[ausev] Battery Oil?

[Brian Lasseter]

A friend of mine sent me a link to this battery additive... I wrote a
response to him that I thought others in the group might want to
comment on.



Battery oil seems like an interesting concept...
http://www.batteryde-mister.com/   I don't think it'd be useful to me
though.  The main claims of the de-mister are that it "reduces water
consumption, reduces fumes, reduces odor, and resistance to hot and
cold weather"... the MSDS data sheet says that it's 70% oil.
Basically it's an oil that sits on top of the battery water preventing
the battery water from evaporating.  The rest of the claims (like
decreased current resistance) are merely by-products of having a well
watered battery, but the act of having a contaminant in the battery
acid will actually decrease maximum current draw.

The water miser caps
http://store.solar-electric.com/batwatmiscap.html  that I have on my
electric car pretty much do the same thing by preventing water loss
and thereby preventing corrosion of the battery boxes, however they do
not contaminate the electrolyte.  And then the fact that the car
batteries are in the car greatly increases hot/cold resistance (which
by having their oil in contact with the electrolyte... they can lay
some claim to increasing the thermal mass of the battery).

The water miser caps are more expensive though... The battery oil is
$13/battery whereas I paid about $17 per battery for the water miser
caps.  They are not cheap, but they work really well.


-- 
TTFN,
Brian "Lasso" Lasseter

"No Sane man will dance."   -Cicero (106-43 B.C.)