated. If I refill them with distilled water, and use a battery charger on them, should they be usable again?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Chemistry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Will adding distilled water to my deep cycle battery restore it?”

  1. shazaam2005 Says:
    January 13th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    Try adding fresh TATER TOTS to your deep cycle battery.

  2. joshua h Says:
    January 14th, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    Temporarily. When recharging use the lowest amp setting on your charger (usually 2 amps, or “trickle” charge) That should prevent overheating if one of your cells has failed due to neglect. After a day or so of charging, use a 70 amp “load tester” (available at Target, or for rent at some tool stores) to test the amount of juice the batteries really have. If the load tester seriously drops the amp output of the battery, it means you have had a cell failure and the battery is junk.

    Upgrade to deep cycle gel-cell batteries, like the ones on power wheelchairs. They’re better than lead-acids, or sealed lead acids, require no maintenance, and do not develop a “charge memory” common to some rechargeable cells.

  3. bambinno4 Says:
    January 15th, 2009 at 5:14 am

    it won’t work ; time for a new battery

  4. Alchemist Says:
    January 17th, 2009 at 8:45 pm

    Try to use rainwater; it has electrolytes that will interact with the current produced by the charger. This may wake up your battery, but keep in mind that this is a quick fix. Eventually, you will have to buy another one. Good luck.

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