Battery Acid Question... New & Old...

My son did exactly the same thing recently. Neutralize the spilled acid with sodium bicarbonate and wash it off if you haven't already.

I took his new battery to a battery specialist to ask about buying a small quantity of acid. They topped it up with acid for free. A top up with acid from the old battery would be my second choice.

John

Don't even think about it...... :o)

Most decent motorcycle shops will sell you small plastic bottles (approx.

1/4 litre) of fresh battery acid that you can use to top up. The old battery acid will be questionable at best, not worth the risk.

Rdgs

PDH

Awww where is you sense of adventure.... Nah only kidding....

Fair does, I didn't know it was available as a top up, why from motorcycle shops rather than car shops?

Kind Regards

Tom Burton - Who knows a local motorcycle shop :-)

"Tom Burton" wrote in news:uQ%9i.17017$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net:

Probably because bike shops are more used to customers being able to do their own thing.

That must have been a pretty sharp and abrupt stop all right.

Not really, sharp and hard yes but not ridiculously so, but on playing it seems to have an higher centre than I first imagined, I expected it to be very bottom heavy, what with the lead and heavy liquid, I suppose the liquid does it especially as the battery isn't full so it can surge.

And bike batteries are smaller, and subject to heat. They only have to lose a few ml of acid to be seriously depleted.

If it's electrolyte loss through evaporation or electrolysis, they should be topped up with distilled water only. The acid will have become more concentrated with such loss.

Maybe bike batteries are prone to leaking acid if the bike falls over.

John

Can you not get the battery back to the place you bought it from? they would almost certainly top it up for you, probably for free. (Unless it was Halfrauds).

Suppose you must be right there, thinking about it.

Could somebody please remind me - does acid explode when added to water, or is it water exploding when added to acid? :-)

Well yes it's water to acid, but that's normally when you're into oleum type concentrations, it's not an issue with your battery.

Water into concentrated acid = bad.

Wrong, possibly, probably

IIRC it *might* spit at you either way. But would you prefer to be hit by a drop of concentrated acid with a touch of water, or a drop of water with a touch of acid?