Adding distilled water to sealed battery?

[maverickfhs]

We have an instance where battery was got overcharged and has leaked some of the acid and changed it's shape slightly.

Can I add distilled water to it? Overall it seems to be holding charge and seems fine in terms of starting up the vehicle.

 

[kc8adu]

without a picture its hard to say.
but you may as well prepare for replacement.
you might ad some water to stretch it out a bit but the writing is on the wall.
an agm may bulge or suck in slightly during normal operation but if your battery is bulging and hard its plate corrosion and its done for.

 

[Sayjac]

If it's truly sealed, ie., no caps available to remove, the answer is no.

I must say I'm puzzled by the "leaked some of the acid and changed it's shape slightly." Never experienced anything like that.

 

[JustinH]

Had a battery in my sonata start leaking from the caps. I chose to replace said battery before it dripped acid all over the place.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted by Sayjac
If it's truly sealed, ie., no caps available to remove, the answer is no.

I must say I'm puzzled by the "leaked some of the acid and changed it's shape slightly." Never experienced anything like that.


I'm assuming the case is bloated out which in that case I would replace the battery.

 

[Chris142]

There has to be a way to fill it at the factory. If you can find the "cap" pry it off, fill it and reseal it it's possible that it may work for a while.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted by bdcardinal
…. I'm assuming the case is bloated out which in that case I would replace the battery.
I've never personally seen that, but I agree with your solution.

 

[AuthorEditor]

If the battery is more than about 3 years old I would just replace it. There are various YouTube videos showing how to service "maintenance free" batteries. How do you know it is low on acid if you haven't opened it up?

 

[Linctex]

Is this a SLA... Sealed Lead Acid?

I had one get shorted out HARD one time, and it bulged the case. (smaller, 35 amp hour)

I thought it was junk after that (I'm sure it didn't do it any good!!!) but it surprised me just how long it ended up lasting, anyway.

"Save up for a new one" is good advice. You never know when it is going to fail....

 

[Dave9]

Originally Posted by Chris142
There has to be a way to fill it at the factory. If you can find the "cap" pry it off, fill it and reseal it it's possible that it may work for a while.


Yes, they fill it before the top is sealed on.

In theory you could drill holes at every cell to top each off, then plug them with an acid-resistant plug, but if it's bulging it's probably not worth the bother. Replace it with a non-maintenance-free battery to gain the ability to top it off, and more importantly determine how to prevent overcharge scenarios.

 

[maverickfhs]

I can see fill caps, I am going to add distilled water and see what happens.

Going to troubleshoot the overcharging issue.

 

[JLTD]

Originally Posted by maverickfhs
We have an instance where battery was got overcharged and has leaked some of the acid and changed it's shape slightly.

Can I add distilled water to it? Overall it seems to be holding charge and seems fine in terms of starting up the vehicle.

Leaked acid = replace asap.

 

[JHZR2]

Overcharge with case shape change? Be very careful...

 

[maverickfhs]

Originally Posted by JHZR2
Overcharge with case shape change? Be very careful...

Yeah alternator was putting out more voltage, unfortunately

 

[gathermewool]

How o you know? What was the charge voltage. It seems as if you're making a lot of assumptions

 

[barryh]

All SLA batteries have a safety valve so that they vent rather than explode if pressurized through severe overcharge. If you are able to top the battery up it should be with acid because that's what was lost not water.

 

[kc8adu]

Originally Posted by barryh
All SLA batteries have a safety valve so that they vent rather than explode if pressurized through severe overcharge. If you are able to top the battery up it should be with acid because that's what was lost not water.

but those valves only vent gas.
no free liquid to spill.
so if it is a dried out agm then a very small amount of distilled water per cell may revive it.
rule is spilled battery gets acid.
just low it gets distilled water.
we still dont know exactly what the op has.

 

[bonjo]

I assume he measured the volts across the battery wit hthe engine at certain RPM.

The regulator is supposed to provide the battery (and the electrices) with the right volts. YOu may have to fix that as well.

I personally would not mess with adding water but how do you know it needs it?

best would be to replace it rather than driving around with a battery with a bulging case which could crack & give more problems

 

[meep]

Assuming it's sealed flooded, IME experience opening it up will guarantee a shortened life. You are more likely to get it to last longer by not messing with it. Those batteries are valved to something like 2psi, which is also part of the recombinant mechanism of the long-life sealed chemistry. In my experience, once you allow them to run at regular atm, they boil off faster than regular flooded batteries.

If it's sealed gel or agm, just run it - opening it up will make it worse.

If it's still under pressure, don't mess with it.

If by leaking you mean the top is just damp, don't mess with it.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted by barryh
All SLA batteries have a safety valve so that they vent rather than explode if pressurized through severe overcharge. If you are able to top the battery up it should be with acid because that's what was lost not water.


This is true, but given the square area of the casing, it doesn't take much to bulge it.