battery watering systems [RE-wrenches]

[Matt Tritt]

How about putting a check valve in the tubing?

Matt T
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Bassett" <bsbassett at earthlink.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 9:34 PM
Subject: RE: battery watering systems [RE-wrenches]


> An ingenious solution. It's likely an improvement over other automatic
> watering methods, which I've heard occasionally cause the batteries to
> overflow, causing a nasty mess.
>
> However, if I understand this correctly, it seems to me that there would
> be a possibility of the acid backing up into the water reservoir. This
> could conceivably happen if the battery became hot because of
> environmental temp change or heavy charging, causing expansion of the
> electrolyte. There is also the possibility that O and/or H from the
> charging could gather in the hose and break the suction. Since the
> system worked fine for many years maybe these are not great concerns,
> but the consequences are potentially a mess. Different setups or
> batteries could change the possibility for something wrong happening.
> Perhaps it would be adequate to cover the water reservoir and make sure
> it's acid proof and well protected from spills, or that spills are
> collected safely.
>
> Just thoughts since you can't be too careful around batteries.
>
> Brad
>
>
> Robert Warren wrote:
> >
> > Marco,
> >  One of the first off-grid systems I built maybe 14 or 15 years ago was
> > for a blind gentleman in Oregon, Charlie Weaver. I installed 12 or more
> > Trojan L-16s in a big insulated cabinet in his garage. Since he was
> > blind, he couldn't see the water levels or stick a finger into the acid
> > to check the levels, so he used his head. He rigged up a simple gravity
> > feed watering system with 1/4 inch plastic tubes coming from a
> > Tupperware container placed so that the top of the water in the
> > container was precisely at the top water level mark of the batteries.
> > The tubes went to holes he drilled in the caps, and extended down into
> > the battery so it touched the plates, and thus would never break suction
> >
> > as long as the top-off tank was always filled. A run-off tube near the
> > top drained off excess water if he overfilled the water container. I
> > went out to the site about 6 or 8 months after the intital installation,
> >
> > and everything was in tip-top condition, and I thought this was the
> > slickest thing I ever saw. He was also careful not to block off the
> > vapor ventiation through the cap.
> > Robert Warren
> >
>
>
> Brad Bassett
> Alternative Energy Engineering
> Olympia, WA
>
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