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Old 20-02-2020, 07:42   #1
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Battery Water

I have read it more than once about how hard it is to get battery water and that it is almost impossible to find in some places. So I thought I would provide the solution to this problem.Get yourself a DI filter and just turn your boat water whether it be city or RO water into pure water.

For the naysayers when I was on nuclear submarines we ran our distilled water through a DI filter to make truly pure water for the power plant. I just tested water out of my filter that I fed city water through and it was 4 ppm water. Probably could get better if I ran the water real slow through it.

$19 + some hose and fittings. I wouldn't plan to run 1,000s of gallons through it, but for battery water it will last longer than the batteries.

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-...P9VY3RWHZ8ACGS
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Old 20-02-2020, 08:29   #2
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Re: Battery Water

Just run some h20 through your on-board still...you do have a still on board, right?
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Old 20-02-2020, 08:51   #3
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Re: Battery Water

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Originally Posted by sailorboy1 View Post
I have read it more than once about how hard it is to get battery water and that it is almost impossible to find in some places. So I thought I would provide the solution to this problem.Get yourself a DI filter and just turn your boat water whether it be city or RO water into pure water.

For the naysayers when I was on nuclear submarines we ran our distilled water through a DI filter to make truly pure water for the power plant. I just tested water out of my filter that I fed city water through and it was 4 ppm water. Probably could get better if I ran the water real slow through it.

$19 + some hose and fittings. I wouldn't plan to run 1,000s of gallons through it, but for battery water it will last longer than the batteries.

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-...P9VY3RWHZ8ACGS

Yep, that's a great idea. And you are correct the slower you pass it through the resin the better. Do you know what flow rate you did when you got 4 ppm?
Obviously if you already had an RO water maker onboard you could use that water also. Still would want to test it since many have much higher TDS readings for "acceptable" water (200), but 4ppm is very good.
In another thread, I read you check/fill your batteries every 2 mo, so how do you store the resin/cartridge between those times?
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Old 20-02-2020, 09:43   #4
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Re: Battery Water

I probably did it at about 0.5 gpm as i didn't even clamp my tubing to the facet and didnt want it blowing off.

I watered my batteries this morning for first time since 12/30/2019. All plates were still well covered and I used about 1/3 gal for the 4 batteries.

I filled up my 1-gal used distilled water plastic jug after with DI water. Then took the hoses off the DI Filter one a a time and put the plugs it came with back on making sure the filter stayed full of water so the resin doesn't dry out and get “sticky”.
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Old 20-02-2020, 09:52   #5
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Re: Battery Water

Suppose you could always do a gravity feed and get an ultra low TDS. Then no pump needed, but would be slow. If you set it up the night before you would probably have enough water to refill batteries.
You didn't mention how you store your cartridge between uses? Would think if you left it wet for a month or 2, it would have growth.
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Old 20-02-2020, 11:47   #6
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Re: Battery Water

Guess over a year we will find out out if the sealed wet filter grows bio. The water that went through it was chlorinated and with the plugs in it there isnt any oxygen etc. But if it does i will just flush it out next use.
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Old 20-02-2020, 12:02   #7
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Re: Battery Water

Do you make a lot at one time or don't you need that much?

Just topped our golf carts yesterday and used ~ 2L (after 2 months). These are 8 yrs old and 940Ah w/standard caps. The most work is taking the caps off to fill them. Use a pressured 1 gallon sprayer (with the spray tip removed) like this one to fill the batteries. The flow is easily controlled with the trigger on the wand and saves a lot of time/mess.
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Old 20-02-2020, 12:05   #8
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Re: Battery Water

I filled my jug up after watering the batteries. I expect that jug to probably last 6 months.
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Old 20-02-2020, 12:21   #9
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Re: Battery Water

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Use a pressured 1 gallon sprayer (with the spray tip removed) like this one to fill the batteries.
HAH! Great idea, Bill. I'll give that a try... gotta be better than the bottle plus funnel plus skinny hose that I've always used.

Thanks for posting that.

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Old 20-02-2020, 12:31   #10
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Re: Battery Water

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HAH! Great idea, Bill. I'll give that a try... gotta be better than the bottle plus funnel plus skinny hose that I've always used.

Thanks for posting that.

Jim

Used the inverted water bottle w/the push close top for a while. While it worked, it was messy. Got my idea from expensive commercial forklift equipment that used a wand to deliver water to batteries. The only other modification would be to add a flexi-neck led light near the nozzle to see in the cell better.
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Old 20-02-2020, 12:38   #11
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Re: Battery Water

I save water that is make with the watermaker while in fresh water. Usually TDS is zero or 1. I get long life out of my batteries. My Ford diesel truck batteries are 10 years old. I usually get about 10 years out of the boat batteries.
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Old 20-02-2020, 13:48   #12
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Re: Battery Water

It isn't a contest
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Old 20-02-2020, 13:54   #13
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Re: Battery Water

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It isn't a contest
Really, I was hoping it was....
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Old 07-08-2020, 05:29   #14
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Re: Battery Water

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You didn't mention how you store your cartridge between uses? Would think if you left it wet for a month or 2, it would have growth.
Used it the other day to make up a bucket of DI "pure" water. It has been 6 months and it isn't "growing" anything. Just for FYI it anyone was interested in getting one of these filters.
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