Battery accident!!

Amazon will sell you all the battery acid you want.

http://www.amazon.com/WPS-Non-Sealed-Battery-Electrolyte-Pack/dp/B003CKJDW6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457225793&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+electrolyte

I don't know where all this mis-information comes from. Dry shipped lead/acid batteries are shipped full of air. Nothing else. No vacuum, no nitrogen. Just plain old air.

Boon Docker wrote:
Still doesn't explain how the distilled water brings the acid concentration back up when all the acid was spilled out.

A fully charged battery as a specific gravity of 1.255 and a totally discharged battery has a an S.G. of 1.110. This means that not all the sulfur/acid in the mix is on the plates waiting to be returned to the electrolyte.

So how does distilled water bring the S.G. back up to the strength of the original acid?

Curious minds would like to know.

I think westend is trying to blow smoke up your skirt. ;)

I suspect the "dry" shipped batteries were filled with nitrogen.

If I recall correctly, the positive plate will heat when exposed to moist air.

One of my first jobs was in a service station. We had a stack of dry shipped batteries and a box of acid to fill them before installation. I don't recall how well they were sealed but I imagine they were.

Boon Docker wrote:
Still doesn't explain how the distilled water brings the acid concentration back up when all the acid was spilled out.

It doesn't, you and I both know that. You have a plastic case with lead and water. And that doesn't make a battery. :B

The sulfur is on the plates. The different materials of the plates, the sulfur deposition on the plates, and the water, when fed a small electrical current, form an exothermic chemical reaction, adding sulfur to H2O resulting in H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) and PbO2.

I think you are having a problem with the quantity of the acid being different with the quantity of non-acidic water added back into the battery case, not the basic chemistry. As you can see in the prior link I posted, the electrolyte is not 100% sulfuric acid. It is actually dilute acid.

Further reading at Battery U

Still doesn't explain how the distilled water brings the acid concentration back up when all the acid was spilled out.

A fully charged battery as a specific gravity of 1.255 and a totally discharged battery has a an S.G. of 1.110. This means that not all the sulfur/acid in the mix is on the plates waiting to be returned to the electrolyte.

So how does distilled water bring the S.G. back up to the strength of the original acid?

Curious minds would like to know.

Boon Docker wrote:

westend wrote:
If the battery sat for any length of time tipped over, it is toast. You can try to fill it with distilled water and charge it but there is little chance it will recover.

You got me curious.
How does adding distilled water to a spilled battery replace all the sulfuric acid that was lost?

The Lead Acid battery is made up of plates, lead, and lead oxide (various other elements are used to change density, hardness, porosity, etc.) with a 35% sulfuric acid and 65% water solution. This solution is called electrolyte, which causes a chemical reaction that produce electrons. When you test a battery with a hydrometer, you are measuring the amount of sulfuric acid in the electrolyte. If your reading is low, that means the chemistry that makes electrons is lacking. So where did the sulfur go? It is resting on the battery plates and when you recharge the battery, the sulfur returns to the electrolyte.

Copied and pasted from: Battery Stuff (dot) com

Desert Captain wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Just replace the acid. They are not shipped wet to the store anyway. Put some new acid in it and you're good to go.

I disagree. Every battery we sold, and that number is in the hundreds/thousands (?), as we were a Trojan dealer, at the Chandlery I worked at in San Diego came with acid in them. Yes, there was a little room to top up and we recommended folks do that after they were installed as placing them in a boat calls for some awkward angles going in.

Had the same experience at Boat US/West marine. Batteries leave the factory with acid .

I agree to try refilling the OP's battery but would be much more concerned with the damage done by the spill. That acid has migrated to all sorts of places never intended for corrosives.

:C

LOL, let me put it this way then. The batteries shipped to the parts stores in "my town", in my county, in my state, in the US are shipped dry. How do I know this? I personally know the guy that fill them with acid and have bought acid from him many times. He is the manager of a Napa parts store in my town, in my county, in my...............

There, now my post is fixed. :B

O, BTW, I have put acid in batteries that have had their acid lost. Works for me. :)
(It may not work for anybody else on this forum because they don't live in my town in my county in my.............................:B)

There is just so much mis-information been given here.

Try this link for the proper info.
http://www.trojanbattery.com/contact-us/