Often, I have found that "Maintenance-Free" really means "No Maintenance Allowed--go buy another one", and that "Hermetically Sealed" means much the same thing.
I have five 8D gel batteries (12V, of course). They are somewhat dead, won't hold a charge for long. Somewhere I recall someone had luck with removing the caps, and actually adding pure water to the cells.
Have any of you ever tried to recover/maintain/reclaime gel cells?
What may result from trying this? I have removed the caps from one of the batteries (was really quite simple--just pop the cap off, unscrew the lid underneath), and the cells are, in fact, dry. The "gel" is in clumps, and I can see the tops of the plates exposed. What would happen if I were to add some distilled water, and trickle-charge it up to 14.1 or so?
thanks!
chris
