A method of battery separator manufacture and method of use whereby an additive is deployed to mitigate the destructive process of volumetric depletion of electrolyte in a lead-acid battery (known as “water loss”). A set of techniques is disclosed herein for the application of chemically specific additives to address the deleterious effect to critical battery performance features brought about by the sustained reduction in battery electrolyte volume (“water loss”) over the battery service life.