Allowing discharged battery to stand without charge. A battery should never be allowed to stand more than one day in a discharged condition. The battery will continue to discharge although no current is drawn from it, just as an automobile battery will. See page 89. The battery plates and separators will gradually become badly sulphated and it will be a difficult matter to charge the battery up to full capacity.
Battery Troubles
Farm lighting batteries are subject to the same general troubles that automobile batteries are, although they are not as likely to occur because the operating conditions are not as severe as is the case on the automobile. Being in plain view at all times, and not being charged and discharged irregularly, the farm lighting battery is not likely to give as much trouble as an automobile battery. Neglect, such as failure to keep the electrolyte up to the proper height, failure to charge as soon as the battery becomes discharged, overdischarging, allowing battery to become too hot or too cold, allowing impurities to get into the cells, will lead to the same troubles that the same treatment will cause in an automobile battery, and the descriptions of, and instructions for troubles in automobile batteries will apply in general to farm lighting batteries also.
When a battery has been giving trouble, and you are called: upon to diagnose and remedy that trouble, you should:
1. Get all the details as to the length of time the battery has been in service.
2. Find out what regular attention has been paid to its upkeep; whether it has been charged regularly and given an overcharge once a month; whether distilled water has been used in replacing evaporation of water from the electrolyte; whether impurities such as small nails, pieces of wire, etc., have ever fallen into any cell; whether battery has ever been allowed to stand in a discharged condition for one day or more; whether temperature has been allowed to rise above 110° F. at any time; whether electrolyte has ever been frozen due to battery standing discharged in very cold weather.
3. Talk to the owner long enough to judge with what intelligence he has taken care of the battery. Doing this may, save you both time and subsequent embarrassment from a wrong diagnosis resulting from incomplete data.
4. After getting all the details that the owner can supply, you will probably know just about what the trouble is. Look over the cells carefully to determine their condition. If the jars are made of glass note the following:
(a) Height of sediment in each jar.
(b) Color of electrolyte. This should be clear and colorless. A decided color of any kind usually means that dirty or impure water has been added, or impurities have fallen into the cell. For discussion of impurities see page 76.