Major corrosion

jakesnake27

I have a CC 1996 48V Powerdrive cart. I have a major problem with corrosion in my battery compartment. I am wandering what could cause this. Last fall, I took all the batteries out, replaced all cables with new ones, replaced all six battery hold downs with new ones, filled all cells of all the batteries to the correct level and cleaned the entire battery compartment of any old corrosion. The only thing I can think of is the water I put in the batteries. I have city water, and the guy at my dealer said it would be fine to put that water in my batteries. Do I need to use distilled water? The corrosion is on the battery post terminals as well as on the hold downs. It is also starting to get on the battery frame holders under the batteries. The batteries are 8v Interstates and are not even 2 years old (got them summer of '09). I would like to fix this before it ruins all of my new hardware and cables. Thanks!

BGW

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scottyb

Unless you have had your city water analyzed you can not be sure it is okay to add... Certain common chemicals and elements found in drinking water will cause problems when added to the batteries.... It is not worth the cost of distilled water to find out, in my opinion. Most of the corrosion you see is due to electrolyte spillage. Are your battery tops showing signs of being wet? Batteries may be overfull or charger may be over gassing the batteries....This will spill over to the trays.

jakesnake27

Yes, the batteries are definetely a little wet on top. I also hear a slight hissing sound when the batteries are charging- is this normal?

OLD MEC

1- You are over filling cells ( fill to just above internal plates with distilled water ) AFTER AFTER CHARGING PACK UNTIL CHARGER TURN OFF ON ITS OWN, so the expansion by heat will not overflow batterys.
2-Batterys could be getting weak ( age has nothing to do with how good a batterys is ) I have seen defective batterys right out of the box and the cheaper quality the batterys are the less life you get? I call a cheap battery a "RENTAL BATTERY" as it never lasts out the warentee and you end up paying more in ADJUSTMENT FEES than if you purchased a quality battery to start with?

jakesnake27

Ok, I am definetely overfilling them because I was filling them to the bottom edge of the holes of the cells. Do I just leave the water in them, or try to take out some of the water?

OLD MEC

Leave the water alone as it will boil out very soon and then I would recommend the removal and cleaning all corosion off with brush and baking soda and then coat exposed metal with some kind of paint or sealer ( I like the pick up bed RHINO spray on material but you must allow 24 hours of drying before installing batterys ).
For good info on batterys go to the TROJAN battery site.

jakesnake27

Ok, I'll do that. Thanks so much for your help.

gsf35099

One of the things I did to help me with filling up the bat's was to install a ProFill unit. It is great!!! Even with all the dirt on the top of my bat's you can still see the fill unit lines. All I do after a charge is snap the fill port on, put the other end into a bottle of distilled water and sqeeze the bulb until it is firm.

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SV1

At most auto parts stores you can get a battery filler bottle for about $9.00. They are easy to use, virtually fool proof and take away the maybe just a tad more water urge that turns into oh $$%%%, that's too much. Old Mec- I love the Rhino Liner spray idea.

jakesnake27

Yeah I have heard about those fillers. I'll probably go pick one up.