Indian battery

[mogman]

I just received my "Indian" H2 battery today it is supposed to be an exact coppy of the H2, the vents in the caps are just holes drilled strait through the caps and looks like it gunna puke acid all over my "new" Pan.

[Pantony]

yup it will, when I worked at a bagttery company there was a company that made the real exact copy and the holes in the caps were offset to slow down the puking, unfortunatly they no longer make it, there is one GS battery i had for my 48 pan thaT HAD THE BREATHER ON THE SIDE IN THE TOP BUT YOU HAVE TO CUT OUT THE BATTERY COVER TO CLEAR THE VENT NIPPLE

[Cotten]

The India H2 will work, but do not fill the electrolyte any farther than to just cover the plates.

Most leakage of any vented battery can be blamed upon overcharging.

....Cotten

[mogman]

Thanks Pantony, Cotten that makes allot of sense(less sloshing around) I'll give that a try.
Craig

[Pantony]

Cotten; add to that overfilling or topping off a dead battery , then charging it.

[FlatHeadSix]

Good advice all around, the old lead-acid battery will not "puke" anything unless you over fill it or overcharcharge it. They worked in the original applications and they will work just fine now unless you abuse them. Assuming, of course, that you have a decent battery to begin with.

mike

[PanPal]

As Pantony said, You should only add water after a battery is fully charged. Batteries that are filled first then charged most times will overflow.

[Cotten]

Another important note on the India-made batteries:

They are not "dry-charged".
After filling with electrolyte, they must be charged at a very minimum rate for 24 hours, or longer.

The most common complaint has been leakage around the terminals.

....Cotten

[Pantony]

Those are dry charged, they were when the plates were formed in the plate forming-charge process so they do have what a laymen would call a "dry charge" actually what happens is after forming (charge to top voltage per cell to 2.60 volts per cell) the plates are dryed and coated with kerosene and then inert gas is put in the battery (usually nitrogen) then sealed in some way. Probably plastic wrapper of some kind then stored and shipped. This is where it can get sticky. Some areas of the world are hot and some of the film comes loose and air gets in and the batteries self dis-charge. Hense the battery has to be "charged-back" for a longer period of time. This may be why you have to charge batteries a lot longer from some worldly locations. They ALL start life charged, no matter what. They have to, or the plates are not "formed". If they are not formed (a period that takes a few days depending on the type of plates and pasteing used on the grid) then they are not batteries-yet!

[Cotten]

Pantony!

I would like to think that these batteries are manufactured with modern processes, but they seem to be authentic in more ways than appearance!

Even their British bike battery replacements are invariably dead as a doornail after filling.

At one time, I was told that many of the India parts were being made in motel rooms, but things seem to have improved: http://www.eversureautoagency.com/

....Cotten

[FlatHeadSix]

Cotten,

That would explain the short life span of some of the transmission and other hard parts produced in India. Motel room foundaries are notorious for their substandard heat treating and forging facilities.

Kind of like the mobile home and motel room meth labs we have here in Arkansas, the customers are never quite sure about the quality of the product or what the raw materials were. Most of them go out with a bang, literally, in a spectacular explosion, and the problem takes care of itself. The Darwin principle actually works!

mike

[Cotten]

Mike!

I was trying to be positive about India-made parts,... honest I wuz.

....Cotten

[FlatHeadSix]

I have to admit that on a part-for-part comparison basis the stuff from India is far superior next to the Taiwan products. The fit and finish is usually acceptable and you can generally use it right out of the box.

Durability issues will be answered in time I guess.

mike

[Pantony]

I know you were Cotton, I was just pointing out that they did have a charge at some point, unless they ran them out the door before they were done forming, That can explain a lot!