Regenerating a used Lead Acid Battery

Sulphur deposites accumulating on your lead acid battery that's normally the sign your battery's about to fail.
As when they exceed the maximum.
The electric current can't penetrate and conventional wisdom say's you have to buy another one.

However, there is a way of changing that wasteful way below.

First thing is you need the appropriate materials to 'reverse' the sulphur deposites:

Safety goggles
Rubber gloves
Large plastic Container
Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulphate)
Distilled water
Battery charger
Funnel

First is to empty the battery of liquid.
Unscrew the battery caps.
Be careful now, you'll be disposing of acid so you can neutralise it by adding baking soda and doing so until there's no more reactive bubbling.
If you do this you can easily pour it away in countryside etc without damaging anything.

Now heat up your distilled water to about 150 degrees farenheit and now add 7 to 8 ounces of Epsom Salts to it.
(Due to water chemicals you can't use tap water btw.)
Let the solution cool down.

Now pour into the solution into each hole where the caps were until you completely cover each plate.

Now screw the caps back on.

Shake the battery for a minute or so.

Place the battery on a trickle charger for 24 hours.

Load test it to see if it holds a charge.
If it does, congratulations you've just restored a lead acid battery to it's former glory
It may not hold a charge for very long, so you may need to run it down and charge it several times to completely get the battery reconditioned.

You can normally regenerate a lead acid battery 3 to 4 times before the plates become too damaged...

Thanks for reading...

reply to post by WatchRider


I knew there was a way..

i would have thought you would need to "sand" the electrodes
down,,a bit,, to get off the surface,, scrunge..

reply to post by WatchRider


Is there a step missing here?
Put the Epson salt solution in shake drain then add fresh battery acid/distilled water solution?

I think this is a great topic which can save people money. I just recently revived my car battery which stopped excepting a charge due to the sulfation. I didn't replace the electrolyte, but used a bedini charger, although it took ages. There are many desulfators on the market which basically use high voltage pulsing. Replacing the electrolyte is also another way as you have said. One thing I read though is that even though you can neutralize the acid, there is still the problem of the lead, which is an environmental hazard.

Here's an interesting video done by Bedini showing a little bit about sulfation and also using an alkaline electrolyte.

Google Video Link

Changing the electrolyte will do nothing. You need to knock the sulfur crystals off the lead plates. A desuphator will do this electronically. It sends very high voltage through the battery in very, very short bursts to "shock" the crystals off. They will sink to the bottom and be rendered harmless leaving the lead plates cleaner, increasing their surface area and, quite often, rejuvenating a once-dead battery to a serviceable status. To maintain a new battery, install a battery-minder with a built-in desulphator feature.

Just my .02

reply to post by WatchRider


You may want to put a cap-locks bold disclaimer at the top of this thread. As you literally may be poisoning an idiot right now.

reply to post by WatchRider


To the OP. Yes you can recondition an old battery to get it to work. However you have to understand the differences in acid/lead battery types. The battery that you start your car with is designed to give you cranking amps. Thus the lead plates have a high surface area, and some are designed with a lead mesh. Once this lead mesh is destroyed due to battery discharge, you never get the mesh back. Thus for the rest of the life of the battery you will have reduced performance for cranking. The second type of lead/acid battery is called a deep discharge battery. This is the type of battery that is used to power a UPS, boat motor, or a child's little electric car. When you discharge a lead/acid battery for a car you convert it to a deep discharge battery, not great for a car, but you can still use it for storing solar power or other generated electricity.

A question for the OP, shouldn't you refill the battery with the correct concentration of sulfuric acid?

The higher the amps you charge a lead acid battery the shorter the life.

Your battery is dead some day and you throw that 50 amp booster charger on it you may be killing it.
If you jump a dead car battery with another car you may be killing it.

Even charging a near dead battery with the car alternator over heats it and may kill it.

If you put a 6 amp charger on a dead battery and charge it over night your battery will last longer.

Heat in battery causes sulfide buildup.

Have a old dead battery that died from not being charged for a couple months with no load on it.
put a 2 amp charger on it. and slowly recharge it.

Originally posted by Shirak
reply to post by WatchRider

 

Is there a step missing here?
Put the Epson salt solution in shake drain then add fresh battery acid/distilled water solution?

You don't need to add acid.
The pure water and magnesium sulphate when an electrically charged and in contact with the lead plates creates the acid.

Originally posted by ANNED


Have a old dead battery that died from not being charged for a couple months with no load on it.
put a 2 amp charger on it. and slowly recharge it.

Yes, but this guide is for 'resurrecting' a battery that's considered 'dead' as it's and no longer capable of 'holding' a charge

Originally posted by Deemo Diablo
Changing the electrolyte will do nothing. You need to knock the sulfur crystals off the lead plates. A desuphator will do this electronically. It sends very high voltage through the battery in very, very short bursts to "shock" the crystals off. They will sink to the bottom and be rendered harmless leaving the lead plates cleaner, increasing their surface area and, quite often, rejuvenating a once-dead battery to a serviceable status. To maintain a new battery, install a battery-minder with a built-in desulphator feature.

Just my .02

You don't have to do that, but that's the option if you have specialised kit. That method is slightly better for the DIY prepper or homesteader

Originally posted by ThinkingCap
reply to post by WatchRider

 

You may want to put a cap-locks bold disclaimer at the top of this thread. As you literally may be poisoning an idiot right now.

I am confused....When do you put the battery on your tongue to see if it is charged up?

reply to post by Sparky63


I was a bit, I think he means if someone disposes of the old acid somewhere without neutralising it where someone ends up (somehow) drinking it! LOL

I just recently went down to a scrap business to sell them about 500lbs of lead. They offered the best price locally. I brought a couple of car batteries too, but they wouldn't take them. My buddy that helped me said that the cheaper place would take them for a dollar. But considering the $10 you can save with a core charge when buying a new one, $1 dollar is a complete rip off. So I checked into reconditioning batteries.

For the SHTF, when you are using a battery bank, this type of information is great. When all you have available is old dead car batteries, it sounds like necessary information and would be a valuable skill. Reconditioning and recharging would be a good bartering tool.

I'll be trying this out soon on an old marine battery I have.

Here are some links.

How to Recondition a Car Battery at Home

Restoring Lead Acid Batteries

This next article tell how to make a Bedini SSG battery charger and restorer.

Radiant Energy Battery Rejuvenator

Knowing how to wire up solar arrays or making wind and water turbines would be next on the list for charging up your reconditioned batteries. Learning how to build and fix AC inverters would also be a good skill. Even in time of peace and stability, reconditioning batteries sounds like a good home business to make a few bucks on the side.

batteries that are charged with high power have a tendency to fail due to plate buckling. if the internal plates touch then if will either not hold a charge for long or hold no productive charge at all. with safety in mind, it would be possible to straighten out the plates and manually clean surfaces with a tiny wire brush. all bottom debris must be removed.

the above is a dangerous procedure as is handling the acid. it can explode so with that in mind, a rigid set of protocols are needed to perform this task. don up with face shield, overalls, big gloves and a respirator if one is brave enough.
btw access into the battery by cutting lid open would make it easier to restore. keep in mind where these will be stored.

f.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck


thanks for the links

I have a LSV low-speed-vehicle using 8ea 6volt batteries (Trojan 104 deep cycle)....it is starting year 6 on original bAtteries
I had a sulfated problem...I repeatedly soaked the battery connectors/terminals in the cleaning solution & blew off the deposits on 9 battery cables-connectors 5-8" 1-13" 1-16" 2-24" #2 gauge cables

I also bought @ ebay some fluid to recondition the batteries from too much sulferation ?
1 oz per cell and then trickle charge the battery...I did this to 8 separate batteries. with a 6-12 volt charger
~ the hydrogen sulfide gas release as the sulferation is charged away during the long term trickle-charge... at least that's the explanation I think I heard...I was very nervous doing the battery restore process even in the very open carport, with the explosive gasses being continually created as the sulfated battery plates were decorroded ~

then I did the whole 48 volt system/8 battery bank on full charge with a equalizer function in the charger


I know full well even a restored battery will not get a 100% recovery...so I am content with the 75% battery recovery and charge capacity I am getting on these 5+ YO batteries....I expect perhaps another 12-18 months of useful service before I will replace the whole battery bank and get a new set of connectors to boot...
( presently there is a farm supply store that sells deep cycle batteries for a real reasonable $117. ea ~ instead of the 250-300$ range that rip-off golf car places try to ream-u with)
I use electrical terminal cleaner on occasion whenever I see corrosion...

I am going to upgrade my battery bank system when the solar panel array gets bought, to optimize both the solar battery bank and the LSV battery bank.... better late than never, I have to admit

I was going to start a new thread, but found this old one and threw my two cents out there. I'm glad to have brought some new life to it. As simple as it sounds, I can' t believe I haven't thought of trying this before.

Anyway, it sounds like a very good prepper/survivalist skill to have.