Salting a Battery--Ruined It?
A camping buddy got hold of me (afterwards, natch! :( ) and said two 6s had some low cells when he went to check them after way too long, but I gather one low in one and two low in the other, so he ...
Forum Discussion
wa8yxm wrote:
Water. PURE Lab grade distilled water. IS. believe it or not an insulator.
BUT WHEN YOU ADD SALE (Be it Epson or table) It becomes very conductive and .. Shorted his battery out.
Electrolyte needs to be conductive for a battery to work; otherwise, it cannot conduct a current. Battery acid is quite conductive on its own. Most things (salts and acids generally) dissolved in water will make it conductive due to the ions formed in the solution; exceptions are substances such as alcohols that, while miscible with water, do not ionize when dissolving.
It's not so much that the salt water shorts out the battery, but rather (according to those here who know the chemistry far more than I do) that the salt solution attacks the plates over time.
