Re: Battery Replacement
Originally Posted by aschrager
Never add water to a battery before it is fully charged. The level will always go up when charged.
Never charge a battery when the plates are exposed, as it may explode due to the hydrogen gas and a short between the dry plates.
If your battery has removable plugs or caps, check the water level. It should come to the bottom of the fill tubes.
Always use distilled water, do not leave a regular battery charger attached to the battery after the battery is charged.
Disconnect the battery and if possible remove it from the car when charging, as batteries have been known to explode when being charged. This is a small risk but having one explode under the hood would leed to a lot of acid damage.
Batteries bubble when being charged and the bubbles burst and spray a fine mist in the air and some of this will come out the vents.
There is a vent on all batteries, the Varta had one at the back with a plug in it and a front vent with an overflow trap in it, keep them and put them on your new battery if it does not have them and it has the vents in it. You do not want the acid fumes and mist spilling out the back unseen or out the front.
My new battery had the vents but no plug and trap, I installed the ones from the Varta.
Lead/Acid batteries get their power from the amount of lead in it, the lighter the battery the less power there is stored in it. More weight is better in cold climates.
Last edited by onehundred80; Sep 18, 2011 at 10:45 AM.