Pure Lead Acid Battery – a secondary battery with a very high lead purity in the plates of 99.9%. The extreme purity of this battery adds to its cost due to the refining process during manufacture but also to its performance and typical life span. This battery can last approximately 8 – 10 years when discharged to 80% of its capacity before recharging, roughly twice as long as their standard lead acid counterparts. The plates in this battery are also thinner offering more surface area and thus a better power to weight ratio than traditional lead acid batteries.
Because lead is a soft metal the most popular way to give the internal plates strength is to wind them into spirals and use separators impregnated with electrolyte to hold them in place. This technology, used by better brands, is known as Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) and adds to the batteries efficiency and performance.
They come in either a steel case for single cells or ABS plastic case containing multiple cells. Both are known for their very good resistance to shock, vibration, heat and chemicals. Quality Pure Lead Acid batteries also contain a resealable safety valve to alleviate internal gas pressure in case of possible abuses such as incorrect charging.
Note that “Pure Lead batteries” is a term used most often with cylindrical batteries and not with sealed lead acid batteries even though the materials used in the plate production is similar.
The most well known pure lead brand is from Enersys (also known as Hawker) who successfully commercialized the concept in 1972 – see A history of the battery.
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