Help! I just added tap water to my car battery instead of distilled water. What should I do?

To getcha tissues ready....what a stupid and potentially dangerous answer. You don't know if the person asking is wise enough to see the "humor". To the asker...unless you have exceptionally hard water, a small amount of tap water won't hurt the battery.

Distilled Water Car Battery

There are a lot of minerals in tap water that will end up between the lead plates in the battery and cause it to short out rendering your battery useless. If it's a car I care about, I prefer to use Optima batteries. If you keep your charging system in good shape, it will last 9 or 10 years.

Well I don't think that little bit of tap water is going to hurt anything. If you want to get the longest life from your battery it is best to use distilled water. In the old days gas stations had water bottles sitting next to the pump with distilled water in them. That way customers could fill up their batteries if needed.

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They say to use distilled water in a battery because city water contains chlorine and well water contains several minerals and rust. Putting these in your battery may cause the cell to go bad or even leak. To check the level you have to remove the cap off the top of the battery. Depending on the type of battery you have this may have one or more to remove. Becareful when removing not to get only of the acid water on you, or your cloths. Use a flashlight to look into each of the open holes to check the level. They should be filled up to the bottom of the hole. Of you have any that are low; add till you reach this level. Then replace the cap or caps.

relax its not the 60's anymore. You do NOT need distilled water for batteries. The water you get from the sink (unless you have a well instead of city water) is just fine. I don't even think it says distilled water on the batteies any more does it?.

In the 40 years that I've been driving and maintaining my own vehicles I've never used distilled water, and I don't know anyone who ever did, except my Dad. My batteries last as long as anybody else's. That's one of those rules that the manufacturers make up to void the warranty so you can't get compensation if the battery goes bad too early. If your water is good enough to drink, then it's good enough for the battery.

look i've used tap water for over 50 years and never once saw a side effect.

the only problem with tap water is that it still contains some chemicals that are added to the water and some chemicals that are natural to the water.(hard water)

don't do anything. you're messing with sulfuric acid.

i promise you your battery won't know the difference.

good luck to ya.

It really depends on your water hardness and chemical content. If your city over-chlorinates the water or uses amonia as a form of water treatment, this could be bad. Also, if your local water hardness is over 20 grains per gallon currently, or just over 450ppm of dissolved solids, then the extra minerals that aren't water could cause some issues also...if not, I wouldn't worry too much. Good luck.

distilled water isnt much different than tap water.. even if u think ur using distilled water u can never really be sure how distilled it really is.. i think you will be ok

p.s. people say not to put tap water in a fish tank but i have been doing it for months and he is still swimming strong