Extending Battery Life

Someone in my office said that he has doubled and even tripled the life of his auto batteries by filling low cells with electrolyte (sulfuric acid ?) which he purchases from auto parts stores. He said that he learned this "little known technique" from his Dad years ago and that it is a great secret that the battery manufacturers don't want to become general knowledge. He never uses distilled water and said that to get that maximum life out of a battery you need to add electrolyte throughout the entire life of the battery, not just as it nears the end of its useful life. We live in the Phoenix area and our extreme heat is especially hard on batteries. Prolonging their life sure sounds appealing. Can anyone substantiate his claim ?

[Bill]

Well, you're right about one thing. All of the battery manufacturers recommend AGAINST doing this.

Look at it this way. The acid in a battery is not consumed as the battery is used. It is simply recyled back and forth between the liquid (electrolyte) and the lead plates, as the battery is charged and discharged. So if you boil off some of the water, and replace it with acid, you are simply making a stronger acid solution. If the battery manufacturer could "double or even triple the life of the battery" simply by putting in a stronger acid solution, he would certainly do so, and then sell his Super Long Life Guaranteed! battery for a much higher price.

This sounds to me like another one of those stories like the one saying that car manufacturers know how to make your car run on water instead of gasoline, but they don't want the demand for gasoline to go down because they own big parts of the oil companies.

Bill

Thank you, Bill. I'll stick with distilled water and wish my coworker well with his acid battery treatments.