On Friday, April 20, 2018 at 12:00:02 PM UTC-4, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Fri, 20 Apr 2018 00:21:38 -0500, wrote:

On 19 Apr 2018 18:12:31 GMT, KenK wrote:

A week or so ago checked water in battery. Found all cells a bit low, two
VERY low. Topped all cells off. Checked water again yesterday, same
thing. Took battery to where I bought it. Tested very bad. Got new
battery today. Bought a new Battery Tender to go with it - concerned that
old one might have been part of the problem.


Unless there was a physical leak in the battery, which you would see
liquid under it, it should not lose water from only a trickle charge.
Sounds to me like that "tender" was over charging, which ruined the
battery. Good you replaced both!

A shorted cell can cause gassing at low charge. 14.6 volts on a good
battery is 2.43 volts per cell. On the edge of gassing.
Short one cell and it becomes 2.92 volts per cell on the rest of the
cells - which WILL gas. Gassing means water loss.

Could the tender have failed?? Possibly - but in my experience
batteries fail much more often than good battery tenders (or other
decent chargers)

Before buying a new battery tender, I'd keep an eye on the existing one
with another battery, check the voltage, etc. I'd agree, there is probably
nothing wrong with it.