Settle an arguement between my brother in law and myself.

He bought a new battery for his quad a couple days ago. Noticed yesterday all the cells were VERY close to bone dry. Filled them all back up with distilled water and put the battery back in my sons quad. Started fine. Didn't have time to run it very long and double check level afterwards.

Our issue is this,
After he filled the battery back up, he plugged the overflow hose up. I didn't know that before we used it for the few minutes it ran in my kids quad. Is that going to hurt anything? As long as it isn't overcharging, it should be OK, right? Not that I want to use it like this at all.

 

The overflow hose allows hydrogen to ventilate (can explode otherwise), and if the acid expands too much then it also goes down the overflow. Again you would know by know if that hapened. Therefore it is fine.

Your resident battery expert.

 

Of course you replied 5 minutes after I left to go riding! Knew I'd get a fast reply, but couldn't wait any longer.

I took a red cap/plug off another battery that was laying around and poked a hole in the end of it. Put a piece of paper towel in along side the battery and compartment wall to see how much might boil/splash/dribble out after riding for a while.

Everything appears cool as we were pretty much riding all day. Paper towel was as dry as a bone. Battery appears to still be good after having been ran almost dry in brother in laws quad.

Thanks for the reply. Will print it as proof to nit wit bro in law!!