adding water to batteries

[DaveTM]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

... but the fudge factor isn't much.

WAIT!!...Are you saying that the cart makes fudge when the batteries are charging?

Oh...hold on.. My med's just took over for a brief period again.

[jdunmyer]

I have a dehumidifier in my shop, and I collect the water from it to use in my batteries. Between the golf cart, my RV, and electric garden tractor, I have a bunch of batteries, and I'm cheap, so this works well.

The idea of the mustard bottle sounds good, I've been using a siphon that uses surgical tubing. Get the siphon started, and simply pinch the tubing to shut it off between cells. It works well, but I have to somehow prop the gallon jug above the batteries. Even with 4 or 5 feet of tubing, it can be a bit problematic.

[yurtle]

Distilled water is pretty aggressive (soft), so you may be introducing aluminum into your batteries from the dehumidifier. I've never seen the inside of one, but I'm assuming the fins are aluminum.

[HiTechRedNeck]

Not to mention all the airborne contamination....
Mold spores, pollen ect.

[remac]

[QUOTE=DaveTM;1122537]....then spit it into the battery hole. ... Use baking soda for toothpaste and you can kill two birds with one stone.

Let's see - spitting baking soda into a battery hole from 40 feet...
that MIGHT be far enough away...

[jdunmyer]

I doubt that the water from the dehumidifier has much, if any, aluminum in it. As far as airborne particles, dust, pollen, etc, there isn't enough of it to hurt a battery. I always let the machine run a day or so before putting my jug under the drain outlet, so most of the dust should be rinsed out by then.

Now, I can't claim 40 years' experience with a fleet of carts, but: My first cart came with batteries that were God knows how old, they were slightly swelled, and I figured on replacing them immediately. With a bit of TLC, they lasted 5 years. The replacement set was 7 or 8 years old and still going strong when I sent the cart down the road. The G.C. batteries for my RV went about 10 years before getting replaced.

I am concerned about what might be in the condensate from my furnace, as far as using it for battery watering. It would be quite easy to collect, but I'm thinking that there might be stuff that the batteries wouldn't like. So, I'll skip that, let it go down the drain, and stick to the dehumidifier condensate.

Rain water would probably be suitable, but you'd likely want to run it through some sort of strainer/filter to remove the bird crap, etc.

Or, if you're not convinced, buy distilled water at the grocery store, it's your choice. :-)

[Volt_Ampere]

My advice is Buy Distilled Water. It's cheap and clean. If you use water from a dehumidifier, I would filter it to get out the particulate junk that is in there. How much is in there is going to vary depending on the environment.

[JohnnieB]

Distilled water leaches ions out of just about everything it comes in contact with, so the condensate from your dehumidifier does have some aluminum in it, but probably no more than trace amounts since distilled water does not attack aluminum as aggressively as it attacks other materials substances. Furthermore, aluminum is not on the Max impurities list published by Trojan (attached), so it is probably okay, but filter it before putting it in a battery.

Copper is on the list, and distilled water attacks copper very aggressively, so using the condensate off condenser coils made of copper is a bad idea.

Sounds like you're doing okay with the water you've been using, but I'm going to stick with commercially produced Distilled and RO water for my batteries.

[DoorKicker]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I am lazy when it comes to this sort of thing so buying a few gallons of distilled water sounds like the easiest thing to do. Besides just turning on the water hose from the house, which is what I did with my last cart.

Honestly I had several "Battery" experts in my area tell me our water is fine to do this, but I think I'll stick to the bottled water this time just to be sure...

[beau]

I have used and tested condensate water in another industry I am involved in. I typically measure less than 5 ppm of dissolved solids in it. While there can be some leaching it is virtually immeasurable. I believe Trojan says 160ppm and below is OK.