Question: Why don't battery manufacturers include operating and maintenance
instructions with their product?

   I've been told that there are three types of liars: liars, damn liars, and
battery salesman. Beekeepers have told me the following about deep cycle wet
cell (recreational vehicle) batteries:
1. Never let a battery become fully discharged, or you'll wreck it.
2. Always discharge a battery completely before recharging it, or it will remember
what it was drained down to last time before recharging and will only drain
down that far the next time then sit there waiting for you to recharge it even
though it's not fully discharged.
3. Never half charge a battery or it will remember being half charged and will
remain half chargeable ever after.
4. Never fully charge a battery or you might over charge it.
5. Never set a battery on soil or it will suck the life blood out of it.
6. Never set one on concrete, it's worse than soil.
7. Always use distilled water when topping up the fluid in your battery.
8. Rain water is not distilled water.
9. Rain water is distilled water.
10. If you need to check a battery's fluid level at night do not use a lighter
for illumination.
11. If you do use a lighter for illumination, when the battery explodes don't
use the handy can of coke in your other hand, to wash the acid out of your
eyes. (like batteries, eyes like distilled water)

   Sorting through this advice I buy distilled water for my batteries and try
to keep them as fully charged as possible at all times. I also make sure they
are sitting on wood. I spoke with a "battery expert" this year who told me
the myth about concrete/dirt floors is sort of true. He claims it is only a
problem if the floor is cold. Apparently if the bottom of the battery is cold,
in relation to the top of the battery, then the electrolytes in the cold bottom
will learn to hate the electrolytes in the warm top. They will then go to war
and kill the battery in the process. Just in case this is true I'm keeping
my batteries on wood. Despite all this I can still only get a battery to last
five years at best. I use Galagher E-12 fencers and a solar charger.
   Has anyone had better success using fencing units with a built in battery
and solar charger? And if you have some advice on battery maintenance I'd like
to hear that too. I can add it to my list.
Ted Hancock
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