Battery Maintenance or How to Keep my Batteries Healthy

First, lets start with a little help from Trojan Battery Company.

Trojan, has a library for understanding and maintaining flooded wet cell batteries.

Link Link to Multi Media Files 

Next, lets look at battery connections, that is, ensuring the battery terminals are clean and free of corrosion.

The first step is mixing water and baking soda in a container. Once mixed, if necessary, remove the cables one at a time from each battery. This then allows you to pour over the battery, allowing the solution remove the battery acid from terminal and the tops of the batteries. Using an old towel, wipe off any excess solution.

Next, I like to use a battery cleaner:

Something like what you see above. Spray, both the terminals and the top. Follow the instructions.

Next, if need be, pour some of the baking soda solution into a cup (I like red solo), and then place the terminal end of the battery cable into the cup and allow to soak. Once done, rinse and dry off.

Now that the batteries and terminals are clean, you are now ready to add a protector to the terminals with cables connected. Now you can use something like this:

Or you can use grease or petroleum jelly, to cover the terminals.



Now, your done, whoops, I may have left out a few more things to do.

Next when was the last time you exercised your batteries. Not an extended exercise, but allow then to drain for 30 to 60 minutes and then allowed to recharged?

Many people believe this is a waste of time, however, I use this to measure the effectiveness of my battery system and their health.

Once the battery charger is back in the float stage, I use my battery hydrometer to check effective charge rate by measuring the specific gravity of the battery solution. I prefer this type of hydrometer and not the plastic variety:

To read and understand what you are looking at:






To understand how to determine the health of your batteries using a hydrometer, I will refer you back to the Trojan Multi Media link and watch this video:
“Determining the Health of a Deep-Cycle Battery”.
Finally, if it is determined, that your batteries are not being fully charged, I will refer you to this video on, Battery Equalization, at the Trojan Multi Media link at the top:
“ Equalization is Key to Extending Battery Life and Performance “.
See your Battery Charger/Inverter for instructions on how to perform this operation. By doing this once or twice a month, you will be extending your batteries life and performance.

Link to More Information on Batteries


The instructions are extremely helpful prior to going dry camping / boon docking.


From DaGirls Rv Aka Dakota & Tilly