Inspection Trips
Undercharging or injurious sulphation is the most common trouble encountered. Undercharging causes the plates to blister and bulge, and in place of good gray edges on the negative plates and good brown color edges on the positive plates, the edges will show a faded color, with very little brown color showing on the edges of the positive plates.
Overcharging is not so evident on inspection, except that in such cases the active material from the positive plates, which is brown in color, will be thrown to the bottom as sediment more rapidly than the sediment would accumulate due to normal wear.
Heavy usage on a battery will also cause considerable sediment in the bottom of the cells, so that it is necessary to investigate carefully whether it is overcharging or overwork. A few questions as to method of operation and load requirements will aid in deciding the cause of excessive sediment. (See When and How to Charge, page 468.)