reviving old battery

LarryNMO · Jan 29, 2014

I was viewing a video recently about bringing an old weak battery back to to life. On the video they drained the old acid out of the battery and put a mixture of water and baking soda into each cell and it started boiling out. Let it set for a while and poured that out, then poured a mix of alum(pickling salt) and rinsed it out. He then filled it back up with distilled water and charged it up over night and it showed 13.4volts and he then put it in his vehicle and started it. Has anyone ever tried this. Curious???? Larry

old · Jan 29, 2014

I have seen and heard of many things like that and I have yet to ever see one ever do any thing but waste time and $$

jennifer408 · Jan 29, 2014

yea, we checked into it extensively and found you would have as much success as beating a dead horse. lead acid batteries are great because they are cheap to make (not to buy anymore, but what is ?) but, just like us, they have a shelf life.

old · Jan 29, 2014

Yep cheap til say 3-4 years ago when you know who got into the white house and since then every thing be it gas or batteries or milk or what has doubled other then income. People who depend on a fixed income are slowly being drained dry and slowly going down hill which is sad

Hobo,NC · Jan 30, 2014

The issue I have seen with a reconditioned battery is it works the charging system double time... Is it worth it to ya to toast a expensive alternator are generator...

I know someone is gonna ring in and state they did it with no issues but can not tell ya what the charging system amperage output is with their reconditioned battery verses a know good battery...

ZANE · Jan 30, 2014

There is a process when the battery acid is pulled down to the top of the plates and then refilled with a mixtue of gallon of distilled water and 10 heaping table spoons of Epson's salt disolved completely.

I've done it on several dead big 6 volt golf cart batteries and they are still in use on my golf cart some after a year???? I do put them on a trickle charger for at least 24 hours before hooking them up in the cart.

Maybe????

Zane

Indiana Ken · Jan 30, 2014

As a point of interest, at least to me:

The Epsom salt method has been around for a while. Another similar method is Glauber's salt. I suspect they were used in the battery additives I remember from the J. C. Whitney catolog when I was a kid.

I have a Chemistry book (copyright 1955) that talks about batteries. There is a short paragraph on the use as battery additives and classifys them as not effective.

I have always been curious if.... the various tricks and additives do not work then what actually happen? The battery didn't work before treatment and after treatment it does.

ZANE · Jan 30, 2014

I read somewhere that the plates get coated with a film of lead sulphte or someting
like that the epson salts cleans it off????

I do know for sure that it has worked for me on the Golf cart batteries that were so dead the cart would not charge any batteries until I did it and then they would make up the complete circuit so all would charge and voltage would come up to where it would show good on a load tester.

Zane

Indiana Ken · Jan 31, 2014

Yes, as the battery is discharged PbSo4 (lead sulfate) crystals are formed on the plates. As the battery is recharged the PbSO4 crystals are dissolved back into the electrolyte. As time goes on some lead sulfate tends to remain on the plates. When lead sulfate covers the plates the battery is dead. There are battery chargers with a de-sulfate mode, with the objective of forcing the built up lead sulfate back into solution.

reviving old battery

LarryNMO

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old

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jennifer408

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old

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Hobo,NC

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ZANE

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Indiana Ken

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ZANE

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Indiana Ken

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