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Flo-Rite Battery Tender

jswat
Explorer
Explorer
I installed the Pro-Fill battery tender on my coach batteries today. It was getting just too difficult to stick my head in the battery compartment to check and fill my 4 batteries (I'm getting too old it seems). I would like to know how others had done with this system. It's not cheap, over $100 for mine, I sure hope it is worthwhile.
4 REPLIES 4

jswat
Explorer
Explorer
Roy, I don't know about cost for fabricating a battery tray and I know I could not do it. The Flow-Rite is within my skill level and it makes me feel good that I've done something. I sure hope it is effective.

RoyB
Explorer II
Explorer II
I probably would have engineered a pull-out battery tray if there was enough height room... Being able to get your head in there to look sort of tells there would be enough height room for a simple battery tray slide setup. I like physically looking at the battery fluid level on a scheduled basis...

Probably would have cost around the same dollars haha...

Every situation is different...
Roy Ken
My Posts are IMHO based on my experiences - Words in CAPS does not mean I am shouting
Roy - Carolyn
RETIRED DOAF/DON/DOD/CONTR RADIO TECH (42yrs)
K9PHT (Since 1957) 146.52M
2010 F150, 5.4,3:73 Gears,SCab
2008 Starcraft 14RT EU2000i GEN
2005 Flagstaff 8528RESS

azrving
Explorer
Explorer
After using those systems for many years in an industrial setting I would say they are excellent. I probably used 3 different manufactures over the years but in the end we stayed with flow rite.

The way that things can go wrong is that they can overfill or under fill. If they over fill you will see liquid and a big mess so just keep an eye on things. If they under fill you will know it when you have a capacity issue as one cell or link in the chain will be bone dry. I would say the best thing is to have a very clean water supply so no grains of sand or other crud get in.

I know this sounds bad but if you did one thing as a sort of insurance policy, I think I would do one system check to be sure they are working. After x number of weeks or months it may be worth while to pull each one and be sure they are watering. That way if one wasn't filling you would catch it before any damage is done. That one cell would be low but not empty.

My experience with flow rite would say you dont need to do this but no system is perfect.
We put the systems on and forgot about it until the battery came back smoking hot. They did fail but we were in the worst of conditions.

The one and only good thing about manual watering is that you are 100% certain that every cell is at the proper level.

We would have meetings and they would say whats the deal with all the battery problems. I would tell them go through the fleet and pull every fill valve to insure proper filling. No way, the mechanics didn't want to do it, they wanted to sit on their rears on over time and do anything. But again, we were in bad conditions. We ran tap water in a 30 year old factory. Even with that the battery itself would usually run for 8 yr or more before the lease was up on them. Some people think the battery will drop dead instantly if it's not distilled. I do use distilled myself though.

So ....right now, do you have a record or a good idea in your head of the time frame that your batteries need water? If so, this knowledge will let you do a system check at about the right time so as to not go below the plates.

If that system check proves ok then just keep everything clean and corrosion free and forget about the water system.

pigman1
Explorer
Explorer
You'll love it. We put one on our first coach and were absolutely tickled with how easy it was to fill the batteries. We went one step further on this coach in that we have AGM batteries so we never have to fill them, we just blow the dust off them once a year. Other than AGM's it would be the first mod I'd put on any coach that didn't have it already.
Pigman & Piglady
2013 Tiffin Allegro Bus 43' QGP
2011 Chevy Silverado 1500
SMI Air Force One toad brake
Street Atlas USA Plus