XPost: alt.home.repair, sci.electronics.repair   
   From: occassionally-confused@nospam.co.uk   
      
   Mighty✅ Wannabe✅ <@.> wrote:   
   > You can make do with rain water or tap water to top up the lead-acid   
   > battery but doing it too often will accumulate too much impurities in   
   > the battery fluid.   
      
   I say from the start that I'm only "reasoning" this out, purely   
   theoretically, so while I'm sure adding tap water with high calcium   
   carbonates will add "some" impurities.   
      
   Your use of "too much" is what bothers me, only because I've never seen a   
   single reliable source that tested this for the five year life of a   
   battery.   
      
   I'm sure someone tested it - but I've never seen those tests, where my   
   assumption, without those tests, is sure, "something" will be added, but   
   will it make any difference in a twenty-five pound battery designed to last   
   only five years?   
      
   > You can make do with distilled water but that is not as good as   
   > deionized water, which technically should be processed from distilled water.   
      
   Again I'm only reasoning this out, and I would back off on my rationale the   
   instant someone shows me batteries being harmed by rain water, which is   
   distilled water nowadays, despite the "acid rain" scare tactics of some.   
      
   The Indian "Microsoft support techs" tried to pull the same scare tactics   
   on me that the pool stores do, where they take a single tiny event and turn   
   it into the explosion of the Maine in Havana's harbor.   
      
   > A responsible auto shop or car dealership should use deionized water to   
   > dilute the sulfuric acid to use as battery fluid.   
      
   A commercial outfit will always follow industry standards if they're   
   reputable (most are not, in my humble opinion - most are scammers).   
      
   That's why you never believe anything coming out of the mouth of someone   
   selling you a service without checking it (for example, they'll tell you   
   that you "need" a fluid change when the owners manual will disagree).   
      
   They're all scheisters in my book - and I've been sheisted by them so I   
   know this for a fact that some are sheisters who can't be trusted.   
      
   Back to this topic, how do you know that the "pure" water isn't leaching   
   out all the good paste on the plates, now that it's devoid of ions?   
      
   I'm not asking this as a challenge - as the basic logic is sound.   
      
   What I'm looking for is a real answer to the practical question of how much   
   could it possibly matter in a twenty-five pound battery designed for a   
   short life in what turns out to be miserably inhospitable temperature &   
   vibration conditions, not to mention discharge recharge redox cycles.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)