pop the top on a maintenance free battery?

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so i have read that maintenance free batteries are not quite maintenance free, but close.
an old timer buddy of mine WEARS that you can pop the lid off 90% of the maintenance free batteries out there and refull the depleted water level.
he even showed me his car battery. sure enough the lid was originally glued on. he pried the lid off with a chisel. seems kind of dangerous but anyways there were screw on plastic battery caps/vents underneath the lid just like a lead acid battery has.
so im wondering if this has any real merit. as far as i cam remember maintence free batteries are of a different chemistry than lead acid. i keep thinking of the word calcium but i cant remember why.

im wondering what you guys think about this because my car battery is maintenance free and past its warranty and its getting weaker and weaker starts. im thinking of trying to pop the top and add some water. i was thinking that i have nothing to lose but my time, which i dont like to waste.
should i bother giving it a shot?
 
Would you buy a maintenance free engine that you couldn't check the oil on? You won't hurt the battery by opening it up. Those are the only batteries I've ever seen explode.
 
I believe that if you open a maintenance-free battery, the warranty on it may no longer be honored. I would check into that before you pop it open.
 
I wouldn't buy a battery that I couldn't top off. The term 'maintenance free' is like 'lifetime fluid.' I haven't seen many that you couldn't pry off the top somehow.
 
I wouldn't mess with it, either. The batteries in my cars have all lasted over 5 years, with 7 being typical. They were all maintenance free batteries. With a track record like that, why screw with it and risk voiding the warranty?
 
My last battery lasted 5 years and 150k miles. Never f'ed with it, and felt no need to.
 
Only true mainT frees I have seen are AC DELCO, nothing to even pop off. I also maintain all the other maint free by simply popping off the caps and adding water.
 
Outside of installing and/or removing one, batteries are something I won't screw around with. I saw my father blinded by battery acid for several days when I was a child. He was doing ??something?? with a car battery (he was the attending mechanic at a Citgo gas station/garage), when the battery 'exploded' in his face. The doctors couldn't tell him if he would regain his eyesight. Thank G0D he regained his sight a few days later, but it scared the heck out of a 7 year old little wavinwayne.
 
I've been doing it for the last five years on two different Pep Boys ProStart Premium "Maintenance-Free" batteries. They do have caps, so it isn't like I have been going to extremes in order to check/refill the electrolyte level. On the other hand, one of those batteries began failing a few weeks ago (and was replaced with an Everstart Maxx) as it began leaking and "hissing" during normal use.
 
Some batteries look like maintenance free, but aren't. They just have caps that cover 3 fill holes instead of 1 cap per hole. These are meant to be pried and removed. Hard to differentiate sometimes.
 
ok i figured the split of people wating go for it to people telling me not to bother was roughly 50-50, so i figure what the heck. might as well give it a try. if i break the battery ill just get another one.

but i did oddly enough for me decide to do with some protective gear.
heres my chemistry set juniour apron that is acid resistant (says so on the label).
54dsdjn.jpg


next is my chemistry set juniour acid resistant gloves and safety glasses.
4y6ogmo.jpg

next is the respirator with chemicical resistant element.
4tfs00n.jpg

and to top it off a dissection kit that i stole from the school where i learned to become a backalley doctor.
5y7b5lf.jpg


not pictured is the box of baking soda and the garden hose i kept running by my feet just in case :p


i cut the top off the battery and found out its just like any other battery.
4t6i89c.jpg


but the water level was down well below the plate tops. i think it took a pint to bring the water up to what i believe is a correct level.

after filling her up with some distilled from my deer park 5 gallon cooler, i siliconed the cap assembly back on like it was from the factory. im now waiting on the glue to dry before i put the battery back in the car and try it.

will it work? maybe, id like to think i could get another couple months, maybe a year out of it? i keep jumper cables with me at all times so if it does go dead i wont be stranded. plus i have alstate motor club 150 mile towing limit.
 
Will it work? … If your cutting introduced debris into the acid, then that will create a localized reaction semi-shorting the cell causing premature failure, introducing water contrary to popular belief reduces the overall acid strength, this causes for the ions to travel harder in the weak solution causing more resistance, and no I am not a chemist. What adding water did I your case is protect the plates which were already exposed to air oxidizing, had you added acid t the battery which is against contrary belief, and brought up each cell to the effective 1280 rate, you would have done much more good.
 
Water is the only compound being lost from the battery due to electrolysis, heat and other effects during operation. When the water is low, the acid concentration is higher (above design spec) and plates are exposed to air. Topping off with distilled water covers the plates and returns the acid to the designed concentration/pH. Remember that ions move from one plate to the other, if there is no electrolyte over the plate the ions are "stuck", lowering the battery's capacity. Of course the cell chemistry is probably changed forever if you allow your battery to run low on water. This is why regular top ups to keep the plates covered is recommended for all batteries, including "maintenance free" batteries, hence the original poster's question (I suspect).
 
Quote:

Water is the only compound being lost from the battery due to electrolysis, heat and other effects during operation. When the water is low, the acid concentration is higher (above design spec) and plates are exposed to air. Topping off with distilled water covers the plates and returns the acid to the designed concentration/pH

Click to expand...


In the ideal world yes, in the real world dead wrong.

Quote:


if there is no electrolyte over the plate the ions are "stuck", lowering the battery's capacity

Click to expand...


wrong as well, even a fully topped off battery can have a reduced capacity
 
I have *NEVER* seen any recommendation to top off a battery with acid *UNLESS* electrolyte is lost due to spillage.

And I've done a LOT of research into this.
 
I do not hesitate to do so. If the level is low it is low the fact that they put a sticker on the top that says maintence free means nothing to me!This is especialy the case with an OEM battery from the manufature of your car. The OEM doesnot normaly warranty the batter that came with the car for very long. I
 
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