Rumor ?

Grab a set of Optima Yellow Top and be done with it..have had mine for TEN PLUS years now with no problems...even moved them to my second truck!!..I also use a Pony Pac APU

 

I have only ever used rainwater.
Average battery life is 5y.
Guess i have good rainwater.

 

THIS is information I can use. I push 14.2 at idle to my battery as you described and at road speed it';s 14 then to 13.8 and if the rig I drive (tahoe...) is allowed to consume a large enough load it seems to boil off the battery. and down goes the voltmeter slowly and surely.

The previous owner had rigged the largest awesome alternator on it pushing obscene one inch wiring to big bass thumping type music in the far back driving large speakers. I had to remove those wires to make the vehicle safe after purchase.

The truck is actually on it's second interstate. Stock CCA for that 350 per factory spec.

And the original was a deep cycle yellowtop gel type spiral as a experiment. That one lasted two years.

 

We could in a pinch, Hell Ive drawn water from stream to cool that ford a time or two as it lost original mixed coolant. But the plates would see some contamination yes? It's eventually fatal.

We can get to hundreds of gallons of distilled at any time and a little bit of even cleaner water for a few more dollars. But my problem is that I should not have to fall back to what I consider early 70's living feeding a battery.

 

The bubbles are hydrogen gas, which only means that the battery is charging, and has nothing to do with the voltage being applied. But the combination of both voltage and amperage would effect the rate or volume of the bubbles. Being able to see the bubbles is a simple visual test to determine if you have a dead cell in a battery, no bubbles, not charging. The bubbles, being hydrogen are the reason that you are warned not to have flame or sparks around batteries, and to charge them in a well ventilated area. The hydrogen comes from the water in the cells, hence the need over time to add distilled water.

 

This makes a lot of sense...thank you.

Well, think about it. Rain water is not yet "treated" with chemicals i.e. chlorine, fluoride etc, therefore is actually almost, repeat, ALMOST as same composition as distilled water. So yes, you may have "good" water.

Now this may not apply If you live in smoggy air region, but up in the pristine mountains, then yes, that water is good.