They take a licking and keep on ticking...
I did my regular battery maintenance today on my Costco 6v. SG was 1.275 to 1.28 on all cells with a +3 for temperature (1.283). I have a quality float type hygrometer that is probably 30 or more ye...
Forum Discussion
A gut feeling tells me warehouse batteries are no longer made in the USA. LTH battery of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, recently boasted their production of "carro para golf" batteries has soared 1200% in the last 5-years. Mexico is a veritable horn-of-plenty for virgin lead. USA Recycled lead is loaded aboard ships and sailing across the Pacific. China is manufacturing flooded lead acid batteries by the hundreds of millions for the Asian and African market.
Makes a person wonder. But no matter, warehouse big-box batteries seemingly have improved from days of yore. Mexico is keeping the price of virgin lead fairly lucrative - well below the price the EPA would extract for mining, processing and shipping USA lead across country. DEKA is the only OEM that has a lead smelter and processing plant. I would love to play fly-on-the-wall merely to learn how much recycled lead they process. It is far more expensive to process junk lead than it is virgin lead (which as noted is really only available from Mexico in fully processed ingots). AGM batteries demand absolutely pure lead to start off with, then proprietary additives come in, especially for the grid base. Fascinating area (for me anyway). Forged? not Cast? Grids?
Makes a person wonder. But no matter, warehouse big-box batteries seemingly have improved from days of yore. Mexico is keeping the price of virgin lead fairly lucrative - well below the price the EPA would extract for mining, processing and shipping USA lead across country. DEKA is the only OEM that has a lead smelter and processing plant. I would love to play fly-on-the-wall merely to learn how much recycled lead they process. It is far more expensive to process junk lead than it is virgin lead (which as noted is really only available from Mexico in fully processed ingots). AGM batteries demand absolutely pure lead to start off with, then proprietary additives come in, especially for the grid base. Fascinating area (for me anyway). Forged? not Cast? Grids?
