Porsche Battery Maintainer

[E. Roy Wendell IV]

>
> Sulfation doesn't happen above a certain state of charge, and
> certainly not on a battery kept on float; that's the whole point of a
> maintenance charger.  A float charge won't reverse sulfating that has
> already occurred (most likely), but it will prevent further sulfating.

Brett,

Thanks for setting that straight so I didn't have to.

Sheesh, next people are going to revive that stupid old wives tale  
about how setting a battery on concrete will ruin it.

Anything you want to know about batteries http:// 
www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm

Oh, and there is no such thing as a "reverse polarity" car or  
battery. All batteries, regardless, are connected to a charger  
positive-positive and negative-negative. What does exist, although I  
have yet to encounter one in a great many years of wrenching, are  
"positive ground" cars. The electricity still flows the same way,  
just that the chassis is positive with respect to the power wiring  
instead of the other way around. This may seem like semantics, but  
it's not. The difference is fundamental to the understanding of  
what's happening in the electrical system. In any case, I challenge  
anyone to find me a car that is both positive ground and came  
standard with an electric cigarette lighter.

The main point of this discussion is that any maintenance charger is  
a very good thing for cars or batteries that sit around a lot. All  
batteries have an internal self discharge so a battery that sits  
uncharged eventually becomes discharged. For your standard SLI  
(starting, lighting, ignition) battery, ie one not specifically  
labeled as being of the deep cycle type, discharge below 50% of total  
capacity is very very bad for its longevity. Even one deep discharge  
will ruin a battery. Even worse, the percentage of acid in the water/ 
acid electrolyte decreases as the battery discharges. This means that  
eventually the electrolyte is almost pure water. Leave a discharged  
lead acid battery in freezing temperatures and it's electrolyte will  
do what all water does. If said battery were charged, you wouldn't  
have a problem due to the anti-freeze effect of the acid in the  
solution.

E. Roy Wendell IV
erwendell at mac.com
Too many type 44 tq
A pair of MR2s