what it is? What does VET battery mean?
The battery plays an important role in modern vehicles. It is in it that the accumulation of charge from the generator occurs. The battery ensures the normal operation of all consumers of electricity in the car at a time when the car is stationary. Also, when the engine is started, the initial impulse from the battery is transmitted to the starter to rotate the crankshaft flywheel.
As a result of operation, the factory battery works out its resource and the driver needs to purchase a new battery. On the pages of our information portal Vodi.su, we have repeatedly talked about the principles of operation, malfunctions and types of batteries. In this article, I would like to dwell on WET batteries in more detail.
Types of lead-acid batteries
If the battery is out of order, the easiest way to pick up a new one is to read what the instructions say. In auto parts stores, you can find various types of batteries, many of which we wrote about earlier:
- GEL - maintenance-free batteries. They do not have the usual liquid electrolyte, due to the addition of silica gel to the electrolyte, it is in a jelly-like state;
- AGM - here the electrolyte is in fiberglass cells, which in their configuration resemble a sponge. This type of device is characterized by high starting currents and the ability to operate in difficult conditions. Such batteries can be safely placed on edge and turned over. Belong to the unattended type;
- EFB is a technology similar to AGM, with the only difference that the plates themselves are placed in a separator made of glass fiber impregnated with an electrolyte. This type of battery also has high starting currents, discharges much more slowly and is ideal for start-stop technology, which requires a constant supply of current from the battery to the starter to start the engine.
If we talk about batteries, where the designation WET is indicated, we are dealing with conventional technology in which the plates are immersed in a liquid electrolyte. Thus, WET batteries are the most common type of lead-acid batteries with a liquid electrolyte today. The word "WET" is translated from English - liquid. You can also sometimes find the name "Wet Cell Battery", that is, a rechargeable battery with liquid cells.
Varieties of Wet Cell Batteries
Broadly speaking, they fall into three broad categories:
- fully serviced;
- semi-serviced;
- unattended.
The former are practically obsolete. Their advantage was the possibility of complete disassembly with the replacement of not only the electrolyte, but also the lead plates themselves. The second are ordinary batteries with plugs. On our website Vodi.su, we dwelled on ways to maintain and charge them: regular checks of the liquid level, topping up with distilled water if necessary (it is recommended to top up the electrolyte or sulfuric acid only under the supervision of experienced technical staff), charging methods direct and alternating current.
On cars of German and Japanese production, maintenance-free batteries are often installed directly from the assembly line, which can go under the abbreviations:
- SALAD;
- VRLA.
It is impossible to open a maintenance-free accumulator, but they have a special valve mechanism to normalize the pressure. The fact is that the electrolyte tends to evaporate under load or during overcharging, respectively, the pressure inside the case increases. If the valve was missing or clogged with dirt, at one point the battery would explode.
SLA is a battery with a capacity of up to 30 Ah, VRLA is over 30 Ah. As a rule, sealed batteries are produced by the most successful brands - Varta, Bosch, Mutlu and others. They don't need any maintenance at all. The only thing is that they must be regularly cleaned of dirt in order to prevent the valve from blocking. If a battery of this type starts to discharge faster than usual, we recommend contacting professional services, since charging such a battery requires constant monitoring, regular measurement of current and voltage in banks.
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