A while back, I was having trouble with starting, and I cleaned the battery and terminals and things were fine.  When I reported that, I was asked if I had checked the water levels while I had it out, and when I said it was a sealed battery, some of the responses seemed quizzical about the fact that it was sealed.

Flash forward a couple months, and another issue got me to where I was going to remove the battery, so I looked very close while it was out.  The battery is from "Parts unlimited" and there is a strip of caps that you can remove, but there is also a sticker that says "NEVER ADD WATER - DO NOT REMOVE CAPS TO CHARGE".

Is that normal, or do I have an oddball battery

Hard to tell what you mite have.
The big Crank is an AGM type battery.

There is the standard lead acid battery w/ caps

Then there is maintenence free, which is the same battery, but hold a little more acid so they can call it maint free, and sometimes have removable caps so you can add water, which you should, or else it will not last as long as it could.

Then you have AGM batteries, which the acid is absorbed in a glass mat, so it won't spill when laying on its side. Usually they are filled at the factory, and cannot ever be refilled, and normally never need to be.

But someone here reported buying an AGM battery that he had to fill himself, and then tape/seal it.

AGM are the way of the future, as they last longer, and have other advantages. But they are still expensive in the automotive/RV field.

And who knows that a newer technology wont take over any day.

Tanker2Biker wrote on 08/27/10 at 15:59:41:



I'd say that battery is a normal, maintenance-free type.

I'd leave the caps on it.  If it's like the maintenance-free batteries I buy, you just add electrolyte once, when the battery is new.  You pop the cap strip on after that and leave it on there for the duration.

IHTH!