Paul's how NOT to convert a Metro

[Christ]

Afterthought -

Have you ever removed the electrolyte and actually rinsed out any of your batteries? Sometimes there's a lead "sludge" mixture that gets left in the battery... not sure how alum would react to that.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by Christ

Rising... there must be some chemical cleaning going on in there that's producing an increasing level of particle motion... sometimes just heating up will raise battery voltage temporarily, so maybe the alum is reacting to something and warming up slightly?

That makes sense. Though I rinsed it, it's quite probable that there is enough acid left to react with the base, creating heat. That would also explain the fact that the voltage was higher after the conversion.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by Christ

Afterthought -

Have you ever removed the electrolyte and actually rinsed out any of your batteries? Sometimes there's a lead "sludge" mixture that gets left in the battery... not sure how alum would react to that.

The first conversion I did I rinsed the daylights out of the battery before adding the alum. Since then, I have read that doing so reduces the performance of the battery. The theory is that the lead sulfate is what is needed for the alum to work properly; so the more "sludge" left, the better the alum battery will work. That's why with this one, I just did a quick rinse and removed as little of the sludge as I could.
As an update: I discharged it for a while with a bilge blower until it was at 8v or so. Then, I put it on the charger. It charged for under an hour. I allowed the charge to burn off or whatever it's called (surface charge??), and it is showing 12.36v. I'm anxious to see the reading after tomorrow's commute!!
Keep your fingers crossed!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by vpoppv

The first conversion I did I rinsed the daylights out of the battery before adding the alum. Since then, I have read that doing so reduces the performance of the battery. The theory is that the lead sulfate is what is needed for the alum to work properly; so the more "sludge" left, the better the alum battery will work. That's why with this one, I just did a quick rinse and removed as little of the sludge as I could.
As an update: I discharged it for a while with a bilge blower until it was at 8v or so. Then, I put it on the charger. It charged for under an hour. I allowed the charge to burn off or whatever it's called (surface charge??), and it is showing 12.36v. I'm anxious to see the reading after tomorrow's commute!!
Keep your fingers crossed!

Cool! I read somewhere also that you should not completely rinse out batteries when refurb'ing them, but I wasn't sure if the Alum would react with it negatively.

I have drained electrolyte and boiled it off to get the sulfuric, though... My Father was apparently told at some point that you can't replace the electrolyte in a battery...

[TheSGC]

How did the commute go?

I wonder how the Alum batteries handle under load compared to the lead acid ones.

I have been itching to drive my EV more, but it has been snowing for the past three days and I haven't finished my water heater yet.

[vpoppv]

Originally Posted by TheSGC

How did the commute go?

I wonder how the Alum batteries handle under load compared to the lead acid ones.

I have been itching to drive my EV more, but it has been snowing for the past three days and I haven't finished my water heater yet.

The commute was pretty much the same as usual: fine there until the last part of the trip, and fine back until the last part of the trip. The alum battery read 10.17v after commute, so just a touch lower than when it was acid. If I am to believe what I read though, the battery should get better as it gets discharged and recharged. I'm just happy it still works about the same as it did before- I was afraid the performance would drop sharply in the beginning until a few charge/discharge cycles, since that is typically what happens.

[vpoppv]

I've put in over 100 gas free miles now....

[bennelson]

[MetroMPG]

Congrats, Paul!

How about you, Ben? How far with your Electro-Metro?

I'm looking at 190,901 km on the ForkenSwift's clock right now... which is 3927 km (2440 mi.) more than when it used to burn gas (using odometer correction factor to account for oversize tires). That's roughly 196 charge cycles, if you figure 20 km/charge, on average.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

How about you, Ben? How far with your Electro-Metro?

My odometer reads 1930 miles. I reset the car's odometer sometime after doing the conversion. It is a mechanical speedometer, so as long as the wheels are spinning, it tracks those miles on the odometer.

When I take the Metro out to events, I flat tow it behind the S-10 pickup. I have no way of knowing exactly how many miles are "towed" instead of "electric-propelled". However, since I was driving on electric for a while before reseting the odometer, I think it is more or less a wash right now.