Electrical tricks for saving money

I have been sitting on this one for some time untill I could test it out , and read some feedback.I think it is now in the hundred percent viable state. A year or two ago I came across a guy putting a DC welder on a car battery the rational was to boil it with a high amp charge to desulphate the plates of a dead lead acid car battery. It worked but seemed a bit dangerous. But then came across this inspired hack. Providing there is no mechanical damage to the battery, Step one completley discharge the battery by leaving a small load on it, or just short out the terminals. Then with a normal battery charger reverse charge, the battery by connecting the positive from the charger to the negative on the battery terminal , and the negative lead to the positive,on said battery. When the battery reaches full charge it can be connected as normal ,remembering that the poles are now reversed. Or you can now completly discharge the battery again, and charge as normal. This effectivly de suphates the internal plates and returns the battery to its original condition. Judging by the comments section this can be done indefiniatly and basicly keep the battery going , one guy had kept his 12 volt motorcycle battery going for fifteen years. This is a good vid which will save some real money as I notice the price of car batteries aint going down.

a reply to: annonentity

The lead acid battery is made physically and chemically the same in ether polarity except for the posts.. This means that it is not a problem reverse charging. It will be a problem with moderan automatic chargers. They check state of charge and polarity before they start charging. If a battery is below a certain level, it won't charge it because of safety design. You will have to get an old style charger that just tries to charge no matter what. Also the plus and minus posts are different sizes so I would recommend reversing the reversal just to make it easy and safe if someone else works on the car.

I can see this possibly cleaning the plates of any chemical buildup. I think I have an old lawn mower battery that I might try this with.

Do not try this with a gell cell or another other rechargable battery as they are not made the same physically or chemically.

a reply to: annonentity

I have a real big commercial battery charger I bought from a friend who owned a gas station when he retired and sold his gas station to a credit union so they could build a new building. It has a special cycle that takes care of desulphating. Used it quite a few times for when a battery goes completely dead and won't take a charge. Garages do have that kind of battery charger with the high amps and push to get the battery up to snuff. I paid sixty bucks for that charger, it was pretty new when I got it twenty years ago...still got it. At the time I bought the big charger, the same commercial charger was just under four hundred bucks, I just checked the price online, a big charger like that with wheels runs between six hundred bucks on Amazon and more at most other sites. But most people I know other than garage owners or auto places would not spend that much, it would not be worth it if you didn't have the work for it. I paid sixty bucks, that was well worth it for me and I have used it quite often over the last almost twenty years. I do have two smaller ones too of high quality, but one has that stupid problem that it will not start a dead battery and the other one is small but does not have the automatic full shut off cycle. My big one does not have an automatic option, Which allows it to force charge in a battery, this new technology sucks, I go high amp for twenty to thirty minutes, then go lower amp for an hour or two. You can't charge a tiny battery with that big charger, but you can start it taking juice by desulfating it for like fifteen minutes, then using the normal charger to charge it up after removing the surface charge...low amp charging keeps the automatic charger from kicking off as full most times with the little one. My little charger is also commercial quality, I paid seventy bucks for that on sale maybe eighteen years ago...good chargers are not cheap. My jump pack cost me a hundred eighty six bucks twenty years ago...still works great too. Can jump start twenty cars before needing to recharge that.

a reply to: BeyondKnowledge3

a reply to: annonentity

You can activate a lead acid battery again by desulfating the plates and it doesn't require a reverse charge.

Any decent mechanic knows that if you apply to a dead battery a 10 amp charge 3-4 times for 30 seconds before attempting a recharge it it "shocks" the plates and desulfates them.

However, in doing so you are accelerating the natural paste shedding of the plates, which eventually pool in the bottom of the battery and leads to a plate short.

The better way to keep a battery alive is to buy a simple maintainer and use it properly.

a reply to: Mike72

I have seen those videos. Labor is cheep there and replacement parts are scarce. Also there is no safety regulations. I have also seen the hand made tractor tires. Fascinating to watch but toxic in doing.

I've got probably a half dozen old/dead lead batteries sitting in a crate on my other property... and a dead motorcycle one downstairs that hasn't seen a charge in ten years.

it's tempting to try this on some of them and see if they can be revived

a reply to: annonentity

I've got one, turn off power to things that you aren't using at the moment. Even stuff on standby, like TV's and computers.

It costs nothing at all to do that.

The idea of reverse charging a lead-acid battery may extend the life of an old battery, but it isn't going to work for ever.

Batteries work by converting chemical energy to electrical energy.

Most of that electrical energy is consumed in doing work of some sort. You can't just expect to put it back by charging it, or cleaning the plates. Some of the chemistry out-gasses and is no longer available, some produces fairly stable metallic salts that won't ever be converted back to the original acids and bases.

And the process isn't 100% efficient in the first place.

So, the battery charge capacity will reduce over time. At some stage, it will not hold enough charge to make it reliable. The best idea would be to get a new battery, and give the battery to recyclers to extract what they can.

With higher capacity batteries, and/or other battery types, reverse charging is outright dangerous.

if you do any of this wear tight fitting safety glasses and a face shield.
plus have a good source of water ready to wash the acid from your face and body.

and always connect the charging leads to the battery before plugging in the charger and stay away from the battery when powering up the charger.
i have done tricks like this and also had batteries explode for no reason.
i volunteered to do the battery work on the navy ships i was on because i knew about batteries as my father was the battery tech at a large navy research base and ran the base battery shop.
by volunteering to do the battery work on the navy ship, i got a free navy work uniform every month.
but since i got a set of acid proof coveralls from my father, i never damaged any of my dungarees with battery acid and had good dungarees for inspection.
desulfating the plates causes a lead mud to build in the bottom of the battery. when this mud builds up to the bottom of the plates it shorts out the plates and kills the battery and can cause the top of the battery to blow off spraying acid to fly in the air.