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hi youtubers  jeff cote here with pacific out systems  and we're doing our ask pys series  in our little studio all right so here  we've got a question from a fellow  boater and he has what he says a silly  question but there's no such thing as  silly questions right we know that  um so he says jeff i haven't checked the  fluid levels on my battery for over a  year  when i bought them the reason is there  doesn't seem to be an obvious way to  open the tops  and yes they are flooded deca i believe  any suggestions  all right batteries and flooded lead  acid batteries  so flood of the acid batteries that are  used in a deep cycle application  unlike what we do in our cars when we  use them for starters  are going to need to have constant  topping off of the electrolyte levels  and that's a reality because when you're  actually charging your batteries under  bulk or absorption  not float so much but bulking absorption  the batteries do warm up quite a bit  and they actually over time the  electrolyte gets warm and it sort of  evaporates  so the distilled water so just h2o  basically evaporates from the batteries  and you have to top them back up with  distilled water not just tap water  because there's minerals in there and  you don't want those minerals to  interact with  the chemistry already in the battery  there's metal in that battery right i  mean the plates are  wet so how do you do that well  the caps should sort of have an  indication a lever there should be sort  of a point where you should have a tab  that you can lift  now you got to be careful wear goggles  you to wear goggles if you don't have  goggles that means you don't love sight  if you don't love  sight this probably means you're not  really looking around enough because let  me tell you the world is a beautiful  place  and your eyes are pretty essential and  sulfuric acid is  not to be laughed at okay you wear  protective goggles i'm not talking about  sun shades i'm talking about  real geeky looking scientific looking  glasses  okay because when you're going to top  off that electrolyte  you'd be surprised on the number of  instances where people have actually had  battery acid land in their eyes  when you lift up that cap the cap should  have on one point should be hinged  the caps either come off twist off and  i've seen that on a lot of golf cart  batteries they twist off  you take them off and then you top off  the electrolyte  and another battery caps they actually  lift like a lever  now unfortunately some battery  manufacturers believe  that and they call these maintenance  free  lead acid batteries there's no such  thing as a maintenance free lead acid  deep cycle battery  it's i think a marketing gimmick in my  opinion and it's sort of basically  calling the battery you're in incapable  or unable to maintain the battery  and they've sold it as a feature but  it's actually a problem  all deep cycle batteries all deep cycle  batteries that are used as deep cycle  batteries  are eventually need going to be topped  off with distilled water and you're  going to have to do that by either  unscrewing the cap or  lifting the cap up so really good  question  thanks for watching this video if you've  got further questions that we didn't  answer please ask them below or go on  our website  and fill up one of the forms and we'll  get a chance to do so  support us to keep this channel ad free  by  donating via paypal or buying one of  these lovely hats  the links are below and lastly if you  haven't subscribed to  our channel please do so that way you'll  get the regular content  and in closing thanks for watching