Acid for battery

[MarkD]

I had a small disaster last week when I came to the boat launch at 5 am and found that the battery box was opened and the battery was lying on the side on the boat’s bottom. Some acid leaked from the battery. I had to clean it up and now I’m trying to figure out what to do with the battery.
I need a small amount of acid to replace the loss, the lead grids inside are not completely covered with the acid as they should be. But it appears that sulfuric acid for batteries is not available at retail stores. I found it only in Partsource, a 19 liters container. Way too much. Any idea where I could get it? I really need a little, probably not more than 200ml.
Now, if I cannot get the acid then should I leave it as is or I better add some deionized water to replace the volume? Any thoughts?

[Labsrule]

Just add distilled water

[longpointer]

Yes ! Use distilled or deionized water only and fill until the plates are covered or to the Fill/Full indicator if it has one. Do not over fill ! Put battery on trickle charge and recheck level after charging is complete. If you don't have a "lab squeeze bottle" to add the water to the battery you can try using a plastic straw by putting your finger over the top end the vacuum holds a bit of water and you can dribble it into each cell.

[werner.reiche]

While I think the distilled water should work, you should be able to buy battery acid. Batteries are shipped dry, so at some point, someone has to add acid.
Canadian Tire sells the acid, but it looks like only in bulk - 5 gallons.

[Fisherman]

Any battery shop can help you out.

[dean.f]

On a side note, Did you neutralize the acid when you cleaned it up? It can really do damage especially to aluminum. I had one leak in the garage and stained/ate the concrete floor over time.

[Pioneerfreq]

My understanding is:
you add water if the acid level drops as a result of charging or evaporation
you add acid if there has been some kind of leak or spill

https://www.batteryskills.com/should...o-the-battery/

[rf2]

If you have an old battery lying around that you don't use anymore, could you steal some from it?
I suspect that if you just added water to replace the leaked acid, you would loose capacity.