Refurbished batteries
 

Our local PBS station hosted a "Green Expo". My boss sent me to check it out. All in all, it wasn't too impessive, but there was a local company, "The Battery Post" that refurbishes 12 volt automotive batteries. They pour a "proprietary chemical" in them, put them on a pulsing charger to desulfinate the plates, and sell them for $30 a piece. They don't have a web site, but their phone no. is (574) 288-5332, email is thebatterypost@yahoo.com

I think you are largely looking at a rip off. The problem is the deposits that accumulate on the bottom of the case. The process they are using, largely blows open any shorts, temporarily, but it is just a short term fix, for a pretty questionable, usable life. For the money, you'd be better off putting it towards a new battery.

I've used EDTA it really does work well, even better with the pulsating charger, we put another year on our electric lawn mower battery after it stat for 5 or so years without use.
If you did a load test on the battery before selling it then you should be able to know if it was good or not.

That Sears ad in a thread discussing 'reviving' nearly dead batteries is just perfect! I couldn't have planned that any better if I tried! (I am constantly fighting Sears DieHard batteries that will not hold a charge).

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? :thumbup:

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...

Hi Chris,

I always thought that Die Hards were just starting batteries. Is there a deep-cycle model as well?

Yes, the PM-1 (Die Hard Platinum) for marine use. Mine were purchased in 2007 for about $300. each with taxes (could be lower now, I bought a platinum Die Hard charger which works well: 5 chargers - 4 batteries). They are about at the end of the expected 2 years of use, but they have a 4 year warranty I think.

When the vehicle changed owners in 2008; no more warranty. These batteries are sealed, so just draining or adding chemicals is not a good idea!

(just a side note- oddly Sears pulled the advertisement in this thread. Maybe they saw my post and thought "Now is not a good time to advertise" :D )

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