Maintenance Free Group 31 Batteries

[Rob Robinson]

A fellow over on Diesel-RV site recently posted about his Interstate
Workaholic Starter batteries saying they weren't maintenance free and that
there were removable caps to add distilled water. Here's what he
said..............

quote "On my Interstate Workaholic 12v batteries, the label covers two
rectangular plastic covers, each one for 3 caps. Probe the label near
the edges & you should feel the groove between the cover and the case
top and can slit the label. Each cover is attached to the battery case
with 4 small molded plastic tabs that have to be cut with a razor
knife. Easy to do once you get up the nerve. Then pry up the covers
with a thin screwdriver. If you don't have the "magic eye" on the
batteries, chances are they have caps and need to be checked." unquote

To make a long story short I checked my three group 31 Interstate
Workaholics and sure enough they had the two rectangular caps under a sticky
Interstate label. I cut the label and pried the caps off (mine did not have
tabs that had to be cut). Every cell was down, some more than others but in
the end the three batteries took a half gallon of distilled water. The
batteries were at least 3 years old and could be older. The residual sticky
glue left on the caps cleaned off with ordinary paint thinner

--
Rob, Sue & Merlin Robinson
94 WLWB


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