MAINTENANCE-FREE BATTERY?

Batteries manufactured 30 years ago were wasting water too quickly making it necessary for drivers to check water level in battery once a week. However, modern, maintenance free batteries do not need fill-up with water during their lifetime, under normal operating conditions. During the same period battery life has doubled.Earlier, 10% of antimony was added to lead alloy to improve the strength of lead in grids. However, it had a negative effect since a certain quantity of antimony dissolved in the acid, and resulted in the battery losing water.Due to improved technology, the 10% level of antimony could be reduced to 1.5% and batteries demanded maintenance once a yearonly. The present state of art in battery manufacture makes it possible that only 0.1% calcium is used in the lead alloy to create the same strength effect. Thus there is less contamination of the acid and much reduced water loss. These are maintenance free batteries,where no fill up is necessary during their lifetime.