Apparently while I was working in the garage last week I knocked over my Trolling Motor battery without realizing it. So it sat on its side for about a week, dripping fluid over the "boating corner" of the garage.

Thankfully, none seems to have gotten anywhere near my inflatable boat (phew!) but the battery is now just over half empty of fluid. Should I plan to buy a new one, or is there something commercial that I can buy and refill this?

I paid about $80 for the thing a year ago and I've gotten a lot of use out of it since then, but it seems an awful waste of my fishing budget to buy a new battery if I can somehow save this.

While I am at it - any special considerations I should take while cleaning up the spill on the garage floor? I do some ironwork/blacksmithing out there so I'm a bit nervous about the flammability of the spill.

Fill it with distilled water above the lead put it on the charger and give it a shot. As far as cleaning it up, put on some rubber gloves and scrubbing it with some soapy water should do the trick although it may have left a stain or etching in the concrete. Throw the rags out. Battery acid is corrosive and will eat holes through stuff.

I have no suggestions but a "been there done story" ...

Back when I was a teenager and needed my dad's vehicle to tow my boat around I unknowingly let a deep cycle battery set tipped over night in the back of his brand new "company" Trailblazer. Throughout that summer it ended up eating the carpet from the cargo area all the way up to the driver's side floor board. I had to pay to replace the carpet.

What slonzp said!

For clean up you can get a bucket of water and baking soda and pour over entire area, watch in bubble and repeat, make sure you have aired out your garage. Finish up with a fresh water rinse of area. May leave green like stains on your concrete.

Don't bother with the soap and water yet, BUT WEAR GLOVES AND GLASSES during all the cleaning work to come. Battery acid is sulfuric acid and as earlier posted, very corrosive. It is not flammable, but it still needs to be cleaned up carefully.

If at all possible, the best way would be if the 'boating corner' was near the garage door; if so, start with the garden hose and flush for a good while. If the corner where the spill occurred is inside and you just can't manage flushing with the garden hose, then work with buckets of water. Dilution of the acid on the floor is your friend. Once you have washed as much as you can manage, start putting down baking soda to neutralize the spill. Wash that away and repeat. Once you no longer see fizzing or bubbling when you spread baking soda on the wet spill, you'll know you have finally neutralized the acid.

Water (lots) and baking soda (boxes, not spoonfuls). Even if the area dries out, once it wets again and get s on you, you can get burned. Good luck

Most of the spill was actually on a rubber mat that I have over most of that side of the garage. I'll flush it with water and some baking soda (I keep several boxes in the garage to put out oil fires) and probably just pitch the rubber mats. They're cheap anyway.

I'm most concerned with what to do about the battery, though. Is filling it with distilled water going to dilute the sulfuric acid and limit the battery life? Should I just be looking at getting a new battery and scrapping this one for the core charge?

I had a battery tip over in the back of a row boat that i used to have. I dumped a bunch of baking soda where it spilled and hosed it out good. As for the battery it was about a year and a half when it tipped, I just filled it back up with distilled water charged it good and it lasted three more years.

What spilled was electrolyte, not water. Replacing it with water will dilute the electrolyte (a sulphuric acid solution). There should be a battery dealer in your area that can replace the electrolyte or tell you who does that in your area. If you were from this area, I'd send you to a company that deals with Rolls Surette batteries.

Maybe it has changed in the past several years, but I used to buy 8D batteries for my lobster boat, and they received them dry, no electrolyte. They filled them as they were sold.

Replacing your spilled electrolyte with water is akin to spilling half your cup of coffee and refilling it with water. It's still coffee, but not as strong. When electrolyte in a battery is depleted by natural charging cycles, and does not cover the cells, it is water that has evaporated, and needs to be replaced, hence water is added.