HYDROMETERS?

mrekim wrote:
Is it important to have a Thermometer as well?

Freas offers a kit with #1 Hydrometer and a Thermometer. Does that seem like a good way to get started with maintaining batteries?

Yes.

It is easy to use.



Hydrometers, amp hour meters, carbon pile load testers, voltmeters.

Go to a doctor. He says "Say Ahhhhhhh"

You open your mouth

He stuffs his stethoscope in

Look there is a time and a place for all of the battery measurement stuff.

A hydrometer has a specific use and nothing on the face of the earth will tell you what battery electrolyte cell density does.

Plug N Play chargers. Is that like one of those suckem plastic gizmos you give an infant? Stick one in and your problems are over?

Five years? A battery that lasts me five years is a FAILURE. "Oh goody golly gee whiz, I change tires faithfully every 8,000 miles, why don't you?"

mena661 wrote:

RJsfishin wrote:
long before todays accurate voltmeters, and smart chargers

I've got three meters and had up to 3 converters (one went away with the 5er and one died). I'm using one of those supposed high tech converters (IOTA DLS-55 with IQ4) and it doesn't do what you claim it does. Sure, if I left it do what it does, my batteries might last me a good long 5 years but with what the hydrometer tells me along with my charging regimen: 1. don't need the meters 2. barring a shorted cell (sh!t happens), my batteries will last MUCH longer than 5 years. Like I mentioned to someone in another thread, I only use my meter to make sure the converter is still working (just in case the POS IOTA decides it doesn't like the cold either and shuts off like it does when it's hot).

If I had a pair of Costco 6V's then I wouldn't go through these lengths, I'd just replace them every 2-3 years, they're cheap enough IMO. But I don't, I paid way more and I want what I paid for. Side note, I told the DW 5 years and I'm happy. But I'm really shooting for 12 which I understand is not out of line with these with good care.

I can only speak for what I know works.
Get a PD converter. My last batteries were 8 yrs old when I sold the MH. The PD converters must do something....maybe everything right. But there are those who always think they found something better, but it never is.

RJsfishin wrote:
long before todays accurate voltmeters, and smart chargers

I've got three meters and had up to 3 converters (one went away with the 5er and one died). I'm using one of those supposed high tech converters (IOTA DLS-55 with IQ4) and it doesn't do what you claim it does. Sure, if I left it do what it does, my batteries might last me a good long 5 years but with what the hydrometer tells me along with my charging regimen: 1. don't need the meters 2. barring a shorted cell (sh!t happens), my batteries will last MUCH longer than 5 years. Like I mentioned to someone in another thread, I only use my meter to make sure the converter is still working (just in case the POS IOTA decides it doesn't like the cold either and shuts off like it does when it's hot).

If I had a pair of Costco 6V's then I wouldn't go through these lengths, I'd just replace them every 2-3 years, they're cheap enough IMO. But I don't, I paid way more and I want what I paid for. Side note, I told the DW 5 years and I'm happy. But I'm really shooting for 12 which I understand is not out of line with these with good care.

RJsfishin wrote:
Why would I (or anyone) care "which" cell of a battery is low, or for that matter, if any cell is low ?
Is it like I'm going to go to work and overhaul that one cell ??.
I guess at my age, I remember the old days when batt hydros were some what useful, long before todays accurate voltmeters, and smart chargers, I'd guess I traded my useless hydro for a converter that maintains batteries like they are supposed to be, to the point of making a batt hydro completely obsolete..
But if a person is still green at camping and maintaining batteries w/ todays suffistigated smart chargers, then you would not know that they made the battery hydrometer obsolete long ago. Give your smart converter some time, and it will show you just how long it can make batteries last, and how obsolete a battery hydro really is.

And niner, how did my gauge wiring ever get entered into this discussion ??
Maybe you need to get a life ??

meter = gauge, perhaps I should have stated wiring to your meters, not your gauges, lest you get confused?

Why would I (or anyone) care "which" cell of a battery is low, or for that matter, if any cell is low ?
Is it like I'm going to go to work and overhaul that one cell ??.
I guess at my age, I remember the old days when batt hydros were some what useful, long before todays accurate voltmeters, and smart chargers, I'd guess I traded my useless hydro for a converter that maintains batteries like they are supposed to be, to the point of making a batt hydro completely obsolete..
But if a person is still green at camping and maintaining batteries w/ todays suffistigated smart chargers, then you would not know that they made the battery hydrometer obsolete long ago. Give your smart converter some time, and it will show you just how long it can make batteries last, and how obsolete a battery hydro really is.

And niner, how did my gauge wiring ever get entered into this discussion ??
Maybe you need to get a life ??

RJsfishin wrote:
I know exactly what a hydro tells you. But the point being, what good is it except it tells you the battery is junk? I will do w/ a volt meter anything you can do w/ a hydro ! And I will do w/ a load tester that you cannot do w/ a hydro. And I will test an AGM, which you cannot do w/ a hydro.
You have never seen all the cells perfect on a hydro, but yet fail a load test bigtime ?? I have, many many times.

Battery testing is like going to see a doctor for an illness or a physiscal. You start with the basics, and then proceed to more elaborate and expensive tests when or if the basics do not yield conclusive evidence. So it is with battery testing for Lead Acid batteries. The hydrometer is the first and most basic set of tests. The quick and dirty. A volt meter and a load pile tester won't tell you that your cells need equalizing, or which cell is low, will it?

Don't be such a curmudgeon, RJ. Have a couple of cups of some Mickey D's coffee first, digest it, then post up. ;) Maybe sanitize that wiring for all your gauges, so things don't burn down, something I never have to worry about with a hydrometer.

RJsfishin wrote:
I know exactly what a hydro tells you. But the point being, what good is it except it tells you the battery is junk? I will do w/ a volt meter anything you can do w/ a hydro ! And I will do w/ a load tester that you cannot do w/ a hydro.

I thought that if the maximum specific gravity spread between any two cells was greater than .015 on a fully charged battery that you should then equalize it. Is such a test not important?

I know exactly what a hydro tells you. But the point being, what good is it except it tells you the battery is junk? I will do w/ a volt meter anything you can do w/ a hydro ! And I will do w/ a load tester that you cannot do w/ a hydro. And I will test an AGM, which you cannot do w/ a hydro.
You have never seen all the cells perfect on a hydro, but yet fail a load test bigtime ?? I have, many many times.

Is it important to have a Thermometer as well?

Freas offers a kit with #1 Hydrometer and a Thermometer. Does that seem like a good way to get started with maintaining batteries?

RJsfishin wrote:
They should outlaw battery hydrometers, they are dangerous, and serve no useful purpose whatsoever !

Only if used for enema's before rinsing out.

Having tested thousands of Sears Diehards with them for Sears Roebuck in the 1970's for the acid test of good or fail, I would beg to differ with you.

A Freas #1 was my number one tool to quick and dirty fail a battery, with points variance between cells being exceeded in a given range, or see if more testing was needed with a carbon pile resistance test.

By far, the most efficent method of testing... screw driver and Freas, and in 30 seconds, you had an answer as to the state of charge and condition of all the cells. I should have had a tool belt with a holster /bags for a Freas and a screw driver, I was a quick draw artist with those two item. Pissed a lot of customers off when I told them their battery was still good, look somewhere else in their electrical system for issues, and that further testing, for a fee, was involved to trouble shoot further. .