Refeshing Dead Batteries

[jcm3]

Not Mustang-specific, but I came across a video last year that I've been wanting to try. We have a camping trailer and the two 12v batteries were DEAD. They weren't in good shape last year so I didn't even charge them since a trip that we made last summer.

I tried this last weekend. It's pretty easy:
- Top them off with distilled water
- Using a battery charger with a 250amp (I think he said 200 is enough) start mode, hook up the battery and charge it for 15 min, then let it rest for an hour
- Do this for five cycles, then top it off with a Battery Tender or equivalent (took almost two days to complete the Battery Tender top off)

I did both of our trailer batteries and then unhooked them the weekend before last. I have been checking them and they seem to be holding at around 12.7v. My batteries were not damaged or bulging.

Pretty amazing. The guy says you can do this every few years and they will last a long time. The vid is only a few years old but I looked up the date code on the batteries he was working on and they were from 2006.

It's worth a try if you a dead battery or even something old laying around to see if it works for you. Pretty amazing, saved me about $450 for two new trailer batteries.

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[WD Pro]

Holding voltage does not necessarily mean it's still got good capacity.

It will be interesting to see how they perform for you when you actually use them / put a load on them (compared to when new) - they might be good enough for what you want, but they won't be good or like new ...

Hopefully the process bought you a bit more time though

WD

 

[Skye]

I can see what the originator was doing with the "blasting" (my term) of the battery: he was breaking up the sulfates, the metal-based salts inside the unit.

For any battery, I'd be concerned of the following:

1. The state of the internal plates. However kept, the plate material will degrade and fall apart over time, reducing their energy capacity.

2. The concentration of the solution, the density of that and how it compares to a new unit.

3. How big the sulfate bits are. Small enough, they can dissolve in the solution. Large enough, they become junk, sometimes in-between plates in a cell.

Once, on a something new battery, maybe not an issue. On a unit much older, see above.

I think a load test on the refreshed batteries would be wise; it'd give the best indication of the state of the units.

YMMV.

 

[ORRadtech]

I think a load test on the refreshed batteries would be wise; it'd give the best indication of the state of the units.

And test it with a carbon pile tester not an electronic one. That will absolutely tell you if the effort was worth it.

 

[Journey GT 435]

I have a flat bed car hauler with a 13000 lbs wench I mounted in a cargo box on the tongue. To keep the battery charged I mounted a solar charger cell on the lid of box and let it charge the battery. I didn't use the trailer at all last year so this spring I went out and ran the wench to see if it was still working and it is still strong. All the the parts were new when I put it together so time will tell how well this works. So far so good. Hmmm that's the same thing the man said when he fell from the roof of a 40 story building as he passed the 23rd floor. So far so good. It's not the fall but the sudden stop at the end.

 

[Garfy]

I can see what the originator was doing with the "blasting" (my term) of the battery: he was breaking up the sulfates, the metal-based salts inside the unit.

For any battery, I'd be concerned of the following:

1. The state of the internal plates. However kept, the plate material will degrade and fall apart over time, reducing their energy capacity.

2. The concentration of the solution, the density of that and how it compares to a new unit.

3. How big the sulfate bits are. Small enough, they can dissolve in the solution. Large enough, they become junk, sometimes in-between plates in a cell.

Once, on a something new battery, maybe not an issue. On a unit much older, see above.

I think a load test on the refreshed batteries would be wise; it'd give the best indication of the state of the units.

YMMV.

Another thing is that as the plates deteriorate, the material that falls off the plates usually collect on the bottom of the battery. That's why the plates do not sit on the bottom of the battery but have space to allow the material to settle without causing them to short the cells out. That's what usually occurs when you have a bad cell. When you measure the voltage between each cell, the one that's significantly lower than the other 5 is the shorted cell. As another poster noted, use an actual load (like a carbon pile or other portable load tester) that can draw more than 100 amps to see if the battery can sustain it's voltage while supplying the high current. That will tell you how good the battery really is. While the capacitance type battery testers are fairly accurate, the load test is the real deal because if it can pass that, it will pretty much do what a new battery will do.

 

[Farkel]

I have a flat bed car hauler with a 13000 lbs wench...

"If I don't do it somebody else will" -Dr. John

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