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In an attempt to get an answer for Ian Crowe from the horses mouth, so to
speak, and in as few words as possible, I posed his question to Mr. Dave
Rice, of Hawker Energy Products (Batteries) in Newport, Wales (the supplier
of the Recombinant Gas Sealed Lead-Acid batteries we put in the B-1).

Dave is a technical manager with Hawker and, except when into a bit of
pub-hopping, is a man of few words, so I thought he'd be able to give an
explanation, as Ian says "in words of one syllable".

Dave's response follows:

**********************************
"Hi,

Could be no difference BUT

The RGs are made with fibre glass separator and are of the "starved"
electrolyte like ours (no acid leaks out even when cut open.

SLA can be just flooded batteries but low gassing so are sealed as little
acid/water is loss, the others have a "Gel" electrolyte and also sealed due
to low gassing

Hope this helps


Dave"

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One thing that Dave didn't mention is that true RG batteries incorporate
materials that actively cause the gas generated (free Hydrogen and Oxygen
due to electrolysis of water) during charging (they all do it) to completely
recombine back into water. This is complete as long as the sustained
charging, and therefore gas generation, does not exceed the capacity of the
recombinant. Good RG batteries (Hawker, Concorde and probably some others)
have an excess of recombinant capability so water loss over the expected
service life is minimized.

Dan Schaefer

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