Chemical treatments and/or well-tailored pulses of high-rate charging can revitalize a sick lead-acid battery.
Bob, is this something anyone can do? I read earlier in the thread where you said high voltage "pulses" can help a weak battery. I only have a battery charger(with high amp car starting mode), but nothing with higher voltage... is there something one can build? thanks, Jimmy
I havn't had to try these tricks myself, but have heard of some success stories. Why not Google it yourself, do some experiments, and get back to us? The worst that can happen is that the batteries still go off for recycling, with you knowing you tried. (Well, you could have an explosion and fire, but I'll assume you are cautious enough to avoid that.)
Why not just dig a hole and drop the whole battery in?
When you recycle lead acid batteries they recycle the lead, the acid, the plastic, pretty much every part of the battery is recycled other then the dirt that's on the outside, that is why when they pay you for them they pay you for the wet weight of the battery, the recycling place wants the full!
Worried about leaking?
Now THAT would be colossally stupid. Loovit, why don't you puor battery acid on your keyboard for that one, and think about what you've done?
yeah, that would be such a waste. keep the liquid in a mason jar.
if you have to remove grease from under your fingernails, battery liquid does just the trick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland
Why not just dig a hole and drop the whole battery in?
that's pretty good.. but i have recently buried my asbestos roof and i did it rather shallow.
Ryan and Bob, thanks for the info! I have a million things going on right now, but that is definitely added to my list of things to do. Did a bunch of reading last night- am learning a bunch already.... Will update when I start playing in the garage.
Sorry for the long post.....
Ok, from reading the links above- and bouncing around the internets a little, I wanted to share some info.... Sorry to those that already know this- i just learned a little and wanted to share..... (of course this pertains to automotive lead type batteries). not sure of others as of now....
so:
UNLESS the battery is physically damaged(shorted(dead)cell, leaking, etc....) the major cause of weakening power in these batteries is Sulfation.
Quote:
"WHAT IS SULFATION?:
When a battery discharges, lead in the plates combines with sulfuric acid to form lead sulfate crystals. When you recharge the battery, the newly formed crystals will reconstitute into lead (back on the plates) and sulfuric acid (back into the electrolyte). The crystals are like insulators. The more you discharge a battery, the less capacity it has as the crystals begin to cover the plates and deprive plate area contact with the electrolyte."
So basically, the lead sulfate crystals "grow" onto the plates and act as insulators, increasingly growing and increasing restricting your cranking/charging power....
This is a reversible process, by two methods:
----Electrically pulsing the plates- which causes "vibration" of the lead sulfate crystals, "crashing" them into each other. This breaks them down into smaller and smaller pieces. Eventually they absorb back into the electrolyte solution..... This takes quite a while to do(up to a month of pulsing, if I'm reading everything correctly....) An electronic kit can be assembled from about $20 worth of electronic components....
Much more detailed info on this process can be found at the above links in this thread....
----- EDTA can also be used to disintegrate the lead sulfate crystals chemically. I don't know too much about this method, but have read of problems of too much too fast- and having large amounts of lead sulfate come off of the plates, then shorting and causing a dead cell condition. Will read more into this.
Either of these methods look like they can be tested with visual inspection(the lead sulfate cause the plates to have a white fuzzy buildup, which disappears as the method is working), the standard specific gravity method, or testing the battery under load condition.....
I'm very interested in this as it looks like you can revive many batteries that would normally be returned for a core on a new one.... Will update more later.... Jimmy
I'm seriously not crazy...... Just slow days at work. Here's a couple pictures(and a reply to my own reply in this thread....)
Pics of:
1 Normal battery internals
2 Microscopic image of partially sulfated lead plate
3 Microscopic image of completely sulfated lead plate(crystalline sulfate structure- no exposed lead available)
4 Microscopic image of normal lead battery plate
5 Oscilliscope traces of high frequency(around 1 khz) pulses used for this desulfation process...
I have a battery charger that has a desulphater built in to it that I really like, it of course only works with batteries that will hold at least a mild charge, but like with the electric lawn mower it went from using a standard charger that would give me a 10 minute run time to a 20 minute run time in the first charge with the desulphating charger and it slowly went up more and more as I cycled the battery, of course it never got back to being like a new battery but it was improved.
I've also used EDTA in my batteries and have been very impressed with it as well, I'm currently out of it and have been looking for a good source for more.
On my electric car I have a desulphater that stays hooked to the battery pack all the time, it's hard to say, without a controlled study, how well it works but I've never seen anything that says it does not work or could do any harm.
As to sending batteries over seas to let children melt down the lead, I don't buy batteries that are not made in the US, I'm not sure what else I can do other then buy US made batteries and return the cores to the company that makes them.
To Luvit: asbestos doesn't harm ground water, it's even ok to eat, but just don't breath it, don't breath any kind of rock! same with melting metal, don't breath it!
Batteries are too heavy to send overseas to melt down for lead. Shipping weight is also the reason your batteries are made near where they are sold.
Now stripping the insulation off of copper wires, that's a labor intensive job. Somebody want to invent a wire stripping gin to liberate these underpaid workers from their toils, so they put their feet up and watch the gin do its work?
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