Ken Weitzel wrote in news:vXcMe.27309$vj.437@pd7tw1no:

I fail kindergarten level chemistry, but what are those
salts? Where did they come from, and what effect does their
loss have on the battery?


If the case is clean and dry before you set it down [most are NOT clean],
there will be no such salts unless there is a crack in the case.

The 'salts' you see build up around the battery are due to spills of
battery acid. When the water evaporates, it will leave behind lead sulphate
and perhaps some other salts, depending on how pure the water has been that
was added to the battery, over the years. You can also have copper sulphate
from the wires leading to the battery corroding due to the acid spills.



--
bz

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

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