Easy to Understand Car Battery Glossary
Acid: It’s a type of chemical that gets active in water. In car batteries, we use sulfuric acid.
Active Material: It’s the stuff in the battery that gets busy making electricity. It’s a type of lead in the positive plates and a spongy lead in the negative ones. When your car is running or charging, these materials do a special chemical dance with the sulfuric acid to make power.
AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat): This is a special mat inside some batteries that sucks up all the acid so it won’t spill. Batteries with this mat are pretty sturdy, and you don’t need to check them.
Ampere (Amp, A): This is how we measure how much electricity is flowing.
Ampere-Hour (Amp-Hrs, Ah): This tells us how much electricity a battery can store. If a battery can give 5 amps for 20 hours, it has 100 amp-hrs of juice.
Battery: It’s a bunch of cells put together that can store and give off electricity.
Battery Charger: A gadget that puts electricity back into your battery.
Boost Charge: Give your battery a quick charge to make sure it’s fully powered.
BCI Group: A way to tell batteries apart based on their size, shape, and where the terminals are.
Capacity: How much power a battery can hold. It changes based on how you use the battery and how cold or warm it is.
Cell: The basic unit in a battery that makes electricity.
Charge Acceptance: How much charge a battery can take in a certain amount of time.
Circuit: The path electricity follows. A closed circuit means everything’s connected, and electricity can flow.
Circuit (Parallel): A setup where battery terminals of the same type are all hooked up together, doubling the capacity but keeping the voltage the same.
Circuit (Series): Connect batteries in a line (negative to positive) to double the voltage but keep the capacity the same.
CCA (Cold Cranking Amps): This tells you how good a battery is at starting a car when it’s cold. The higher the number, the better it can start in the cold.
Conductance: How easily a battery can let electricity flow.
Corrosion: When metal parts start to wear away, which can be a big problem for batteries.
Current: This is the flow of electricity, like how water flows in a river.
Deep Discharge: Using a lot of a battery’s power at once.
Deep-Cycle Battery: A battery that’s made to be used and charged up over and over again.
Discharging: When a battery is being used to power something.
Electrolyte: The liquid in batteries that helps make electricity.
Electronic Tester: A tool that checks how good your battery is without needing to use a lot of power.
Equalization Charge: A special charge is made to make sure the battery is evenly charged.
Formation: The first charge a battery gets to start working right.
Gel: A type of battery with a jelly-like electrolyte that doesn’t spill.
Grid: The frame that holds the active material in a battery.
Group Size: A number that tells you the size and shape of a battery.
Hydrometer: A tool that checks how strong the battery acid is.
Lead-Acid Battery: The most common type of car battery.
Lithium-Ion Battery: The latest technology is a rechargeable battery with a lithium-ion cell.
Load Tester: A tool that checks if a battery can handle being used.
Maintenance-Free: A battery that doesn’t need you to check the water or acid levels.
Negative/Positive: The two types of battery terminals. The positive is where electricity flows out.
Ohm: A measure of how hard it is for electricity to flow.
Open-Circuit Voltage: The battery’s voltage when it’s not powering anything.
Parasitic Drain: A parasitic drain is like that sneaky little vampire in your car’s electrical system, quietly sipping on your battery’s life juice when you’re not looking. It’s the unseen energy nibbler, turning your battery into a juice box at a monster’s midnight snack!
Plates: The parts inside a battery cell that help make electricity.
Primary Battery: A battery you can’t recharge.
Reserve Capacity Rating: How long a battery can power your car’s essentials if the alternator stops working.
Resistance: How much a battery fights against the flow of electricity.
Secondary Battery: A battery you can recharge.
Separator: A barrier in the battery that keeps the positive and negative plates from touching.
Short Circuit: When electricity takes a shortcut and can cause damage.
Specific Gravity: A way to measure how strong the battery’s acid is compared to water.
State of Charge/Health: How full is your battery?
Stratification: When the acid in a battery isn’t mixed evenly.
Sulfation: A buildup that happens when a battery isn’t charged enough and starts to lose its ability to hold a charge.
Terminals: The parts on a battery that you connect to the car.
VRLA: A type of battery that’s sealed up tight and doesn’t need you to add water.
Watt/Watt-Hour: Ways to measure how much power a battery can give or store.