I was not “pulling an article from GOOGLE to try to prove some point”.
I have been driving and owning, motorcycles, cars, motorhomes, trucks etc. for some 60 years and I’m very vehicle-battery literate. I once encountered a retailer who told me that the battery I would be purchasing was dry-charged and that there would be a delay before I could collect it, but that was in the 1970s and related to a 6V motorcycle battery that had the capabilty to have electrolyte put into it and subsequently be topped up if the need arose.
Just in case I might have suddenly become ga-ga , I phoned a couple of major vehicle battery distributors and asked if they handled and retailed batteries ‘dry-charged’. I was told that the only vehicle batteries that were delivered to them dry-charged (ie. with no electrolyte in them) were some wet-acid motorcycle batteries that arrived empty with an electrolyte ‘pack’ that needed to be added. I was informed that, in such instances, the buyer needed to collect the battery from the distributor’s premises as it was no longer permissible to courier the acid-pack to a retail customer.
Ignoring AGM and gel batteries where the electrolyte is sealed within the battery’s casing, the majority of wet-acid vehicle batteries are essentially disposable. A measured quantity of electrolyte is put into the battery towards the end of the manufacturing process and the battery’s cell-caps are then covered over, making the battery non-maintainable from that point on. The distributor receives the battery with its electrolyte inside it and retails it (direct or on-line) in a ‘wet-charged’ state.
Hopefully the battery will have a reasonable level of charge when the retail buyer receives it (I always confirm a vehicle battery’s charge state with a multimeter when I get it) but that cannot be guaranteed.
The link I provided that you were dismissive about says of dry-charged batteries
The dry charged car battery comes without the electrolyte installed. This makes it ideal as a backup battery, as it can be stored for a long period of time without the fear of corrosion or leakage.
and about wet-charged car batteries
The wet charged - mainteance free battery functions in the opposite way - instead of having to install an electrolyte on your own, the wet cell comes with the electrolyte pre-installed.
A wet charged battery can't be stored for a very long time before use. Therefore, it's best when installed immediately and put into use.
Fortunately, though, this means that your maintenance on the battery is much easier because you don't have to install the electrolyte yourself.
I fully accept that a dry-charged battery can have a much longer shelf-life than a wet-charged battery if the charge-state of the latter type is not monitored and maintained, but the reality is that distributors of wet-acid vehicle batteries normally receive them wet-charged, store them wet-charged and retail them wet-charged. This practice does indeed potentially impact negatively on the retail buyer as the battery he/she purchases may have some age (it is usually possible to find a date of manufacture somehere on the battery) and/or its charge-state may not have been maintained prior to it being purchased.
Received wisdom on motorhome forums is, if purchasing leisure or starter batteries on-line, to do so from a large distributor (Tayna, Battery Mega Store, etc.) as their high throughput means that their batteries should tend not to kick around on a shelf at the back of a warehouse.
(I hesitate to say this, but I was under the impression it would be common knowledge that vehicle batteries were handled by distributors and retailed by them ‘wet charged’. That’s why I was so surprised that you suggested otherwise. If you still believe that vehicle batteries are generally retailed ‘dry-charged, I suggest you check with the sellers.)