Water Miser caps: Looking for positive and/or negative reviews

[hammick]

I am thinking of getting the tallest Water Miser caps for my new Trojan L16RE-A batteries. What are people's thoughts on these? I see Crown Battery puts them on their RE line of batteries. Cost for 24 caps is about $130

Thanks.

[Sunking]

Have not used them, but I know a bit about them. Their target market is ROUGH SERVICE like RV, GOLF CARTS, FLOOR MACHINES and other mobile applications where electrolyte tends to slosh around and gets spilled out of the battery. Not sure it has a lot of benefit in a stationary application.There are three basic model. Short, Medium, and Tall. It makes a water tight seal with a Sponge like material to allow gas to escape, but not liquid.

The other thing I know is they are not made by Trojan or Rolls. They are made by FLOW SYSTEMS and if you want to use then I suggest contacting them and see if you can get them a little cheaper.

What might be of more interest to you and achieves the same thing is an Auto Watering System. Rolls, Trojan, and US Battery all offer them with different Marketing Names. Trojan calls it Hydrolink Watering System. These I have personally used and reccomend to anyone with FLA batteries. Makes watering super easy, fast, and clean. You basically water ever cell at the same time. No opening each cell. .

[hammick]

Thanks Sunking. I'm intrigued by the Hydrolink system. Looks pretty easy. A couple questions. Does Hydrolink cut down on fluid loss? Does the fluid level eye check all cells for low fluid or just the center cell? If I had a neighbor checking my batteries is there anything that could go wrong?

I called Trojan and the Hydrolink does not work on L16 batteries. I would need the Single point watering kit. Not sure if that has the indicators when fluid is needed.

[hammick]

Looking at the watering kit from "Battery Watering Technologies". Their valve looks pretty nice and a fully Kit is about $160. Valve doesn't have to be removed to check SG. The also offer gravity tanks to make their kits fully automatic but I suspect that's not a good idea if freezing temps are an issue.

http://www.batterywatering.com/catal...ial.asp?page=2

http://www.powerstridebattery.com/watering-kit-trojan-l16-batteries

[Mike90250]

I used hydrocaps on by old set of batteries. They only help reduce acid mist escaping from the cell vents, Mine used a bunch of little plastic beads in the cap to collect the mist and had a drip spike underneath to return acid to the cell. They reduce mist, but do not reduce water loss from dissociation. they d keep the tops of the cells a bit cleaner.

I do like the auto-watering idea better. The risks there: a float/filler valve can stick, and flush a cell clean of acid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water

.

[FlowSystems]

This is my take....trying not being biased since Flow Systems is my company, but in my opinion Mike90250 is absolutely correct about the risk of failure in moving parts in the automatic watering systems. We have seen every system in the market in an attempt to engineer a better automatic watering system than is currently out there. With every system we've seen in operation, or even our own internal design, eventually you run the risk of a moving part failure. According to our customers, they provide a false sense of security to those looking for an easy solution to what should always be a manual process. You just can't avoid (or shouldn't avoid) checking the electrolyte and watering manually if you want to feel confident . This is simply the only way to do it.

We ended up not pursuing the opportunity because of the liability associated with a system failure and the cost of replacing battery banks for customers, especially the larger expensive solar battery banks.

[hammick]

Is there any risk if the batteries are manually watered with the system with a bulb pump and a gallon of distilled water? If a valve sticks open won't it be fairly obvious when the indicator doesn't go quickly to full? If a valve sticks closed I guess there is a possibility that the cell doesn't get watered.

[Sunking]

This is my take....trying not being biased since Flow Systems is my company,

Wow that was fast. You must have a robot setup searching the web. I am glad you chimed in though. I am aware of the reported problems of Auto Water Systems. I know of quite a few people who have them in Golf Carts, and I use to have one in my racing golf cart until I switched to Lithium. I do not know of anyone who had a problem, not did I ever experience a problem. I do acknowledge it could happen though.

I see this just like using a BMS on Lithium batteries, especially the Shunt Bleeder Boards. Works great providing everything was set up correctly from the start. It gives the user a false sense of security. That same BMS can destroy a cell or pack in a heartbeat if part of it fails like a Shunt Bleeder Board fails shorted.

IMHO anyone running a large capacity battery be it Lead Acid or Lithium had better know the battery inside and out, monitor them personally on a daily basis, and how to take corrective action. Automated systems can help, but you have to monitor the Automated Systems and double check what it is suppose to be watching. Unfortunately people become dependent on those systems and become complacent.

[FlowSystems]

Usually... water bypasses the cell completely leaving it to go dry. Battery electrolyte really is a viscous, sticky substance that does not play well with small moving parts. Its just that I personally would not put one on a bank without regularly checking each cell which kind of defeats their overall purpose.

Well put Sunking....

[indie]

I know of quite a few people who have them in Golf Carts, and I use to have one in my racing golf cart until I switched to Lithium.

Sounds like a nice cart, do you have a pic of those lithium batteries in place?

[hammick]

This is a good discussion. I can see if a float sticks in the up position that it could dry out a cell if the problem wasn't detected. On the watering system I am considering each cell would have it's own low fluid indicator. These systems are only to be used to water a battery after the batteries are fully charged. If a 6v battery had one or two cells indicating they needed water and the third cell indicates it is full, this would this would prompt me to check for a stuck float.

I agree that a watering system is not a good choice for someone who doesn't know their batteries inside and out and how to maintain them. Someone like that probably is going to eventually ruin their batteries anyway.

I am going to speak with Battery Watering Technologies on Monday. If they fail to convince me that their product is able to reduce fluid loss as claimed, I will go with the Water Misers. Reducing fluid loss is my main objective. Ease of watering would be a bonus.

[solarix]

I agree with the auto watering systems being the way to go. Clean and convenient so the user will be much more likely to do maintenance regularly. Yes, may introduce some less reliability - but we're talking batteries right? I think batts will last longer if customers have an easy wall to water them than if the water system fails.

[Sunking]

I personally would not put one on a bank without regularly checking each cell which kind of defeats their overall purpose.

Well put Sunking....

THX.

What gets me is I work with Batteries professionally for 35 years in the Telecom and Utility sector and use to sit on IEEE committee 450/484 up until 2010 . There is no need to remove any caps to check water levels. You can look and inspect over 196 batteries in a minute or less. The battery jars are clear. Not only can you see the electrolyte level, you can inspect the plates, grids, and sediment setting in the bottom of the jars. All that is crucial. They all use Polycarbonate Thermoplastic as clear as glass. In fact it is used as glass in bullet resistant application like a bank teller window and armored vehicles.

Consumer grade batteries do not do that!

[Sunking]

Sounds like a nice cart, do you have a pic of those lithium batteries in place?

You mean this?

golf cart.jpg

[hammick]

I spoke with the manufacturer of the watering system I have my eye on. http://www.batterywatering.com/

They claim less fluid loss using their system than stock caps. Said it has to do with the vacuum created between the valve/cap and watering tubes.

Has anyone noticed less water consumption using a watering system?

I'm still up in the air on these vs Water Miser caps.