Fact About Maintenance Free (MF) Battery
Did you know – a ‘maintenance free’ car battery does not last as long as a normal car battery? According to Car Accident Law:
The term of maintenance-free battery is only half true. Lead-acid batteries usually consume some of the distilled water during a normal charge-discharge cycle. It actually electrolyses into hydrogen and oxygen and escapes as gas. So adding distilled water periodically is necessary to keep the plates flooded.
Maintenance-free batteries use calcium alloy of lead instead of an antimony alloy which is able to sustain the water longer without refilling, but certainly not forever!
Any abnormal electrical system condition or high ambient temperatures may boil off more than the normal amount of water. However, adding water may extend the service life of these supposedly maintenance-free batteries.
How to Add Distilled Water into Maintenance Free (MF) Car Battery
- Locate the Maintenance Free (MF) battery under the car hood.
- Locate and unlock the distilled connector cover on the maintenance free battery. For my maintenance free battery cover, I unlock it with 10 sen coin. For maintenance free car battery, usually there is only one cover to pour the distilled water into the battery.
Conclusion:
Especially in places with consistent or all year round hot climate (tropical weather or desert areas), the ‘maintenance free’ battery will not achieve it’s full life span and will fail prematurely. Adding distilled water is still required for maintenance free battery in order to optimize its life span.
Tip: Though using ‘maintenance free’ batteries maybe convenient, but it’s definitely not as economical as a normal car battery as it tends to fail earlier. So be a little hard-working and use a normal car battery which requires refilling of the water.
Test: A simple statistic was calculated to estimate the lifespan of:-
a) Maintenance Free battery (claim – 2years) actual 8 months or 1.5 years
b) Normal battery (claim – 2years) actual – from 2 years to up to 4years with proper on-time maintenance
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Well i am in thailand (35C all year around) and decided to go to Panasonic MFs now regretting it as the GS batteries are cheaper but do require distilled water care. The so called MF battery I just discovered has a top up hole in the indicator tube, the little plastic red/blue indicator, it’s red when I took it out it was blackened inside with deposits from the plates. Hmmm not normal. Before doing this I put it on two cycles of a small battery rejuvenator, pulse type. This may have shed the deposits into the electrolyte. This has not appeared to work anyways. The battery wont do much work off of the engine/ alternator such as keep lights running for more than 5 minutes before the start crank current wont turn the effing starter. (Honda City) I am going back to the cheaper batteries, they last at least the same time (two years) As with previous warnings I can’t determine that a top up will flood 6 plates, down one hole. Had enough calling out friends for a jump start as the car is an automatic. Screw Panasonic it’s a damn lie “Maintenance Free” yeah yeah means no one can maintain it so it’s “free” as you dont need to pay anyone. Back to GS rubbish bad but cheap….
Update – I went back to the car and thought about it, ok, then I did some net research and discovered that indeed under the Panasonic label (just rip it off) are the SIX cell slotted head covers, so I undid them all and HEY PRESTO wearing safety glasses and using a small LED torch I could see the tops of the friggin’ plates exposed, the battery had just about dried out in every cell. So using distilled water which I drew off my aircon unit (if the aircon isn’t all rusted and gummed up with dust and bugs, the water it produces is quite distilled you can catch in a bottle, as mine’s outside) anyways, I have just filled the battery back – it took over 1 litre of water!!!!! That’s how dry it was it’s two years old “paino-freakin-sonic” maintenance free. Yeah, call the lawyers, ok now I am overnight charging / de-sulphating then testing properly and I’ll come back to here and post an update…Thanks for the posts, owner and guys, it made me think “am I hypnotised by the marketing” – indeed yes, and I’m an engineer – so I should have known better DUH!!! Check regaulary as they fail pretty darn quick, especailly in a HOT climate — They are NOT “gel” batteries which I incorrectly thought!!!!
thanks for sharing regarding the MF battery, now i knew that we still check the water level and we still need to refill the distilled water when needed. one of my experienced of my car, that my MF batt easily got discharge and I’ve found out that the door of my car cabin is loosen due to car vibration and it causes the bulb to light all night and day even my car is not running and my battery before will last only for 1 year and 6 mts. Thank you..
Thanks for the advise.. I bought a MF battery and is has lasted me only just exactly 2 years.. Acid previously I used acid battery and it took me 4yrs…i nkw go back to my old school battery
If you are having issues with terminal corrosion, probably best to find a maintenance free battery so vapors don’t work so fast on terminals and cables! I have cleaned with soda and water, plastered terminals with grease or petroleum jel. Crap! within 3 months the corrosion is SO bad, truck will not start. I have to brush and clean terminals. Green and red felt washers…no help. Red battery terminal spray, no help. Gonna go with MF so as to save my $300 battery cable from battery to starter.
Good day, just wanna ask if MF battery Fill with distilled water will work again? It has a 6 holes ready for refill.
yes, you can fill with distilled water when the water level is dropped. Typically we only refill every 6-12 months.
hi
after absorbing all your comments i now feel dissapointed about the MF battries flooding the market..my old school car battry lasted exactly 7years and 8 months with once a year distiled water top up..bought a new MF battry last year beginning of September and left it for 5 days connected in my and had to jumpstart it back to life…this didnt happend to the old school battry..thanks for your comments and replies
Hi Nazzem,
thanks for drop by your comment and shared me your shitty MF battery’s story.
MF battery suck, and it don’t worth the money. After I experience with a lousy MF battery, I am using back old school car battery. All I need is just top up the distilled water every 6 months and it last me couple years!
Stay safe and keep driving, man!
If you want to make it live longer you need to drill the top with 6 holes find suitable caps and fill each battery cell with distil water. The battery companies want your money that’s why they lie to the public by saying maintenance free but really waiting for you to buy a new one every 18 mths
So what is it? will filling only the eye plug, fill up the other cells?
No car battery design would be in the marketplace if it only had a potential to last two years. It is not uncommon for Interstate pop-tops to last a decade.
Giving wrong info will not only makes you look stupid. That hydro window will only too up that one cell, there is 6 cells in a 12v battery
Dude, the hydrometer (that thing you unscrewed to add water) is only for a single Cell in the battery.
So essentially you are only adding water to One cell, and not the other 5 cells.
Hi Kelvin,
Just read your article on MF battery. Very informative, but frankly, I’m just too lazy to top it up. Maybe due to my age. When I was younger conventional batteries were the norm.
Hi Jamil,
nice to see you here again.
I am the budget saving mode, I will still go for conventional car batteries. After all, we just need top up the distilled water once a year 🙂
as for lifespan of free maintenance battery, i can get 2 years exactly without adding the distilled water as ur suggestion.. using same car as urs vios 2008 n already 3rd time change battery.. so 2 years every battery, 3 times change so already 6 years, same as my car’s age..
1. toyota brand 2010
2. toyota brand 2012
3. century marathoner 2014
Hi Amad,
thanks for telling us the history of your car batteries.
Currently I am using back the old, normal distilled battery back to enjoy the longer battery life span from Toyota brand 🙂
This is a great post. Thanks so much for sharing, like always.
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No problem, sharing is caring. Do share with the person who required this information 🙂
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