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


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Gregory OConnor]

Rob, I think they become maintenance free when The seal and lid trap
in the moist air that later condenses on the sealed lid then refills
the cell. I think the maintenance free fluids produce less pressure
when heated or the container and caps are designed to handel the heat
expansion while charging and using. Maintenance free is an
advertising term that means " Designed to be replaced at end of
warranty period"
GregoryO'Connor
94pt RomolandCa

--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Rob Robinson"
wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>