Battery maintaince?

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My battery gets used a lot and charged a lot. That being said, I don't check it every time. Just every so often. If I only used it and charged it once every 6 months, I would probably check it every time. Someone told me that you should remove the caps when charging. Don't know if this is true or not, but if you did, you would be checking the water level at the same time.
 
ScottMD said:
How many charging cycles between checking water levels?

I check once a month if I'm charging a lot, maybe once every two months in the off season. I don't push the battery all that much, so I worry more about evaporation than charging cycles. However, once a month seems to work for me.

MOE said:
Someone told me that you should remove the caps when charging. Don't know if this is true or not, but if you did, you would be checking the water level at the same time.

I think you'd want to keep the caps on while charging. I know if I happen to have too much water in the battery (I made the mistake once of putting water in the battery before charging instead of after), the water will boil over. I would imagine that not having the caps on would make the situation much worse.

Taking the caps off might have been done to vent the battery while charging (a good idea). I think most batteries have other vents or even a vent through the caps themselves so that cap removal isn't necessary while charging.
 
After some research I found that most golf cart maintaince guys charge there carts 1-2 times a week and check water levels monthly during the golfing season, and quarterly during the off season. I fish on average of once a week so I will be checking my batteries monthly during the fishing season. I run an electric outboard and don't want to have to buy 6 batteries every other yr.

Yes, deep cycle water levels should be to the top of the metal plates in the battery.
 

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