Does acid wear out?

[swee'pea99]

Apparently if I get a new battery off the web, it'll arrive without sulphuric acid - which seems wise on the whole - but they say I can get it at any friendly local supplier. Since I don't have one, I wondered if I couldn't just transfer the acid from my old battery. Would that work?

 

[zimzum42]

Damn. I found a load of old LSD tabs and thought this thread would answer the question that has been bugging me for a while.

Seriously, I have a load, more than ten years old. Will it still work?

 

[Debian]

Would that work?[/B]

Almost certainly not, it would be the wrong specific gravity and probably contaminated.

Try a local garage / Halfrauds / motor factor?

 

[Norm]

The acid gets all sorts of contaminants, which is one of the things which will be stopping your current battery from holding a charge. Putting that into a new battery would be pretty dangerous but I would expect it would also reduce its life considerably.

 

[Bman]

I was under the impression that you only had to fill the new battery with distilled water and charge it, the charging process would then turn the water into acid. But it seems that may not be the case with newer batteries?

 

[Debian]

http://www.mandp.co.uk/productinfo/901423/Spares/Batteries/Economy

 

[swee'pea99]

That's brilliant - thanks Debian (and others). Just goes to show...I almost didn't post, thinking 'don't be daft, how can acid 'go off'?' But it does. You learn something new every day!

 

[Debian]

No question is too daft or obvious to pose. Everything is simple / obvious if you know the answer, if you don't know then it's the hardest question in the world. I never hesitate to ask anything.