There are lots on ebay. I went with one of the cheap ones and I’m happy with it, though I’ve only been at this for a month or so. I figured it wasn’t much to lose if this was all just hogwash.
I also went with one of these battery analyzers to log what’s being put into and pulled out of the battery.
KuoH
Some good information to read on Battery Sulfation before you buy a ton of desulfanators: BU-804b: Sulfation and How to Prevent it - Battery University
One video was saying that rainwater is a great source for distilled water. We’re getting plenty of that in the next few days!
Kids these days, I swear...
no it is not, it is full of particulate and dust and organic chemicals it picks up from the atmosphere
I'm going out on a limb here and guessing they are all toast and nothing you can do will make them worth doing anything more than recycling them .
4 volts sounds really really bad
I’ll pick some up tomorrow at Walgreens and see how it goes.
That little watt meter looks like just the ticket for doing some analysis. Just order the last one out of Cali. Hopefully have it in hand when I start testing.
kuoh, any idea what that 3-pin connector on the side is about?
One is reading sub-1V and I am not holding up hope for that one. What I need to find out is if I have 1 or 2 good motors… and 1 or 2 good 30Amp controllers. I don’t want to drop $65 on 3 new batteries just to find out I have nothing to use them on.
perhaps you have some high drain li ion (not the regular type we use for flashlights) that you can use to try your equipment?
4 volts suggests that it has 4 crook cells.
I wish… but that would open a new discussion… how to “properly” charge a 10S2P pack?
The youtube crowd seems bent on proving that you can recover these types of problems, if not 100%, to some extent. The theory is sound enough. It all depends on the level of battery destroying buildup.
Not necessarily, they could just be severely discharged. Like I said, I’ve recovered one of these that measured less than 1V just by adding some water and slow charge + desulphating. It’s not brand new, but it will run my POB HID for almost 40 minutes, not bad for a virtually dead battery. Hopefully capacity will improve with more time on the desulphator, but only time will tell.
KuoH
If nothing else, they can be converted to normal lead acid batteries by simply filling the water near to the top. They will no longer be non-spillable, but the water will allow the chemical reactions to occur whether or not the fiber layers have lost direct contact with the plates. At this point, all that matters is the level of sulphation on the plates and how much of it can be reversed. If converting to straight lead acid, then additional electrolyte may be needed, but aggressive outgassing may occur while charging and would need to be addressed.
KuoH
That won’t be a problem. Again, this is more of a bench experiment than a solution. They are working in a very clean environment and they are always upright. I might bring the level to just above whateverthewhitestuffis with sufficient room for a little sloshing.
The application is an electric scooter that’s my wife’s grocery getter. She wanted me to bring one of two back to life for the winter. I suspect the provided charger has never been very good about getting a really saturated charge and it was run a lot, including some deep cycling. And then it sat outside (shed) for a few winters.
It is amazing what you can learn in an afternoon on these forums. Now I know more about SLA batteries than I ever wanted to; I sucked another $15 out through PayPal to eBay for a cool new meter, and I am still no further ahead than I was yesterday when I began this project. Not bad… oh, and revive a SPDT brake switch that had wires yanked out by some mysterious means. Nothing like trying to overhaul a plastic 8x8x8mm cube widget and avoid loosing the pieces or breaking tabs.
Defrost your freezer, the ice that you scrape off the sides when melted is distilled water
Or so I was lead to believe ?
I went to the store and got a gallon of Steam Distilled water and a basting syringe.
I also borrowed a high end desulphator/charger/conditioner.
Definitely need to keep an eye on that vapor lock while filling.
Anyway, one cell sitting at 13.8V on a standard car battery charger at almost no load and the other on the desulphator at 19V.
Waiting for the paint to dry… bubbles to start
add just enough to moisten the seperator.
then float it at around 15v with the valves off for a day or 2.
if that dont help recycle.too badly sulphated or grid rot.
After 8 hours on the chargers, the cell on the conventional charger is drawing 1.6 amps and holding 12.01V off the charger.
The Desulphator charged cell is up to 6V and pulling about 0.5 amps.
Some fluid level management but this is looking good for at least one of 2 cells.
Not continuing overnight for safety.
What is the origin of the SLA batteries that are trying to be revived? I have read that many of the Chinese SLA batteries have bad life expectancies due to using impure plate alloys. The impurities increase both the self discharge rate and sulphation tendencies. I do not know how true but my Chinese spotlight with SLA battery died pretty quick when left on the charger which presumably overcharged the battery to failure. A Harbor Freight item.
The Coleman CPX-6 rechargeable battery is SLA technology and is the rechargeable battery recommended for a number of their lanterns and other battery powered camping items they make in place of four D batteries in a removable holder. Per customer reviews it dies quickly if ignored as about 1/3 of the Amazon reviews of the battery pack are 1 star or “I Hate IT” ratings. It also has less than 1/2 the capacity of four Tenergy Centura LSD NiMH D batteries in the normal CPX-6 D battery holder. Per Coleman documentation the SLA battery is from China and is only a 2.6 AH capacity at best when new and properly cared for. Less than 40% of the Tenergy batteries capacity and less than 1/6 the THEORETICAL capacity of four D alkaline batteries though the alkaline battery capacity is highly variable and dependent on load. Alkaline battery true capacity varies over about a 10 to 1 range depending on load characteristics per testing of a Panasonic D Alkaline by HKJ.