What is a Sealed Maintenance Free Battery?
Sealed batteries are known as maintenance free batteries. They are made with vents that (usually) cannot be removed. A standard auto or marine maintenance free battery is sealed, but not fully leak proof. Sealed batteries are not totally sealed since all batteries must allow gas to vent during charging. There are sealed lead acid (SLA) batteries that are non-spill able. Please read information on our SLA batteries, see AGM and Gel batteries below.
What are the advantages of the AGM battery?
The advantages of AGM batteries are no maintenance, sealed against fumes, hydrogen, leakage, or non-spilling even if they are broken, and can survive most freezes. AGM batteries are "recombinant" which means the Oxygen and Hydrogen recombines inside the battery. These use gas phase transfer of oxygen to the negative plates to recombine them back into water while charging and prevent the loss of water through electrolysis. The recombining is typically 99+% efficient, so almost no water is lost. Charging voltages for most AGM batteries are the same as for a standard type battery so there is no need for special charging adjustments or problems with incompatible chargers or charger controls. Since the internal resistance is extremely low, there is almost no heating of the battery even under heavy charger and discharger currents. AGM batteries have a very low self-discharger rate (from 1% to 3% per month). So they can sit in storage for much longer periods without charging. The plates in AGM's are tightly packed and rigidly mounted, and will withstand shock and vibration better than any standard battery.
Do I need to charge my new Laptop or Notebook battery?
A new battery comes in a discharged condition and must be charged before use (refer to the devices manual for charging instructions). Upon initial use (or after a prolonged storage period) the battery may require three to four charger/discharger cycles before achieving maximum capacity. When charging the battery for the first time the device may indicate that charging is complete after just 10 or 15 minutes. This is a normal phenomenon with rechargeable batteries. Remove the battery from the device, reinsert it and repeat the charging procedure.
Is it Possible to Upgrade the Device's Battery to a Newer Chemistry?
Ni-Cd, Ni-MH and Li-ion are all fundamentally different technologies and cannot be substituted for one another unless the device has been pre-configured from the factory to accept more than one type of rechargeable battery. The difference between them stems from the fact that each technology requires a different charging pattern to be properly recharged. Therefore, the portable device's charger must be properly configured to handle a given type of rechargeable battery. Refer to your owner's manual to find out which rechargeable battery types the particular device supports or use our Quick Find search engine to find the device in our database. The database will automatically list all of the battery types supported by the machine
