Sealed lead acid battery, hassle free…most of the time
The sealed lead acid battery combines the best of two worlds: the power and reliability of common lead acid batteries, without the hassle of checking water levels and refilling when needed. Most modern cars ship with some sort of sealed lead acid battery. Let’s see how well they behave in real life conditions.
A sealed lead acid battery is nothing more than what it name implies: it’s a common lead acid battery, encased in a sealed container. That way, you won’t need to check and refill it… at least, that’s the idea. Although this will hold true most of the time, sometimes even a sealed battery can fail because it needed refilling. Not to say that you should force it open, but if it were an “unsealed” battery, you could at least have the chance to keep it working properly for a longer period.
The sealed lead acid battery trades off some of its reliability for comfort. Most of the times, it pays off - people don’t want to bother with checking fluid levels, they their cars to start and nothing else. Just to show you how true this is, when was the last time YOU checked your car battery?
