lead acid batteries / topping up

I'm a bit crap on the chemistry side of things, but we use a lot of=20 wet cells (i.e. several thousand of them) at different sites.

I've been wondering whether water filtered using a reverse osmosis=20 unit (typically comes out as laboratory / food grade pure water), and=20 then de-ionised - would be suitable for topping up the cells.

...or does it have to be distilled ?

The cost of one of these units - even an industrial grade machine - is=20 only several hundred pounds, whereas distilled can cost =A340 for 25=20 litres (depending on where it's bought from)

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom !

Reply to
Colin Wilson
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You're in the civilised end of England aren't you? Not far from me?

If so, then in God's Own North we have tap water that's probably clean and soft enough to use in car batteries, so that stuff you're on about should be fine!

Reply to
Pete M

you are buying in the wrong place. battery top up water is about a pound a gallon at maccess for instance

Reply to
Mrcheerful

"Colin Wilson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org... I'm a bit crap on the chemistry side of things, but we use a lot of wet cells (i.e. several thousand of them) at different sites.

I've been wondering whether water filtered using a reverse osmosis unit (typically comes out as laboratory / food grade pure water), and then de-ionised - would be suitable for topping up the cells.

...or does it have to be distilled ?

The cost of one of these units - even an industrial grade machine - is only several hundred pounds, whereas distilled can cost £40 for 25 litres (depending on where it's bought from)

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom !

Our air con in reception makes about a gallon of water a day, I use that to top-up the forklift.

Reply to
Fred

Colin Wilson coughed up some electrons that declared:

When I were a lad and we still had car batteries that you needed to top up, it was always done with de-ionised water from Boots/Halfords/etc.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

RO and de-ionised water is usually better quality (lower TDS) than distilled. Distilled is usually mentioned because that was the only process available until fairly recently. Distilled is still used where micro-organisms are a concern.

You should be able to get a maximum conductivity or TDS rating for suitable water quality. I wouldn't use tap water, regardless of how soft it is, or condense from AC units.

In the US heating contractors will often fill heating systems with de- ionised water and anti-freeze; the price mentioned for bulk purchases was something like 10c a gallon.

Reply to
Onetap

I'm still trying to find out what it costs us, this is just a=20 potential project i've had in mind for years...

Reply to
Colin Wilson

We cover a large patch though, so it probably isn't suitable from all available local sources...

Reply to
Colin Wilson

I remember much debate about this in the 60's. It transpired that Rolls Royce recommended tap water as being entirely suitable for its batteries, a view supported by Dagenite. (Who made them.)

It was also the case that the Post Office, who were responsible for telephone communications nationally in those days, only ever used tap water for the vast amount of lead acid cells in their exchanges.

WRT your question, I worked at a large company for 36 years. During the whole of that time, the only water used for topping up fork lift trucks came from a treatment plant just as you have described. The fleet was around 30 trucks on average; the company who supplied and maintained the batteries was perfectly happy with what was used, and never advised anything different.

HTH

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Interesting. Could distilled water sold in garages, be the first instance of firms trying to sell us water at an inflated price? Out of interest, I use the water from my dehumidifier. It makes 10 litres of the stuff in 2 days.

Graham

Reply to
Graham

Maybe, but it pales into insignificance compared to Co's that currently make a good profit from selling bottled drinking water. Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

Any decent tropical fish stockist will fill you a huge carrier with RO water for a pound or two.

Reply to
Steve Walker

Fred unit (typically comes out as laboratory / food grade pure water), and

RO Water is absolutely fine.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Just out of curiosity I was Googling for distilled water suppliers to see how much it cost and came up with this extraordinary document.

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It's their safety data sheet for distilled water. I had no idea how f***ing dangerous that stuff is. Some snippets.

Do not discharge into drains or rivers. Contain the spillage using bunding. Clean-up procedures: Absorb into dry earth or sand. Transfer to a closable, labelled salvage container for disposal by an appropriate method.

Hand protection: Protective gloves. Eye protection: Safety glasses. Ensure eye bath is to hand. Skin protection: Protective clothing.

Stability: Stable under normal conditions. Conditions to avoid: Heat. Materials to avoid: Strong oxidising agents. Strong acids. Haz. decomp. products: In combustion emits toxic fumes.

I'm wondering what you'd want in the eye bath to wash your eyes out with if they got splashed with distilled water? Ummmm - more water?

Handy to know it emits toxic fumes if you put it on a fire though. I'd better phone up my local fire brigade and see if they're aware they've been using the wrong stuff all these years.

Oh, it's also obviously no use for the OP if he wants to put it in batteries if one of the materials to avoid with it is strong acids.

Reply to
Dave Baker

This should cut your costs down a bit

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£6.95 for 25 litres

Reply to
Dave Baker

LOL. Brilliant link mate.

Adam

Reply to
ARWadworth

Depends how well it's de-ionised I suppose.

Evaporating a small amount on a clean sheet of glass gives some idea of dissolved solids.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

A small still is only about £400. At least it was when I bought one for the radiotherapy machines in Cheltenham about 8 years ago. BDH Chemicals I think it was that sold them. IIRC we could produce a gallon of distilled in less than a day.

Reply to
malc

a ready made dehumidifier is way less and uses much less energy. Conductivity is very good if kept clean. Or a home made still can be made for sod all. Pressure cooker, microbore, and a thingy to connect the 2.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Thanks - they're not actually "my" costs, as i'm not paying for it -=20 i'm still trying to get hold of someone who knows...

My thinking was it might be more environmentally friendly to "make our=20 own" than buy it in, and have it shipped from who knows where.

Reply to
Colin Wilson

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