Quote:
Originally Posted by order99
I've heard of a few techniques for renewing LA batteries, both involve changing the chemistry entirely:
Method A) Dump(and neutralize) the acid, rinse with distilled water until completely clean, then fill with a 10% Epsom Salt solution and begin reconditioning.
Method B) The same as above, but with a 10% Pickling Alum solution.
From what i'm told, Method A creates a differently-formulated LA battery at 2V per cell, and Method B creates a Lead Alkaline battery at 1.5V per cell but a far deeper discharge.
Be warned that I haven't tried any of these methods myself yet (although I know someone running some Epsom Salt batts for several weeks now) so don't take these formulas as gospel...on the other hand, if you have some dying cells you can always play around with them before returning them for a core charge, right? 
My neighbor (and stepfather) has a lawnmower battery that's been giving him grief, so I may have a candidate to experiment on in a few weeks-I think i'll just perch vulturelike on his fence for a few weeks... |
Epsom salts DO NOT change the chemestry, epsom salts work best dissolved in distilled water then added to acid to dissolve sulphation
As for alum it does change the battery chemestry but how well it works will depend on if the battery in question has lots of acid dissolved in the mats and has lots of sulphation. Too little of either and the conversion fails
There is also EDTA which goes by many names commercially and other compounds like the chinabattery depot stuff which also work some of the time.
Anyway The best solution is to use an electronic desulphator, you can build one easily per alastaires design from home power magazine.
And yes sealed batteries DO NEED WATER OCCASIONALLY, part of their life limitation is the fact they dry out, even agms occasionally need a small amount of water or acid added to stay functional especially near the end of their lifespan. To add water to a sealed battery just requires the plastic strip and caps to be pryed out, on some batteries the whole cover has to be pryed off.
Good Luck