dry battery - trash it or charge it

[BoxerTwin]

My battery had nearly no fluids in it.
It was still holding a charge up to yesterday morning.
I have refilled it and have it on my charger.

anyone have an idea of if this will still be OK or will it start me a couple of times and then crap out when I'm at the bottom of a hill in a bad neighborhood?

[Hunsta]

Had the same happen to mine on my R65. Couldnt work out why either. Filled in, charged it, and its still going strong. Give it a go, and carry a 9mm for the bad neighbourhoods.
Craig

[BoxerTwin]

good advice...now I need a tank bag for my Beretta 92.

[Major Softie]

A battery will pretty much always suffer some loss of life from such an experience, but sometimes you can still get years out of it. I definitely wouldn't assume it will kill it, but it could.

[Rob Frankham]

To move the goalposts a bit...

Have you given any consideration to why the battery was dry. Was it simple neglect or has it lost it's fluid over a short period. If the latter, you may want to give some seriolus consideration to checking your charge circuit. Rapid battery fluid loss is often down to overcharging. Your battery might recover from one 'drying out' (or it may not!) but it will certainly expire quite quickly if you repeat the process.

Good Luck

Rob

[BoxerTwin]

I'll check out the charge circuit. Shouldn't it be outputting something around 14 volts?

[BoxerTwin]

I also have not checked the battery levels probably since I got it. My last battery was maintenance free...I didn't remember getting this one with fluid cells. It will be part of my regular checks for sure now.

[Zombie Master]

My battery had nearly no fluids in it.
It was still holding a charge up to yesterday morning.
I have refilled it and have it on my charger.

anyone have an idea of if this will still be OK or will it start me a couple of times and then crap out when I'm at the bottom of a hill in a bad neighborhood?

If the battery is more than 3 years old I'd go for a new one. A weak battery will stress your charging system.

[Duane Ausherman]

I also have not checked the battery levels probably since I got it. My last battery was maintenance free...I didn't remember getting this one with fluid cells. It will be part of my regular checks for sure now.

Your battery might be maintenance free, but your charging system isn't.

The statement "holding a charge" is measured by if it does the required task or not. As the water level goes down, so does the capacity at that time. Your water level just finally passed the "no-go" level. You were losing the amount of charge and didn't know it......... until it was too late.

Your battery has suffered, but it is impossible to measure, as you have no starting point data.

Your "regular check" should include measuring the charge voltage. You must also do it correctly and log it.

[Hunsta]

To move the goalposts a bit...

Have you given any consideration to why the battery was dry. Was it simple neglect or has it lost it's fluid over a short period. If the latter, you may want to give some seriolus consideration to checking your charge circuit. Rapid battery fluid loss is often down to overcharging. Your battery might recover from one 'drying out' (or it may not!) but it will certainly expire quite quickly if you repeat the process.

Good Luck

Rob

just for the reclord when mine went dry I checked the charge just incase the reg had gone south(even though I had replaced it 2 years earlier), and got a nice steady 14.2v.