I have seen on YouTube that it is possible to open a sealed lead-acid battery and refill with distilled water.
But I am using the battery in a mobile home, where the liquid is going to splash around inside.
If I open the battery, will it be possible to seal it again?
In the videos, it seems that the caps are held with glue and so forth. And I'm worried that once I remove them, they won't be waterproof anymore, i.e. leaking acid all over the place.
Also, as it happens, I was naive to buy a battery bank that consisted of 3 batteries, one of which is sealed.
I know that they should ideally be identical, but it's a bit too late for that.
When I charge them at 15V to equalize, my carbon monoxide alarm goes off, but only when I am also charging the sealed battery.
The non-sealed batteries can charge even at 15.5V without off-gassing, and even seemingly without loosing any liquid, despite being charged for more than 12 hours at that voltage.
What's going on? Why is the reaction so different?
The unsealed batteries are probably sulphated, because they will only accept charge (3-5A) and reach specific gravity of 1.26 when exposed to high voltage charging (slowly rising until 15.8V). The sealed battery starts off-gassing already at 15.0V and quickly rises to 15.8V, telling me that it is already fully charged.
Nevertheless, I'd like to be able to monitor the water levels of all the batteries.
At least until the battery bank absolutely must be replaced.