As you discharge the batteries, the level of the electrolyte will decrease as a normal chemical process of the batteries. In fully charged batteries the electrolyte should be at its highest optimum level. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! You just made three mistakes, all bad for your batteries. Oops, got too much in that one, it’s overflowing. So you get a jar or can and fill it with tap water and start pouring it into the cells. I haven’t put water in them for quite some time.” So you open up the battery compartment and remove the caps guarding the cells and low and behold, the electrolyte level is low. You come home from cruising around the neighborhood and think, just before you recharge the batteries, “Gosh, I’d better check the batteries. But adding water is where things can get screwed up.

So it is necessary periodically to bring the electrolyte level to a correct level by adding water and distilled water is HIGHLY recommended. We’ll explain how this happens in a moment. It is also normal in the process of charging to lose some of the electrolyte.

During the normal process of charging and discharging the level of the electrolyte changes rather drastically. The electrolyte in a battery is the solution of water and sulfuric acid. In our recent meeting with the Trojan battery gurus, they told us that over-watering is perhaps more harmful to the batteries than under watering, but they are both bad for the batteries. It seems like most everyone does one or the other. One is over-watering and the other is under watering. There are two conditions when watering can be harmful to your batteries.

Filling trojan golf cart batteries