Don't take this wrong, but you almost sound like Jesse James, but almost look like Kevin Smith (Silent Bob). Really that's kinda legendary lol. And thanks for the vid, sir this is good stuff.
How much old used battery acid do you mix with a concentrated Epsom salt solution. What proportions? Also , once the battery is restored do you leave the Epsom salts and battery solution in the battery and continue to use it like that or does one discard that mixture once battery is fully charged and refill the battery with fresh clean acid?
You all probably dont give a damn but does anybody know a tool to log back into an Instagram account? I stupidly forgot my password. I appreciate any tips you can offer me
Hi all. I'm a mechanic of 27 years. Not everything in this video is correct. If you have an old battery, I can give some simple advice. ( But be assured, the battery will never be like new). You MUST use a "load tester" first, to document the condition of the battery. NOT a Multi Meter, but a LOAD TESTER, that you dial the correct CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) value of the battery as displayed on the label. Once you document the poor condition of the batter, now it's time to recondition it. 1) remove car battery and place is on soft ground such as your lawn. DO NOT open caps or remove any acid yet. 2) Roll the battery around over and over for several minutes. use your boot and kick the battery and make it tumble for a few minutes (this rough contact breaks a lot of the buildup stuck to the plates). 3) Drain all the liquid into a container holding the battery upside down to drain it all. Keep this acid and allow the dirty looking liquid to settle over a few hours, This will take time until the sediments settles to the bottom of your bucket. 4) fill battery with water and repeat process of rolling it after putting caps back on, but DO NOT keep this liquid! instead, dispose of this waste. 5) Once battery is empty again and the captured Acid part 3 has settled and looks clear, carefully pour the acid into another container, leaving lead sludge behind. Finally top up the batter with the clean acid and test the battery on a "load tester".. Yes you can charge it, but prior to doing so, test to see if there is improvement. I recently done this to a Pajero V6 Petrol, that had a dead battery. The Battery bounced back and I got 6 healthy months from it, but eventually it failed to hold a charge. No Epsom salts used in this process, however I am sure that will only improve the condition to perhaps give you as much as 12 months of life out of it, but I cannot verify that as I haven't used salts.
You are correct, The trick is to get the stuff at the bottom broken up and out of the battery. That alone (if it causes bridging) can cause the load tester to give a thumbs down so I am not sure what you would gain by using the load tester first. I am not an expert by any means!
Your a mechanic you know well you should just change the battery come on for god sake all that pissing around and then the thing leaves you down at the worst possible moment. If you have got time to this and earn a living repairing vehicles I tip my hat to you sir. 👍
@@Blaaggarding this information is valuable and important to know and I'll give you an example. I was working as the mechanic on a remote stretch of hi way on the Nullarbor in Australia. Known as the worlds longest straight stretch of road. This road consumes many cars that were not prepared for the drive, and "the Car Graveyard" located 2km from where I was working, was full of perfectly good cars, with damaged engines. One day a Toyota 4X4 with a flat battery that couldn't be charged broke down nearby. The two young backpackers driving it was freaking out as they needed to get back to Perth to fly home in 5 days, Yet where we are, it will take a week to have a replacement battery sent in. This is when that knowledge is valuable as I did it to their car battery and got them to a point where they could start the car with ease each time, and keep going to complete their last 1400km journey. I certainly do not advice you do this trick to a dead battery and then rely on it like these people did to cross central Australia through the desert. But for their needs and the fact they had little option, it worked 100%. But you are correct, ALWAYS replace the battery and be done with it. Peace of mind is important.. Women will NEVER be comfortable with a quick fix like this. They freakout at the very idea that their could still break down. Men, love the challenge hahahaha
Thanks! Like anyone researching any subject, I can take parts of your information and combine it with other videos, current knowledge, comments (neg and pos), and find more resources to double check safety and make my own informed decision. Having the guts to show your methods helps us all learn!
That is one of the most wise comments I have ever read on any how to video. thank you for sharing those super positive and wise words about how to look stuff up online. Feels like some people forget that's how you do it lol
My car battery would not hold a charge but the cells tested fine. Put a tbsp of concentrated Epsom salt water in each, trickle charged overnight. Battery lasted fine with no problems and I sold the car three years later. I did not flush the battery or anything. My Dad did his lawn tractor battery the same way - still acting like a normal battery after 4 years.
*This battery reconditioning program exceeded my presumptions. It worked on any drill battery, several AA and AAA batteries, **batery.repair** and any camera battery. The steps are simple and the act itself is exciting to do. No matter what type of battery you`ve got, it is sure to function again!*
epsomes salt / distilled water and leave off the caps while you recharge. 15 minutes on 200 amp start position on charger. Stop for 1 hour, charge for 15 minutes, stop one hour, this is done 5 times. The battery will be like new and last for years with only the recharging for 15 minute intervals.
I have a Varta car battery in my car the car has been sitting for 2 years nearly and the battery is completely dead will this solution method help it to get back up again and working?
Making use of the ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxcJ22tnHH9l1vjdIdEIG27iOG55P7LXI8 reconditioning plan, I just saved 2 auto batteries from being completely junked. The guides were very simple to follow. I wish I would have found this years ago! You may use the guide to recondition any battery type
The true test is fully charging those batteries, then run them each with e.g. 20 A load (e.g. 4 headlight bulbs in parallel) until the voltage gets down to 11.0 V. You can then compute the total energy released to figure out how much capacity you end up with (basically the longer it takes the better the battery is). Simply being able to load the battery to correct voltage doesn't mean that you can do anything meaningful with the battery. A good car battery is rated between 50-120 Ah as new and if your reconditioned car battery has 2 Ah, it's practically not usable for anything even if it technically still works as perfectly good 2 Ah battery. If you truly just need 2 Ah battery, you should use NiMH or Li-on batteries instead.
@@christianpowerssavesthewor8404 The 12.58 V that you measured is voltage. When you run the starter you need power and for that you need current. The power is literally current multiplied by voltage. The problem is that when battery is bad, the voltage drops rapidly when you try to drain practically any current. A simple test is to measure your battery voltage like you did and then turn on the headlights and turn the ignition to "ON" but not try starting the car. Then measure the battery voltage once per minute. The current needed for the headlights should cause less than 0.01 V drop per minute (but the drop from 12.58 V in this example to headlights on state could be e.g. 0.3 V even with fully functioning battery). The reason for this is that the total energy stored by the battery is limited by the lead surface touching the electrolyte. With damaged battery needing reconditioning the lead surface is damaged and cannot react with the electrolyte over (large?) designed areas. As a result, you get expected voltage but the total energy is very low so draining any current will drain the energy fast out of the battery. Again, energy is literally power multiplied by time. So the above test with headlights on is actually draining energy from the battery and the voltage drop is used as a proxy to estimate the remaining energy in the battery. You can imagine 12.7 V meaning "100%" and about 10.7 V meaning "0%".
@@MikkoRantalainen Thank you for the explanation, I didn't know when he use the boil distill water because it looks to me he still refill the batteries with the same electrolyte removed from them.
@@Brooslinks Oh, you do need to add any lost water but also the part of the lead surfaces that's always submerged get damaged over time. And all the damage there cannot be recovered, no matter what you do and that's the part of the damage I meant above. The parts that are not submerged obviously do nothing for the energy storage so you always want max amount of distilled water in a lead battery.
@@brianlitecky9798 Definitely. Lead batteries were invented around 1859 and the only thing that has changed is purity of the materials used. The less contamination you have, the longer the battery can live. Of course, the body of the battery is nowadays plastic instead of glass for obvious reasons.
Just looked at your video. And I enjoyed watching it! So many of us who owns cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc., for transportation, always thinks that when batteries goes dead, you must always spend more money again to but a new one. I've revived two very old batteries that were dead, by just hooking a 20 watt solar panel directly to them without a solar panel controller. And BOOM! Batteries still works, installed, and started a Dodge Caravan. And the other one is a backup. Someday I'll try your trick, and let you know how it works out!
I followed your advice and did this to my battery in my Jimmy. It quit holding a charge and would die after sitting a couple hours. Now is starting my car after sitting overnight. So cool. Thanks bud!
The coating in the battery is sulfur oxide. The metal looking debris is mostly lead and some of the steel grid that is imbedded in the lead plate to hold it all together. The Epson salt trick works 1 time. It somewhat removes the sulfur oxide, but over time will deposit magnesium into the plate.
At the beginning of the video when you talked about voltages, a 10.8V battery is a totally dead battery. A fully charged Flooded Lead Acid (FLA) battery reads above 12.6V...sometimes 0.1 or 0.2V higher. And a voltage test indicates the state of charge of a battery but not its health. You need to do a load test and a capacity test, the latter is time consuming and you need to use specialized equipment. Its all fun though.
Was just talking about this with some neighbors. Dude said his Dad always flushed/hosed out the junk, refilled the battery and charged it. Old school repair for old school charging systems maybe but when I think of all the money I’ve spent on batteries I really want to try and repair one. Just for the experience. Thanks for validating our backyard mech discussion
I tried doing this two ways. The first one I did I did it exactly like you did it but I used sulphuric acid because it was only $15 for 5 L. The second way I did it was I just drain the acid and then I refilled it with fresh sulphuric acid. I found your way works best. You really have to get that old crap out of the battery for it to be able to except and hold a charge thanks for the video I found it to be very informative peace out
I have some dead batteries and I am going to try that trick to see if it will work on the ones I have because I am tired of buying batteries for my vehicles and lawn mowers. Thanks for the tip and I am glad to have found you and I believe my charger will work on each of them and hopefully they will work again.
sulphation is the killer, sediment settles to the bottom and shorts out the cells. After bathing the batteries in epson salts( for an extended period), and a thorough flush, use distilled water, and proper amount of sulfuric acid to fill the cells. Don’t use the old electrolyte! You won’t be able to remove all the sulfation between the lead plates, but some more limited service of these used batteries is possible. The capacity and cranking amps will still be compromised. Worthwhile to do IF the batteries were not frozen when discharged, and no bulging or distortion of the lead plates is visible. cheers!
right, of all the assholes in the comments at least one person was able to be objective. if the plates can be cleared and new clean solution added some service can be restored. in my mind, i think this process in combination with a large capacitor for extra cranking capacity is a pretty good solution.(then once failure takes place, find more dead batteries, rinse/repeat but obviously the capacitor would still be good)
Great video. Thank you. One note - Baking Soda and/or calcium (generally basic in solution) to neutralize acid may work, but vinegar wouldn't, Brotha. Vinegar is just another acid, albeit weaker than the sulfuric acid in batteries.
You forgot to show how much battery acid it just skips over that particular part what's up with that need to know how much battery acid you were mixing with the distilled water Epsom salt solution
My Motor Home cabin battery was dead and needed to be replaced when my friend said it could be rebuilt. Got me some Apson Salt, took the battery out and went to work. 45 minutes later the battery was back in the car working perfect. That was 8 months ago.
You use distilled water for you solution, but you rinse your batterys with a garden hose with city water, then put old acid in. If a battery reads 12v doesnt mean it will crank a car.you need a load tester. Ive done this with batterys before ,sometimes it works. But never for very long. If you live where it gets cold in the winter, it wont work a all.
So many people here who are haters talking crap about this video but somehow are on this video watching it. Instead of hating on it, why don't you go try his method and then come back and report any false info in this video instead of hating on it before you even try it. Stop wasting other people's time who actually want to read the comments for other additional information he may have forgotten to mention or another step that would help improve.
I have done this with a 12 year old interstate battery that was totally dead after sitting in my pickup truck that sat for over 5 years unused and it worked the battery was just as good as the day I bought it , it had full 12.5 v and I had no issues with it my truck started just fine for many more years ..This is real so save your money and try it before buying a new battery and yes I has tried charging it a few times long before I tried this with the battery charger it got up to 10.2 v but wouldn't even hold that for more then a day...this really works I poured out all the acid into a clean bucket added distilled water and Epsom salt about half way full then poured the acid back in to refill the other half of the battery ..note keep baking soda near by to neutralize any acid spilled or left over..goos luck everyone hope this helps
About 12.74 - 12.6 v volts fully charged battery. Approx 12.40 is 50 % ! Some ecu's go into limp mode as they don't get incoming voltage . Running it should read 14.4 v - 13.7 V approx. Even with lights / heaters on
Getting a battery to come back is very tricky. I have the top of the line charger from Harbor Freight. To see if a battery is doable, do this: Top all the ports off. Maintenance free is still toppable. Most of the time the cells are low. After 10 minutes of charging in AGM mode, do this test. (AGM mode with remove a short off a cell most of the time.) Take a multimeter, go to +, and read each cell with the probe tip stuck in the acid working towards -. If you get at least 1.8 volts difference between each cell, it's doable. Charge at 8/10 amps standard battery mode for 8 hours. Load test the battery. If it dies quickly, drain the battery & add fresh acid. Can be purchased at an auto parts store. Recharge the battery again. It should come fully back & hold a charge. I didn't add epsom salts or cadium tablets & had success.
I like to wear a full face shield with my safety glasses whenever I mess with strong acids or Alkaline solutions. Acid in the eyes is bad. Lye, which is a strong alkaline (basic) will quickly blind you. (For an eye wash- Keep some baking soda when messing with acid. Keep vinegar when messing with Lye. ) Good video. Thanks
Great video, knowledge and safety is so important . My dads a marine engineer. He is a specialist with batteries. He loves his distilled water and Epsom salts. Great job😊👍🏽
I watched a video right before I found yours about saving an old battery and the only thing different in the other video was the old guy first charged the old battery as much as it would take, drained the old liquid, and used a solution of baking soda and reagular tap water (10 ounces to 1 gallon) and it bubbled and hissed totally cleaning most of the build-up out of the old battery. He only used 12 ounces of Epsom salt in a gallon of distilled water for the new battery fluid. I don't know if that makes a difference but it seems the whole bag would probably work a lot better than just 12 oz. I figured I would let you know his trick for cleaning out the old gunk it seemed to work really good but be careful because when you add the baking soda/tap water it will cause a reaction and spit and spew pretty good, saftey glassed a must, I'm going to use a 6ft hose so I'm not close to it at all when it starts spitting. Hope this is useful to you and not just a wast of your time. Be safe and thank you for the videos, very easy to understand, educational and a blast to watch, keep it up I just suscribed and haven't watched all the videos yet but there next in line.
I really like your genuine informative videos! I’ve never commented on a video in my life but felt led to tell you to do more !!!! I actually watched the entire thing!!! God bless you
Thank you so much for taking the time to not only simplify, but also thoroughly explain the internals and operation of the batteries! Your explanation gives the viewers a better visual idea of what they're working with, and what they're trying to accomplish. Great video my friend, very informative!👍🏻
Protip, don't dump out sulfuric in to a bucket acid while wearing flipflops and sweat pants. Also have a bucket with a baking soda solution to pour on you if you have a mishap
I\'m not sure but ,if anyone else wants to discover how to recondition lead acid batteries try Jons Mender Guide (just google it ) ? Ive heard some incredible things about it and my friend got great results with it.
my take is that you didn't clean the plates with the rinse or the epsom , but with the initial 50A charge. Sulfates are stuck on the plates and you'll need high amps to dissolve those precipitated placks on the plates. Usually a good 10-20 minutes on a 100-200A charge until you see bubbles coming out of the cells will recondition your batteries . I wouldn't advise playing around with highly concentrated sulphuric acid. It's extremely corrosive and dangerous if it gets on the skin , it literally slowly burns away any fabric.
It`s surprising how easy this reconditioning steps are t.co/Folp6e7Dkc ! My auto batteries, cellphone battery, drill battery, camera battery, along with other forms of batteries are all repaired and useful again! Since starting this program I have ended up saving over $ 400 on batteries!?
Voltage is one thing but current delivery is another. The amount of amp hours and cranking amps can't be measured with a multimeter and I doubt they would last in operation. Sulphated plates cannot be physically cleaned this way as the plate separators are compressed with the swelling of sulphation, jamming the lead sulphate in place. A tell tale of these un recoverable dead batteries is the bulging of the case, especially at the ends. The epsom salts may clear around the edges of the plates, but you'd be very lucky to get even 10% back.
@@CarGroves two ways they can recondition them, one is to do production line impedance and load test and reject below a certain capacity, the other is to cut around the case just below the seam, lift out the plate assemblies, pressure blast the cell clusters and clean out the sediment cavity then reassemble, ultrasonic welding the plastic back together and adding new acid before charging. Again, they would be graded before reconditioning and any falling below the standard just get recycled. Car batteries are 99.9% recyclable, so they can't lose either way.
@@alasdair4161 a charged battery has the highest acid level. So if you took partially charged lead plates out and pressure blasted them and put them back in considering that they have some of the acid absorbed or converted into them or whatever. If you added full-strength acid after cleaning the plates and putting it back together wouldn't it make the acid level too high?
Alasdair, do they sell lead at the hardware or welding shops? wouldn't it be eaiser for consumers to just buy lead plates and build batteries from scratch?
Michael Garcia advance Auto was running a deal for every used battery you would trade in they would give you a $20 gift card. It had to be a car battery it could not be a lawnmower battery or a motorcycle battery which my motorcycle battery cost me $140 and did not last a year from advance.
Please let us know if your batteries were able to work. Showing a good number in the voltmeter does not means they may crank a start either they may hold the charge... Please let me know. Thanks again. Next time be a little more careful with your eyes and your stinky feet. Thanks to God for people like you...
You’re lucky you can still do that in the USA. Here in the UK all batteries are sealed now. But you’re missing a trick by not settling and then filtering the old battery acid. If you filter the settled acid first through a very fine tea strainer to remove the larger particulate matter, then through coffee filters, you will have a far more extensive process, and end up with a much cleaner, more efficient and longer lasting acid. It’s those floating particles which have come off the plates, that cause the drop in efficiency in batteries.
Car Groves that is of course true. But I’m not talking about metal - as you should already be aware. The corrosion or scale on the lead is correctly termed sulphate. As I believe we have both figured out, it’s this sulphate material that’s clogging up the battery, shorting out the cells and causing it to become inefficient. So it’s the sulphate that’s floating about, not metal. Try thinking before typing a comment based upon assumption and insufficient knowledge. Many of the so-called ‘haters’ on here are actually sharing accurate information. I’m one of them.
I enjoyed your video as I know the expense of purchasing a new car battery. I liked your video, then I saw all your negative comments, but maybe do the test again, and actually show the recharged battery being started on the car, and run for a while and start as normal for some journeys over a period of time. Thanks for sharing
The battery I have all the cells had very dark H2SO4 electrolyte fluid from dissolved plates. Flushed and filled with baking soda then drained flushed and replaced with distilled water and Epson salts. Tried to boost with 55 amps to activate the cells for 15 minutes and let it rest for an hour 5 times. Then charged with a smart charger overnight. made absolutely no difference. These techniques only seem to work with batteries that are weak but not with bad plates like mine. It was not keep up with a smart charger every time which might have killed it. If the charge becomes very low the plates seem to dissolve. I have two other batteries that are over 10-15 years old and they are still 100%. Kept them up with smart chargers whenever they got low so the de-sulfating setting could work well.
I was once told by an electronics teacher that the difference between a 36 month battery and a 60 month battery is the amount of space at the bottom of the plates. The more space, the longer it will take for the scale falling off the plates to short them out. If you could take a battery apart and clean it out, it would last forever, or a very long time anyway.
"f you could take a battery apart and clean it out, it would last forever," They used to make car batteries like that. I remember my grandfather had one. Knowing what I know now, I wish I kept it
As 1 real said. They used to be serviceable and it wasn't a terrible task besides safety. In the late 50s my dad worked at a place that did only that. They would do a couple dozen a day between the 2 shop hands. Safety wasn't as big of a deal back then though and my dad had one explode in his face that was overcharging and starting to boil out the caps. By the time the owner yelled out to him to stay back he already was sprayed with hot acid. It managed to build enough pressure to blow the seal for the top and send the top flying. Luckily he just had minor scarring, his sight was affected later in life though. He still has visible scarring when looked at in the optometrists images after his last laser eye surgery, which made his 3rd to try to correct it.
Before you empty fluid out of battery,try reversing the chargers polarity,and tap the post quickly a few times,it will knock off corrosion and plac,then continue with Epsom salt clean and new muriatic acid,if you want to reverse a battery polarity,completely drain 12 volt power and charge the opposite if you need it to work in either left or right to work in you're vehicle
Battery minimum voltage should be 12.5. They should also be load tested. Hate to be negative, but there is many ways that a battery can fail. As a battery ages the lead decomposes and ends up in the bottom. It belongs on the plates. Even if one can bring it back to life it will usually have low cranking amps or test amps. If the battery gets discharged too many times it can also sulfate.
12.5 volts is the Minimum voltage if the battery is sitting not connected to a charger. It is a static rest voltage. Sometimes the battery will be higher if it is pulled off the charger but it will settle to 12.5 or very slightly above within a few tenths if it is good and all the cells are contributing..
@@CarGroves ive been a master mechanic for 30 years a new Battery isnt fully charged off the shelf and they should charge yo 13.6 and should be load tested with a battery load tester to show they have the proper cranking amps the voltage doesn't mean nothing when it doesn't have the amps to crank it over , and it looses it's voltage the first time under a load.
I did this for a battery that died a week after I owned the truck , the battery fluid was a bit low I dumped a couple bottles of water in it and it was perfect . Holds charge 2 weeks latter cranks the duramax no issue
Salt acts as an abrasive and scrubs the surface for you. That totally makes sense. I would shake them gently while the solution of salt is inside wondering why not use some new distilled water with salt but yeah great video 👍
Hey its Tony with Higher vibe tribe I just was a thank you the information you share it on UA-cam about reviving the battery it worked thank you again I would love to hear more your ideas
A lot of effort went into this but you need a stress test gauge to check a battery. A multi-meter just shows theirs voltage in the battery at the moment and that all the cells are working if you get 12 volts. ten volts means one cell isn't working. Cells are two volts each to total 12 volts.
To really test the quality of your battery rebuild process, charge the car battery at 2 amps for 48 hours. then let the battery sit for 2 days and measure the voltage. It should be around 12.5 volts. Then try starting a car and make note of the sound of the starter speed. Compare that to the sound of a good battery when cranking the same car. A better test would be to take the battery to a auto parts store and have them do a discharge test. Car batteries will provide upwards of 90 amps under load. Batteries fail due to increased internal resistance limiting that maximum current under load. So voltage alone is not a good indicator of the quality of a battery.
@@nedcramdon1306 No, it's a waste of time. To really make this work you would need to remove the plates and chemically clean them to remove the contaminants which limit the current. That is what the epsom salts is suppose to do. Then you would need to clean the sludge from the bottom of the battery box which shorts out the plates limiting the voltage. Put it back together, add new electrolyte and charge it up. At this point you will have wasted more money and time than buying a new battery.
This is awesome, thanks man. I had a dead battery but after watching this I never bought a battery again and the dead battery was alive again btw I watched part 2.
@@CarGroves i haven't tried to revive a battery yet. i think some batteries are good enough to be revived, and some maybe not. if most of your revivals work for you, thats a good thing. a lot of the videos show some kind of revival procedure, and show 12 to 14 volts on their meter, but i don't see them carrying the battery to a vehicle, and starting it up. watching your video, you appear to be honest and truthful about your results.
At 6:23 you said you were going to "dump this fluid out" which was what came out of the batteries. At 8:25 you said that you mixed the Epsom Salt/Water solution with the acid....but above you said you dumped the acid. (1). Where did the acid come from did you buy fresh acid/water mix? (2.) Did you pour the acid into the entire gallon of the Epsom salts solution? (3.) If you reused the acid, did you filter it with a cloth or did you pour it unfiltered into the Epsom salts? (4.) Wouldn't that dilute the acid concentration like 1 part acid to 50 parts water? I was anticipating you using the Epsom salts/water solution to clean the inside of the battery but you mixed it with the acid before putting it back in, right? Greatly appreciate your information!
This guy needs to be in hollywood... poster boy for allllll diy nerds... he is what we all sound like inside.... not what others hear but what we hear as ourselves... no kidding...
hi everyone ,if anyone else wants to learn about how to restore a battery try Jons Mender Guide ( search on google ) ? Ive heard some incredible things about it and my mate got excellent results with it.
@@user-jo5fz8iw3b That mixture was explained well enough on video, but unclear was the refilling after draining and flushing the battery. Did you mix one portion of the previously drained fluid, with the H2O/epsom mixture (and if so to what ratio ?) or did you use the H2O/epsom salt mixture only
Lead / Acid batteries work with two dissimilar metals in the plates in a 9 or 11 plate configuration per cell; usually lead and zinc to enable the electrons to move through the acid during the charge / discharge cycle. The Zn and Pb plates are the anode and cathode -- +/-.
There's available volts and then there's available amps. You can have 12 volts but little amps and amps is what you need to drive a motor like a starter.
I've seen a lot of folks do this battery restoration. I'd love to see a load test on the battery to gauge the capacity. I know it's not going to be perfect like new, just curious what percentage capacity has been recovered?
I have load tested an 800 amp starting battery with a 500 amp loaded tester. I tested the battery several times before recharging it the electrolyte specific gravity test show the acid to be in the high range before recharging.
The open circuit voltage taken on the battery terminal does not indicate any capacity. Volts is potential, capacity is rated in VAh or Volts times Amperes multiplied by the time the load is applied.
This article is completely misleading he might have brought the voltage up did you see him try to start a vehicle?no you didn't because they won't they don't have any power in them a battery that reads 12v is practically still flat 12v lead acid batteries charged up will read 13/13.5 or even higher up to 14.4
You can use alum which is aluminum potassium sulfate. This is able to penetrate the lead sulfate on the plate while the potassium in it makes the electrolyte more conductive. The epsom salt does similar except it doesnt make the electrolyte more conductive. About 4 to 8 Ccs per cell boiling hot saturated epsom or alum solution is all that is needed. Let sit for an hour. Zap with high current briefly till it draws amps, then charge normally. Resting voltage drops by a few tenths of a volt BUT you do get much better peak amps out, especially cold. Mine stared a truck in -50 Wisconsin weather.
@@CarGroves Thanks for the Video clip! Sorry for chiming in, I would appreciate your initial thoughts. Have you ever tried - Rozardner Powerful Battery Reality (search on google)? It is a great exclusive guide for learning how to recondition an old battery without the hard work. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my close friend Aubrey after a lifetime of fighting got amazing success with it.
i try not to replace the fluid if i can. i put distilled water to top off low cells. i hit the battery with 75-105A of current for a couple minutes, boiling the cells and waiting for temps to reach 90F before i shut it off. let it cool. and repeat this cycle a few times. then i put the battery on a trickle smart charger with reconditioning mode. that seems to bring back every battery ive ever tried it on.
I've done this a few times and what I've come to find out is that you can seem to get them to recharge to a good voltage but the battery never regains it's Cranking amps.
right! That because the plates are sulfated so only the equivalent of a postage stamp surface is available for current draw and the stack of cells are imbalanced (some higher, some lower) In electricity they call that situation "high internal resistance" junk is junk
I tried this on a small sealed led/acid battery and the plates were eventually dissolved into a mass of "black liquid." I guess that you have to get the proper mixture of Epsom's salt into the mixture which I obviously did not have. It would probably be better to desulfate the plates first but this can take a LONG time!
@@CarGroves But..it does not desulfate the plates I would imagine. I could be wrong. They have special electronic devices for that and even with them it takes a LONG time. My plates turned into a "black soup" when I added the Epsom's salt and that was the end of the battery...Lol! Incorrect mixture in my case, l guess?? 😉
In my case I have a 12 volt 7.2 Ah battery that although the voltage was at 12 volt when it shorted it did nothing. With the distilled water method it improved a lot only that instead of 7.2 Ah it has 5 amperes, with a no-load voltage of 12.40 volt after a week it remains at 12.00
@@enzovideogames 12v indicated with a volt meter is actually considered less than 6% charged. What most people don't understand, and apparently includes the guy who made this video, is that the percentage of charge for a lead cell automotive/motorcycle battery isn't 100% at 12v and around 10% at 1v, it doesn't work that way. A battery that shows 12.66v with a hand held volt/ohm meter (VOM) is considered 100% charged. A battery that shows 11.89v with a VOM is considered 0% charged. It doesn't work the way that your common sense tells you it will, the percentage of charge doesn't go from 0v indicating 0% charge to 12v indicating a 100% charge. It actually goes from 11.89v considered 0% charge to 12.66v considered 100% charge, 12.24v is actually considered to be only 50% charged, it's not the same as the battery in a cell phone or a laptop, the difference between 0% and 100% charge with lead cell automotive batteries is completely different then a cell phone or a laptop going from 0% to 100%, this is the mistake people make when evaluating the charge condition of a car battery, they compare it in their mind to how their cell phone works but it's completely different. And then you have a load test that simulates cranking on your starter, a car battery can indicate 100% charge, which is 12.66v using a VOM like he is in this video, but you hit the button on a load tester type battery meter and watch the needle dive down into the yellow or red zone on the scale, which means that even though with a VOM it's showing 100% charge it won't pass the load test (which simulates cranking on the starter). Then you have whether or not a battery will hold it's charge after sitting overnight or a few days, you can charge a battery to where it shows 12.66v with a VOM which is 100% charge and leave it sit for 2 days and then put a VOM on it and it'll indicate 12.24v which is 50% charge, meaning that it lost half it's charge sitting for 2 days. It's far more complicated than this guy leads on to be, the only way to properly test an automotive/motorcycle battery is to charge it to where it indicates 100% charge (12.66v) and then hit it with a load tester for 10 seconds and see if the needle stays in the green zone (acceptable) on the scale or drops down into the yellow (meaning weak) zone on the scale or into the red zone of the scale (meaning bad). Hand held VOM meters only tell part of the story, and can't properly evaluate that type of battery, auto parts stores like Autozone usually have a hand held load tester and will gladly walk outside to your car with it and load test the battery for you.
Alternator on my 1999 ford ranger killed by battery, and being broke at the time, couldn’t buy another. Read about this treatment somewhere and have it a shot. Thy was 8 months ago, and it worked like a charm till just this week when it began slacking on the recharge. But I’m in a better possision to buy a new one now No one believes me. Lol!
Im gonna be honest...was in doubt at first and even more so after the video thinking this was far to easy.WELL.... I was wrong...I so appreciate someone actually taking the time showing all of the steps and not leaving out or to the imagination anything un explained ... B. R. A. V. O. to you my new found friend. And YES I did subscribe...Thank you for taking the time in making the video. Frank from Phx Az
Secured Party Hey everyone, the best success that I have had was by following the Magic Mender Wizard (i found it on google) without a doubt the most helpful info that I have ever followed.
I had one that'll charge to 12.7 volts, but after an hour, it'll die to 10.9 volts. Sign of a dead cell. It's dangerous, but you can pop it with a welder sometimes & get the dead cell to take. There's a video on here somewhere where a Mexican guy did it.
@@virginia7125 Very dangerous, when you "cook" a battery like that it makes hydrogen gas which is highly explosive. I had a motorcycle battery blow up in my face like that, it wasn't a car battery but it was a large motorcycle battery, one of the biggest one's ever used and when it blew up it blew an entire section off of it, I'm lucky I still have my face. I was putting it back in the bike after trying something like that and when I was putting the chrome cover back on it the cover touched the positive terminal and sparked, an instant later there was a white flash and the next thing I remember was standing fully upright about 6 feet from the bike with my 2 friends screaming at me but I couldn't hear anything they were saying, because I'd temporarily blown out my hearing. Sometimes in life it just pays to bite the financial bullet and buy a new battery instead of trying these homemade ways of doing things thinking your going to beat the system, you do wind up with a new battery out of it after all.
Its the cranking amps that start the vehicle So 13V means SQUAT really!!!! if the cranking AMPs are not there. Had a 10yr old battery that would charge to 14.5v but would not start the car because the cracking AMPS was only 120 or so
@@LegendLength it depends. Clean the top of the battery. Use a battery tender to get it to 100 pc. Will take 3,4 days. At 100 pc, take it to auto zone or similar for a conductive battery test. That will tell you how good it is. Oh, if it's a battery that you can add water, top off with distilled and let it sit overnight. Then connect the tender. Do not use a trickle charger. Good luck.
The charge is held in the acid through the exchange of electrons between the plates. A charged battery will have a strong acid of high specific gravity as shown by a hydrometer & a discharged battery will show weak acid of low SG. A dry battery cannot show voltage as it needs the acid as the conduction media.
Thats what I said! I have had batteries in the past that showed 13v! But under load, it couldn't start my truck! So because you got a battery to show 12v from 2v doesn't mean you reconditioned a battery!
It shows that the epson salt cleans the plates. It then started the vehicles. You most likely had bridged plates because one or more of them is broken. There is no solution fix for that. Just because it didn't work for your battery doesn't mean that everyone in the world shouldn't give it a try. If we all went by your way of thinking we would never if have had light bulbs...
Your testing is inadequate. The batteries maybe restored to like new. Idk But testing a battery for voltage doesnt represent in anyway what the batter does under load. A big amp draw like a starter might see the battery voltage fall below what is acceptable. Get yourself a load tester and be sure about your findings. Thanks for posting though.
Thanks for the Video clip! Forgive me for butting in, I would appreciate your opinion. Have you ever tried - Lammywalness Trendy Trade Guide (google it)? It is an awesome one off guide for learning how to recondition batteries at home without the normal expense. Ive heard some super things about it and my BF after a lifetime of fighting got excellent results with it.
There is an easier method that only requires 15 minutes of 200 cranking amps 5 times, let the battery sit for an hour in between each 15 minutes, it boils all the crap off the inside of the battery and brings it back to life.
This won't remove the contaminants. It's more akin to acid dipping a rusty frame, and letting it sit in it's own oxide juices so they can recombine again. Let your acid cold settle, then decant and filter your acid solution.
Always use trickle charge. When battery gets up to 75%, make battery "use up" volts down to 25%. Then trickle charge until 100%. Use a charger that will add juice whenever it drops. Leave it hooked up for 1 week. This will crack crystals loose. Try it. I did and it works...as long as your old battery isn't completely dead!
You need some additional steps, friend. Before you drain, shake it up like hell, like a paint shaker to loosen up all the solidified debris on the bottom if you can. Then dump the acid and before you mix the salts mix, "filter" the drained acid with some quality large coffee filters so the acid is lead/metal/contaminant free (clear). No use putting the debris back onto the plates you just spent time & effort cleaning.
@@antonios4926 My revised understanding is that the acid is still in the battery just crystalline sulfated onto the places hindering the ability of electron passage between the plates. I believe the "grey gunk" is actually spent dead lead that has discharged it's electrons in the normal process. All that spent lead needs to go from top to bottom of the cells. DO NOT put Baking Soda into the battery. It will ruin the acid that's turned into crystal sulfate that's attached to the plates. We want to reconstitute that back off the plates and into the distilled water solution so the electrons can flow freely again to create voltage/current. So, what I'm going to do is by a Specific Gravity (SG) battery fluid Hydrometer tester to monitor during the process and possibly an acid Ph test kit. If you do the Baking Soda thing, you'll need more acid to get the SG back up to where it needs to be for best performance of the plates after the plates are clean. Folks are doing this for a business reconditioning batteries I've discovered. The way, now that I've spent some time comparing a number of folks talking about this and better understand what's going on, I plan to buy a small bottle of Sulfuric battery acid which is available everywhere, to top off at the end of the process to get the right SG reading. 1. Wash the battery squeaky clean than trickle charge for 12 hours, take SG and voltage measurements.. 2. Shake the battery "vigorously" in all directions except upside down to loosen spent, collected on the bottom lead sludge and dump in to plastic tub. 3, "Slowly" neutralize spent acid solution in tub with Baking Soda/tap water mix to make it safe to dispose of. No more foaming/bubbling means acid is neutralized and safe. 4. Thoroughly rinse out the core with clean tap water until no more spent lead, nothing but clear water comes out when draining , then allow to completely drain upside down for 5 minutes. 5. Mix up the Epsom Salts solution. I'm seeing roughly 12 oz./gal of hot distilled water, filling cells just coving plate tops and taking SG & voltage measurement. (If you're seeing a different mix, please share links!) 6. Putting the battery on a 2 amp trickle charge overnight (10-12 hrs). Re-measuring SG & voltage. I may bump the charger/starter charge unit to start mode (50-75 amps) every once in a while to help knock off the sulfate to help it dissolve back into the new distilled water solution to speed up the process. Trickle charge again, after total 24 hours of trickle charging take measurements again and visually inspect plates with a good LED light to see if I can see any leftover sulfate deposits. If I see deposits I'll leave trickling for another 6 hours & recheck. After all looks good, final measurements. If SG is good is good, I'll top off with distilled water to bottom of cap opening just below the inner top of the core and fully covering all the plates and call it a day. If SG is low(voltage will most likely be low also), I'll pull some Epsom Salts solution out and replace with new battery acid & recheck until SG is good, recharge, measure and top off with distilled if need be and be done . If SG and voltage (12.9 or better) is good after final recharging, I'm calling it reconditioned & good. Your mileage may vary, that's just how I'm doing it because this Epsom Salts fix appears to be for real the way it's helping reconstitute the acid back off the plates and into the distilled water solution so they conduct and the electrons start flowing freely again.
You might want to consider a 'smart' battery charger - one with a battery 'restore' function. The restore function will also knock/remove the 'Sulfonation' from the plates. You might want to do both: a 'restore' with smart charger followed by the Epsom Salt treatment. ;-)
Great video man. Better then all the ones I saw and my brain 🧠 understands. Haha, but I’m confused 🤷🏻♂️ on you mixing the old acid with the Epsom salt and putting it back in the batteries. Is that an option that you did or can I just refill the batteries back up with epsom and distilled water without the old acid?
Cheers for the video content! Forgive me for the intrusion, I would love your thoughts. Have you thought about - Rozardner Powerful Battery Reality (google it)? It is a good one off product for learning how to recondition an old battery without the normal expense. Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my mate after many years got great results with it.
Agree, getting an open circuit voltage is one thing but if there is still plate oxidation on the outside of the plates, you won't be able to pull any decent current. So you have nice voltage restored, but still no ability to crank a motor. He needs to do short circuit current testing
what he said at the begining of the video about some of them having voltage but not being able to crank an engine is what some people call a "surface charge" it is a sign the battery is shot basically if it has voltage but not much amperage
I watched your video with great interest. Please provide a followup and let us know if each of those batteries will now crank the vehicle from which they were removed. It will be a combination of the voltage and the amperage they provide that will determine if they indeed are now better and reconditioned. Thanks for sharing.
My car solenoid just clicked, I read the battery with the volt meter, it read 11.2 volts and didn’t have enough juice to turn the engine. Amazing how that works. It has to be 12 volts +.
Yup, old sediment, it is as if u had an internal load on the battery as it is a resistance across the plates. I'd put a load tester on the batteries now, proper voltage with no real amps won't do much.
You failed to load test each of your batteries. A good battery should not drop below 10v while under load and the load should be held for at least 5 secs. A recharged battery will show 12v if tested shortly after a charge if the battery has no dead cells.
Ups fixes car batteries quickly, it needs a computer and monitor to be connected. When the ups stops, one car bulb is needed to drain it fully for one night. The trick works, because the ups has a transformer, that is inductive, causing the memory effect to leave the battery.
There are too many people talking smack about the process and materials and load test. It’s a cheap fix guys. It will be a win even if the batter just last 2 months more. It’s not that deep.
Had a Sears battery that being about a month old died in the middle of a crank. Full voltage yet no amperage would not even activate the solenoid. Took back to Sears told the guy what it did, he put on test bench put big leads on to it. Tested acid with hygrometer- all even- full charge. He hit the amps test and the needle hardly flinched. Threw it in the pile wrote me up for another.
Don't take this wrong, but you almost sound like Jesse James, but almost look like Kevin Smith (Silent Bob). Really that's kinda legendary lol. And thanks for the vid, sir this is good stuff.
Haha Thanks, I think?
He honestly just looks like a genuinely good dude right?
Thank you
How much old used battery acid do you mix with a concentrated Epsom salt solution. What proportions? Also , once the battery is restored do you leave the Epsom salts and battery solution in the battery and continue to use it like that or does one discard that mixture once battery is fully charged and refill the battery with fresh clean acid?
You all probably dont give a damn but does anybody know a tool to log back into an Instagram account?
I stupidly forgot my password. I appreciate any tips you can offer me
Hi all. I'm a mechanic of 27 years. Not everything in this video is correct. If you have an old battery, I can give some simple advice. ( But be assured, the battery will never be like new). You MUST use a "load tester" first, to document the condition of the battery. NOT a Multi Meter, but a LOAD TESTER, that you dial the correct CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) value of the battery as displayed on the label. Once you document the poor condition of the batter, now it's time to recondition it. 1) remove car battery and place is on soft ground such as your lawn. DO NOT open caps or remove any acid yet. 2) Roll the battery around over and over for several minutes. use your boot and kick the battery and make it tumble for a few minutes (this rough contact breaks a lot of the buildup stuck to the plates). 3) Drain all the liquid into a container holding the battery upside down to drain it all. Keep this acid and allow the dirty looking liquid to settle over a few hours, This will take time until the sediments settles to the bottom of your bucket. 4) fill battery with water and repeat process of rolling it after putting caps back on, but DO NOT keep this liquid! instead, dispose of this waste. 5) Once battery is empty again and the captured Acid part 3 has settled and looks clear, carefully pour the acid into another container, leaving lead sludge behind. Finally top up the batter with the clean acid and test the battery on a "load tester".. Yes you can charge it, but prior to doing so, test to see if there is improvement. I recently done this to a Pajero V6 Petrol, that had a dead battery. The Battery bounced back and I got 6 healthy months from it, but eventually it failed to hold a charge. No Epsom salts used in this process, however I am sure that will only improve the condition to perhaps give you as much as 12 months of life out of it, but I cannot verify that as I haven't used salts.
You are correct, The trick is to get the stuff at the bottom broken up and out of the battery. That alone (if it causes bridging) can cause the load tester to give a thumbs down so I am not sure what you would gain by using the load tester first. I am not an expert by any means!
Your a mechanic you know well you should just change the battery come on for god sake all that pissing around and then the thing leaves you down at the worst possible moment. If you have got time to this and earn a living repairing vehicles I tip my hat to you sir. 👍
@@Blaaggarding this information is valuable and important to know and I'll give you an example. I was working as the mechanic on a remote stretch of hi way on the Nullarbor in Australia. Known as the worlds longest straight stretch of road. This road consumes many cars that were not prepared for the drive, and "the Car Graveyard" located 2km from where I was working, was full of perfectly good cars, with damaged engines. One day a Toyota 4X4 with a flat battery that couldn't be charged broke down nearby. The two young backpackers driving it was freaking out as they needed to get back to Perth to fly home in 5 days, Yet where we are, it will take a week to have a replacement battery sent in. This is when that knowledge is valuable as I did it to their car battery and got them to a point where they could start the car with ease each time, and keep going to complete their last 1400km journey. I certainly do not advice you do this trick to a dead battery and then rely on it like these people did to cross central Australia through the desert. But for their needs and the fact they had little option, it worked 100%. But you are correct, ALWAYS replace the battery and be done with it. Peace of mind is important.. Women will NEVER be comfortable with a quick fix like this. They freakout at the very idea that their could still break down. Men, love the challenge hahahaha
Second video is up
ua-cam.com/video/RNnSYuTuLk4/v-deo.html
Why would anyone use that old acid out of the battery why not just put new battery acid in there with the distilled water
Thanks! Like anyone researching any subject, I can take parts of your information and combine it with other videos, current knowledge, comments (neg and pos), and find more resources to double check safety and make my own informed decision. Having the guts to show your methods helps us all learn!
ua-cam.com/video/RNnSYuTuLk4/v-deo.html
That is one of the most wise comments I have ever read on any how to video. thank you for sharing those super positive and wise words about how to look stuff up online. Feels like some people forget that's how you do it lol
My car battery would not hold a charge but the cells tested fine. Put a tbsp of concentrated Epsom salt water in each, trickle charged overnight. Battery lasted fine with no problems and I sold the car three years later. I did not flush the battery or anything. My Dad did his lawn tractor battery the same way - still acting like a normal battery after 4 years.
Thanks for the comment!
*This battery reconditioning program exceeded my presumptions. It worked on any drill battery, several AA and AAA batteries, **batery.repair** and any camera battery. The steps are simple and the act itself is exciting to do. No matter what type of battery you`ve got, it is sure to function again!*
do explain how you got a AA open to add epsom salt water
Not!
Yea aite
Bullsht troll. This exact posting is seen on all battery restoration videos. Go crawl back into your toilet liar.
epsomes salt / distilled water and leave off the caps while you recharge. 15 minutes on 200 amp start position on charger. Stop for 1 hour, charge for 15 minutes, stop one hour, this is done 5 times. The battery will be like new and last for years with only the recharging for 15 minute intervals.
I have a Varta car battery in my car the car has been sitting for 2 years nearly and the battery is completely dead will this solution method help it to get back up again and working?
Making use of the ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxcJ22tnHH9l1vjdIdEIG27iOG55P7LXI8 reconditioning plan, I just saved 2 auto batteries from being completely junked. The guides were very simple to follow. I wish I would have found this years ago! You may use the guide to recondition any battery type
The true test is fully charging those batteries, then run them each with e.g. 20 A load (e.g. 4 headlight bulbs in parallel) until the voltage gets down to 11.0 V. You can then compute the total energy released to figure out how much capacity you end up with (basically the longer it takes the better the battery is). Simply being able to load the battery to correct voltage doesn't mean that you can do anything meaningful with the battery. A good car battery is rated between 50-120 Ah as new and if your reconditioned car battery has 2 Ah, it's practically not usable for anything even if it technically still works as perfectly good 2 Ah battery. If you truly just need 2 Ah battery, you should use NiMH or Li-on batteries instead.
@@christianpowerssavesthewor8404 The 12.58 V that you measured is voltage. When you run the starter you need power and for that you need current. The power is literally current multiplied by voltage.
The problem is that when battery is bad, the voltage drops rapidly when you try to drain practically any current.
A simple test is to measure your battery voltage like you did and then turn on the headlights and turn the ignition to "ON" but not try starting the car.
Then measure the battery voltage once per minute.
The current needed for the headlights should cause less than 0.01 V drop per minute (but the drop from 12.58 V in this example to headlights on state could be e.g. 0.3 V even with fully functioning battery).
The reason for this is that the total energy stored by the battery is limited by the lead surface touching the electrolyte. With damaged battery needing reconditioning the lead surface is damaged and cannot react with the electrolyte over (large?) designed areas.
As a result, you get expected voltage but the total energy is very low so draining any current will drain the energy fast out of the battery.
Again, energy is literally power multiplied by time. So the above test with headlights on is actually draining energy from the battery and the voltage drop is used as a proxy to estimate the remaining energy in the battery.
You can imagine 12.7 V meaning "100%" and about 10.7 V meaning "0%".
@@MikkoRantalainen
Thank you for the explanation, I didn't know when he use the boil distill water because it looks to me he still refill the batteries with the same electrolyte removed from them.
@@Brooslinks Oh, you do need to add any lost water but also the part of the lead surfaces that's always submerged get damaged over time. And all the damage there cannot be recovered, no matter what you do and that's the part of the damage I meant above. The parts that are not submerged obviously do nothing for the energy storage so you always want max amount of distilled water in a lead battery.
Old skool tech
@@brianlitecky9798 Definitely. Lead batteries were invented around 1859 and the only thing that has changed is purity of the materials used. The less contamination you have, the longer the battery can live.
Of course, the body of the battery is nowadays plastic instead of glass for obvious reasons.
Just looked at your video. And I enjoyed watching it! So many of us who owns cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc., for transportation, always thinks that when batteries goes dead, you must always spend more money again to but a new one. I've revived two very old batteries that were dead, by just hooking a 20 watt solar panel directly to them without a solar panel controller. And BOOM! Batteries still works, installed, and started a Dodge Caravan. And the other one is a backup. Someday I'll try your trick, and let you know how it works out!
Thanks for watching
George, how long did you leave the battery hooked up to the 20 watt solar panel? Thanks, friend.
I followed your advice and did this to my battery in my Jimmy. It quit holding a charge and would die after sitting a couple hours. Now is starting my car after sitting overnight. So cool. Thanks bud!
The coating in the battery is sulfur oxide. The metal looking debris is mostly lead and some of the steel grid that is imbedded in the lead plate to hold it all together. The Epson salt trick works 1 time. It somewhat removes the sulfur oxide, but over time will deposit magnesium into the plate.
If it works, it works.
At either rate, the batteries are worthless to begin with, so if it’ll buy a even another year or two. That’s still a win win…
At the beginning of the video when you talked about voltages, a 10.8V battery is a totally dead battery. A fully charged Flooded Lead Acid (FLA) battery reads above 12.6V...sometimes 0.1 or 0.2V higher. And a voltage test indicates the state of charge of a battery but not its health. You need to do a load test and a capacity test, the latter is time consuming and you need to use specialized equipment. Its all fun though.
Was just talking about this with some neighbors. Dude said his Dad always flushed/hosed out the junk, refilled the battery and charged it. Old school repair for old school charging systems maybe but when I think of all the money I’ve spent on batteries I really want to try and repair one. Just for the experience. Thanks for validating our backyard mech discussion
Thanks for watching Ken!
I tried doing this two ways. The first one I did I did it exactly like you did it but I used sulphuric acid because it was only $15 for 5 L. The second way I did it was I just drain the acid and then I refilled it with fresh sulphuric acid. I found your way works best. You really have to get that old crap out of the battery for it to be able to except and hold a charge thanks for the video I found it to be very informative peace out
I am under the impression you don't add pure sulfuric acid to a battery, it should be diluted.
@@ibberman I get it from NAPA
I have some dead batteries and I am going to try that trick to see if it will work on the ones I have because I am tired of buying batteries for my vehicles and lawn mowers. Thanks for the tip and I am glad to have found you and I believe my charger will work on each of them and hopefully they will work again.
sulphation is the killer, sediment settles to the bottom and shorts out the cells. After bathing the batteries in epson salts( for an extended period), and a thorough flush, use distilled water, and proper amount of sulfuric acid to fill the cells. Don’t use the old electrolyte! You won’t be able to remove all the sulfation between the lead plates, but some more limited service of these used batteries is possible. The capacity and cranking amps will still be compromised. Worthwhile to do IF the batteries were not frozen when discharged, and no bulging or distortion of the lead plates is visible. cheers!
Obviously new acid would be ideal. I was just showing how to do it the cheapest way possible. Thanks for watching!
right, of all the assholes in the comments at least one person was able to be objective. if the plates can be cleared and new clean solution added some service can be restored.
in my mind, i think this process in combination with a large capacitor for extra cranking capacity is a pretty good solution.(then once failure takes place, find more dead batteries, rinse/repeat but obviously the capacitor would still be good)
Great video. Thank you. One note - Baking Soda and/or calcium (generally basic in solution) to neutralize acid may work, but vinegar wouldn't, Brotha. Vinegar is just another acid, albeit weaker than the sulfuric acid in batteries.
Got it
You forgot to show how much battery acid it just skips over that particular part what's up with that need to know how much battery acid you were mixing with the distilled water Epsom salt solution
My Motor Home cabin battery was dead and needed to be replaced when my friend said it could be rebuilt. Got me some Apson Salt, took the battery out and went to work. 45 minutes later the battery was back in the car working perfect. That was 8 months ago.
You use distilled water for you solution, but you rinse your batterys with a garden hose with city water, then put old acid in.
If a battery reads 12v doesnt mean it will crank a car.you need a load tester. Ive done this with batterys before ,sometimes it works. But never for very long. If you live where it gets cold in the winter, it wont work a all.
Thanks for the info
David, for flushing you could use old pond water, it doesn't matter.
12v is basically a dead battery when talking about cranking amps.
Anywhere from 12.7v to 13.1v usually a fully charged battery.
Where I live the way we test when battery getting too old is when it gets cold. It cranks at 30 degrees F will it crank at 10 degrees? Or even zero F.
So many people here who are haters talking crap about this video but somehow are on this video watching it. Instead of hating on it, why don't you go try his method and then come back and report any false info in this video instead of hating on it before you even try it. Stop wasting other people's time who actually want to read the comments for other additional information he may have forgotten to mention or another step that would help improve.
Thanks for watching!
I have done this with a 12 year old interstate battery that was totally dead after sitting in my pickup truck that sat for over 5 years unused and it worked the battery was just as good as the day I bought it , it had full 12.5 v and I had no issues with it my truck started just fine for many more years ..This is real so save your money and try it before buying a new battery and yes I has tried charging it a few times long before I tried this with the battery charger it got up to 10.2 v but wouldn't even hold that for more then a day...this really works I poured out all the acid into a clean bucket added distilled water and Epsom salt about half way full then poured the acid back in to refill the other half of the battery ..note keep baking soda near by to neutralize any acid spilled or left over..goos luck everyone hope this helps
Thanks for watching and experimenting Richard
About 12.74 - 12.6 v volts fully charged battery. Approx 12.40 is 50 % ! Some ecu's go into limp mode as they don't get incoming voltage . Running it should read 14.4 v - 13.7 V approx. Even with lights / heaters on
Yes with an alternator charging it, new batteries come 12v
@@CarGroves - at 12v a lead acid car battery has only 25% of it's charge left. A properly charged car battery is approximately 12.7v.
@@flyingdutchman6984 And for that reason: A "fully charged" battery having only 11 volts (without any load) = good candidate for the trash can.
@@peter8aus8berlin - or possibly the recycle bin. Either way they are junk.
Getting a battery to come back is very tricky. I have the top of the line charger from Harbor Freight. To see if a battery is doable, do this: Top all the ports off. Maintenance free is still toppable. Most of the time the cells are low. After 10 minutes of charging in AGM mode, do this test. (AGM mode with remove a short off a cell most of the time.) Take a multimeter, go to +, and read each cell with the probe tip stuck in the acid working towards -. If you get at least 1.8 volts difference between each cell, it's doable. Charge at 8/10 amps standard battery mode for 8 hours. Load test the battery. If it dies quickly, drain the battery & add fresh acid. Can be purchased at an auto parts store. Recharge the battery again. It should come fully back & hold a charge. I didn't add epsom salts or cadium tablets & had success.
"Top-of-the-line charger from Harbor Freight" lmao. That's like saying you selected the finest cut of beef from Taco Bell
I'm not sticking my multi-meters probes in the acid.
I like to wear a full face shield with my safety glasses whenever I mess with strong acids or Alkaline solutions. Acid in the eyes is bad. Lye, which is a strong alkaline (basic) will quickly blind you. (For an eye wash- Keep some baking soda when messing with acid. Keep vinegar when messing with Lye. )
Good video. Thanks
Great video, knowledge and safety is so important . My dads a marine engineer. He is a specialist with batteries. He loves his distilled water and Epsom salts. Great job😊👍🏽
Thanks for watching bill.
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But he didn't know what he was doing.
I watched a video right before I found yours about saving an old battery and the only thing different in the other video was the old guy first charged the old battery as much as it would take, drained the old liquid, and used a solution of baking soda and reagular tap water (10 ounces to 1 gallon) and it bubbled and hissed totally cleaning most of the build-up out of the old battery. He only used 12 ounces of Epsom salt in a gallon of distilled water for the new battery fluid. I don't know if that makes a difference but it seems the whole bag would probably work a lot better than just 12 oz. I figured I would let you know his trick for cleaning out the old gunk it seemed to work really good but be careful because when you add the baking soda/tap water it will cause a reaction and spit and spew pretty good, saftey glassed a must, I'm going to use a 6ft hose so I'm not close to it at all when it starts spitting. Hope this is useful to you and not just a wast of your time. Be safe and thank you for the videos, very easy to understand, educational and a blast to watch, keep it up I just suscribed and haven't watched all the videos yet but there next in line.
Baking soda neutralizes acid, I use it to clean any acid on the batt terminals and cable connectors.
Thanks for watching
Thank you.
I've been going back looking for that guys video.baking soda / ebson salt mixture.
I've believe his idea was the best
I really like your genuine informative videos! I’ve never commented on a video in my life but felt led to tell you to do more !!!! I actually watched the entire thing!!! God bless you
Thank you so much for taking the time to not only simplify, but also thoroughly explain the internals and operation of the batteries! Your explanation gives the viewers a better visual idea of what they're working with, and what they're trying to accomplish. Great video my friend, very informative!👍🏻
Protip, don't dump out sulfuric in to a bucket acid while wearing flipflops and sweat pants. Also have a bucket with a baking soda solution to pour on you if you have a mishap
I'll take care of my own safety, thank you.
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Seriously becareful this is what I do with the bakesoda solution if not you'll be sorry.
I\'m not sure but ,if anyone else wants to discover how to recondition lead acid batteries try Jons Mender Guide (just google it ) ? Ive heard some incredible things about it and my friend got great results with it.
@@CarGroves with that attitude why would anyone listen to you
my take is that you didn't clean the plates with the rinse or the epsom , but with the initial 50A charge. Sulfates are stuck on the plates and you'll need high amps to dissolve those precipitated placks on the plates. Usually a good 10-20 minutes on a 100-200A charge until you see bubbles coming out of the cells will recondition your batteries . I wouldn't advise playing around with highly concentrated sulphuric acid. It's extremely corrosive and dangerous if it gets on the skin , it literally slowly burns away any fabric.
and charging that same acid at 200amps is safe lol, pot meet kettle
Spraying water from a hose nozzle will make a nice pattern on your face when the acid spatters out of the "empty" cells.
It`s surprising how easy this reconditioning steps are t.co/Folp6e7Dkc ! My auto batteries, cellphone battery, drill battery, camera battery, along with other forms of batteries are all repaired and useful again! Since starting this program I have ended up saving over $ 400 on batteries!?
Hello Karen
Voltage is one thing but current delivery is another. The amount of amp hours and cranking amps can't be measured with a multimeter and I doubt they would last
in operation. Sulphated plates cannot be physically cleaned this way as the plate separators are compressed with the swelling of sulphation, jamming the lead sulphate in place.
A tell tale of these un recoverable dead batteries is the bulging of the case, especially at the ends. The epsom salts may clear around the edges of the plates, but you'd be very lucky to get even 10% back.
How does interstate battery sell reconditioned batteries?
@@CarGroves two ways they can recondition them, one is to do production line impedance and load test and reject below a certain capacity, the other is to cut around the case just below the seam, lift out the plate assemblies, pressure blast the cell clusters and clean out the sediment cavity then reassemble, ultrasonic welding the plastic back together and adding new acid before charging. Again, they would be graded before reconditioning and any falling below the standard just get recycled. Car batteries are 99.9% recyclable, so they can't lose either way.
@@alasdair4161 a charged battery has the highest acid level. So if you took partially charged lead plates out and pressure blasted them and put them back in considering that they have some of the acid absorbed or converted into them or whatever. If you added full-strength acid after cleaning the plates and putting it back together wouldn't it make the acid level too high?
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Alasdair, do they sell lead at the hardware or welding shops? wouldn't it be eaiser for consumers to just buy lead plates and build batteries from scratch?
I've been doing this for 20 years with batteries found on the curb, I haven't bought a battery for 20 years
Where do you get the acid from?
Thanks for watching!
Where do u find batteries on the curb? Most battery places make u exchange or pay more
Im currently working on mine bug I think 1 of th cell died. Any way to save it?
Michael Garcia advance Auto was running a deal for every used battery you would trade in they would give you a $20 gift card. It had to be a car battery it could not be a lawnmower battery or a motorcycle battery which my motorcycle battery cost me $140 and did not last a year from advance.
Nice video, thank you ! your time & adventurous kindness is beautiful
Please let us know if your batteries were able to work. Showing a good number in the voltmeter does not means they may crank a start either they may hold the charge... Please let me know. Thanks again. Next time be a little more careful with your eyes and your stinky feet. Thanks to God for people like you...
Glad you enjoyed it!
You’re lucky you can still do that in the USA. Here in the UK all batteries are sealed now.
But you’re missing a trick by not settling and then filtering the old battery acid. If you filter the settled acid first through a very fine tea strainer to remove the larger particulate matter, then through coffee filters, you will have a far more extensive process, and end up with a much cleaner, more efficient and longer lasting acid.
It’s those floating particles which have come off the plates, that cause the drop in efficiency in batteries.
Metal doesn't float in acid
Car Groves that is of course true. But I’m not talking about metal - as you should already be aware. The corrosion or scale on the lead is correctly termed sulphate. As I believe we have both figured out, it’s this sulphate material that’s clogging up the battery, shorting out the cells and causing it to become inefficient. So it’s the sulphate that’s floating about, not metal.
Try thinking before typing a comment based upon assumption and insufficient knowledge. Many of the so-called ‘haters’ on here are actually sharing accurate information. I’m one of them.
will a coffee filter work ?
I enjoyed your video as I know the expense of purchasing a new car battery. I liked your video, then I saw all your negative comments, but maybe do the test again, and actually show the recharged battery being started on the car, and run for a while and start as normal for some journeys over a period of time. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching Dale, second video coming soon
The battery I have all the cells had very dark H2SO4 electrolyte fluid from dissolved plates. Flushed and filled with baking soda then drained flushed and replaced with distilled water and Epson salts. Tried to boost with 55 amps to activate the cells for 15 minutes and let it rest for an hour 5 times. Then charged with a smart charger overnight. made absolutely no difference. These techniques only seem to work with batteries that are weak but not with bad plates like mine. It was not keep up with a smart charger every time which might have killed it. If the charge becomes very low the plates seem to dissolve.
I have two other batteries that are over 10-15 years old and they are still 100%. Kept them up with smart chargers whenever they got low so the de-sulfating setting could work well.
I was once told by an electronics teacher that the difference between a 36 month battery and a 60 month battery is the amount of space at the bottom of the plates. The more space, the longer it will take for the scale falling off the plates to short them out. If you could take a battery apart and clean it out, it would last forever, or a very long time anyway.
Good info.
You can drain and flush it and refill it before it shorts the plates out and prolong its life .
"f you could take a battery apart and clean it out, it would last forever," They used to make car batteries like that. I remember my grandfather had one. Knowing what I know now, I wish I kept it
As 1 real said. They used to be serviceable and it wasn't a terrible task besides safety. In the late 50s my dad worked at a place that did only that. They would do a couple dozen a day between the 2 shop hands. Safety wasn't as big of a deal back then though and my dad had one explode in his face that was overcharging and starting to boil out the caps. By the time the owner yelled out to him to stay back he already was sprayed with hot acid. It managed to build enough pressure to blow the seal for the top and send the top flying. Luckily he just had minor scarring, his sight was affected later in life though. He still has visible scarring when looked at in the optometrists images after his last laser eye surgery, which made his 3rd to try to correct it.
Glad to see those steel-toed flip-flops. You can't be too careful!!!
I have special feet
Email me I sell those steel toes for $20
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Before you empty fluid out of battery,try reversing the chargers polarity,and tap the post quickly a few times,it will knock off corrosion and plac,then continue with Epsom salt clean and new muriatic acid,if you want to reverse a battery polarity,completely drain 12 volt power and charge the opposite if you need it to work in either left or right to work in you're vehicle
This has been around for years, works good if you just want to make a car run so you can peddle it but not good for long term.
I think its hit or miss from my research
It's pretty much all miss. The people saying it worked have not tried putting that battery back in service. They will find out soon enough i guess
It works great if done correctly and there is no bad cells. You do have to replace the Sulfuric acid solution
Battery minimum voltage should be 12.5.
They should also be load tested.
Hate to be negative, but there is many ways that a battery can fail.
As a battery ages the lead decomposes and ends up in the bottom. It belongs on the plates.
Even if one can bring it back to life it will usually have low cranking amps or test amps. If the battery gets discharged too many times it can also sulfate.
K Kenason absolutely! 13.5 is the optimal voltage
12.5 volts is the Minimum voltage if the battery is sitting not connected to a charger.
It is a static rest voltage.
Sometimes the battery will be higher if it is pulled off the charger but it will settle to 12.5 or very slightly above within a few tenths if it is good and all the cells are contributing..
New batteries come 12.4
@@CarGroves I'm not going to debate one or two tenths of a volt.
Voltmeters are not that accurate
@@CarGroves ive been a master mechanic for 30 years a new Battery isnt fully charged off the shelf and they should charge yo 13.6 and should be load tested with a battery load tester to show they have the proper cranking amps the voltage doesn't mean nothing when it doesn't have the amps to crank it over , and it looses it's voltage the first time under a load.
I did this for a battery that died a week after I owned the truck , the battery fluid was a bit low I dumped a couple bottles of water in it and it was perfect . Holds charge 2 weeks latter cranks the duramax no issue
Nice.
Volts mean nothing... it's all about the CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) or in other words, how much work the battery can do when fully charged?
Every spring my batteries are dead. Even after using a tender
@@alex124241 check out scotty kilmer on youtube.This guy knows everything about cars
Not true
Totally wrong
No load volts don't mean much, its voltage under load that matters
You talk about safety,
Wear eye protection, gloves, long sleeves, fan etc etc.
Oh yes, doing all that work in sandals
😅😀😊👍👌
Do what I say, not what i do
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Those are special acid-resistant sandals. They even deflect any splashes away from the exposed areas of the feets.
Salt acts as an abrasive and scrubs the surface for you. That totally makes sense. I would shake them gently while the solution of salt is inside wondering why not use some new distilled water with salt but yeah great video 👍
Epsom salt isn't sodium chloride 'salt', it's magnesium sulfate.
Hey its Tony with Higher vibe tribe I just was a thank you the information you share it on UA-cam about reviving the battery it worked thank you again I would love to hear more your ideas
Thanks for watching!
How many times can you repeat this process for each battery, how long does each battery hold its charge??
Looks good , interested to see if there is a volt drop over night
A lot of effort went into this but you need a stress test gauge to check a battery. A multi-meter just shows theirs voltage in the battery at the moment and that all the cells are working if you get 12 volts. ten volts means one cell isn't working. Cells are two volts each to total 12 volts.
To really test the quality of your battery rebuild process, charge the car battery at 2 amps for 48 hours. then let the battery sit for 2 days and measure the voltage. It should be around 12.5 volts. Then try starting a car and make note of the sound of the starter speed. Compare that to the sound of a good battery when cranking the same car. A better test would be to take the battery to a auto parts store and have them do a discharge test. Car batteries will provide upwards of 90 amps under load. Batteries fail due to increased internal resistance limiting that maximum current under load. So voltage alone is not a good indicator of the quality of a battery.
Thanks for watching.
Good advice but should people try what was done here?
@@nedcramdon1306 No, it's a waste of time. To really make this work you would need to remove the plates and chemically clean them to remove the contaminants which limit the current. That is what the epsom salts is suppose to do. Then you would need to clean the sludge from the bottom of the battery box which shorts out the plates limiting the voltage. Put it back together, add new electrolyte and charge it up. At this point you will have wasted more money and time than buying a new battery.
This is awesome, thanks man. I had a dead battery but after watching this I never bought a battery again and the dead battery was alive again btw I watched part 2.
Same here also watched Part 3
Seeing you handling those kind of chemicals in sandals and no apron… got my OCD hard 😂✌️
i see a lot of battery revival videos, but i don't see any of them actually start a car !
The end of the video has a vehicle start off of one of my reconditioned batteries...
@@CarGroves i haven't tried to revive a battery yet. i think some batteries
are good enough to be revived, and some maybe not. if most of your
revivals work for you, thats a good thing. a lot of the videos show some
kind of revival procedure, and show 12 to 14 volts on their meter, but i
don't see them carrying the battery to a vehicle, and starting it up. watching
your video, you appear to be honest and truthful about your results.
At 6:23 you said you were going to "dump this fluid out" which was what came out of the batteries. At 8:25 you said that you mixed the Epsom Salt/Water solution with the acid....but above you said you dumped the acid. (1). Where did the acid come from did you buy fresh acid/water mix? (2.) Did you pour the acid into the entire gallon of the Epsom salts solution? (3.) If you reused the acid, did you filter it with a cloth or did you pour it unfiltered into the Epsom salts? (4.) Wouldn't that dilute the acid concentration like 1 part acid to 50 parts water? I was anticipating you using the Epsom salts/water solution to clean the inside of the battery but you mixed it with the acid before putting it back in, right? Greatly appreciate your information!
This guy needs to be in hollywood... poster boy for allllll diy nerds... he is what we all sound like inside.... not what others hear but what we hear as ourselves... no kidding...
Ha Thanks!
I think you need to load test, to really know!
I think you mean lead test, the lawn, before kids IQ drops below coco.
He won't because those batterys will FAIL a load test.
hi everyone ,if anyone else wants to learn about how to restore a battery try Jons Mender Guide ( search on google ) ? Ive heard some incredible things about it and my mate got excellent results with it.
Would have been nice if you told us what the epsom salts/sulphuric mixture was when you refilled the batteries
I agree - seems like it was 4.5lbs of epsom salt to 1 gallon of distilled water ??
@@user-jo5fz8iw3b That mixture was explained well enough on video, but unclear was the refilling after draining and flushing the battery. Did you mix one portion of the previously drained fluid, with the H2O/epsom mixture (and if so to what ratio ?) or did you use the H2O/epsom salt mixture only
Lead / Acid batteries work with two dissimilar metals in the plates in a 9 or 11 plate configuration per cell; usually lead and zinc to enable the electrons to move through the acid during the charge / discharge cycle.
The Zn and Pb plates are the anode and cathode -- +/-.
There's available volts and then there's available amps. You can have 12 volts but little amps and amps is what you need to drive a motor like a starter.
thats what i wanted to see? see them actually cranking an engine over 👍
I've seen a lot of folks do this battery restoration. I'd love to see a load test on the battery to gauge the capacity. I know it's not going to be perfect like new, just curious what percentage capacity has been recovered?
I have load tested an 800 amp starting battery with a 500 amp loaded tester. I tested the battery several times before recharging it the electrolyte specific gravity test show the acid to be in the high range before recharging.
Video 2
The open circuit voltage taken on the battery terminal does not indicate any capacity. Volts is potential, capacity is rated in VAh or Volts times Amperes multiplied by the time the load is applied.
Over time, the lead plates get sulfated, which means a layer of sulfate is formed around the plates blocking the charge function of the plates.
This article is completely misleading he might have brought the voltage up did you see him try to start a vehicle?no you didn't because they won't they don't have any power in them a battery that reads 12v is practically still flat 12v lead acid batteries charged up will read 13/13.5 or even higher up to 14.4
Ever seen one read 14.5?
@@CarGroves yes I've seen them hit 18/20but your overcharging and your damageing the battery
Anything over 13.8 is damaging the battery.
Love the safety sandals lol
Samoan safety boots is what we call them in NZ
They are very comfortable
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You can use alum which is aluminum potassium sulfate. This is able to penetrate the lead sulfate on the plate while the potassium in it makes the electrolyte more conductive. The epsom salt does similar except it doesnt make the electrolyte more conductive. About 4 to 8 Ccs per cell boiling hot saturated epsom or alum solution is all that is needed. Let sit for an hour. Zap with high current briefly till it draws amps, then charge normally. Resting voltage drops by a few tenths of a volt BUT you do get much better peak amps out, especially cold. Mine stared a truck in -50 Wisconsin weather.
So for what you mixed the destill3d water and epson salt, when using the OLD used stuff to refill the batteries or did i miss something???
He mixed the distilled water/epson salt solution with the old battery acid, before he put them back in the battery.
Thanks mate, I am now a subscriber and I have the same safety shoes:)
:) Thanks for subscribing! Safety first haha
@@CarGroves Thanks for the Video clip! Sorry for chiming in, I would appreciate your initial thoughts. Have you ever tried - Rozardner Powerful Battery Reality (search on google)? It is a great exclusive guide for learning how to recondition an old battery without the hard work. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my close friend Aubrey after a lifetime of fighting got amazing success with it.
i try not to replace the fluid if i can. i put distilled water to top off low cells. i hit the battery with 75-105A of current for a couple minutes, boiling the cells and waiting for temps to reach 90F before i shut it off. let it cool. and repeat this cycle a few times. then i put the battery on a trickle smart charger with reconditioning mode. that seems to bring back every battery ive ever tried it on.
I've done this a few times and what I've come to find out is that you can seem to get them to recharge to a good voltage but the battery never regains it's Cranking amps.
I think its right say
Volt yes. But no crank amp
Maybe a truck battery will be good for small car
right!
That because the plates are sulfated so only the equivalent of a postage stamp surface is available for current draw
and the stack of cells are imbalanced (some higher, some lower)
In electricity they call that situation "high internal resistance"
junk is junk
I tried this on a small sealed led/acid battery and the plates were eventually dissolved into a mass of "black liquid." I guess that you have to get the proper mixture of Epsom's salt into the mixture which I obviously did not have. It would probably be better to desulfate the plates first but this can take a LONG time!
The whole point of this is to clean the plates.
@@CarGroves But..it does not desulfate the plates I would imagine. I could be wrong. They have special electronic devices for that and even with them it takes a LONG time. My plates turned into a "black soup" when I added the Epsom's salt and that was the end of the battery...Lol! Incorrect mixture in my case, l guess?? 😉
The battery should be load tested to see if they're any good they can have voltage but still not work.
amps will be low
Watch video 2 on my channel.
In my case I have a 12 volt 7.2 Ah battery that although the voltage was at 12 volt when it shorted it did nothing. With the distilled water method it improved a lot only that instead of 7.2 Ah it has 5 amperes, with a no-load voltage of 12.40 volt after a week it remains at 12.00
@@enzovideogames
12v indicated with a volt meter is actually considered less than 6% charged.
What most people don't understand, and apparently includes the guy who made this video, is that the percentage of charge for a lead cell automotive/motorcycle battery isn't 100% at 12v and around 10% at 1v, it doesn't work that way.
A battery that shows 12.66v with a hand held volt/ohm meter (VOM) is considered 100% charged.
A battery that shows 11.89v with a VOM is considered 0% charged.
It doesn't work the way that your common sense tells you it will, the percentage of charge doesn't go from 0v indicating 0% charge to 12v indicating a 100% charge.
It actually goes from 11.89v considered 0% charge to 12.66v considered 100% charge, 12.24v is actually considered to be only 50% charged, it's not the same as the battery in a cell phone or a laptop, the difference between 0% and 100% charge with lead cell automotive batteries is completely different then a cell phone or a laptop going from 0% to 100%, this is the mistake people make when evaluating the charge condition of a car battery, they compare it in their mind to how their cell phone works but it's completely different.
And then you have a load test that simulates cranking on your starter, a car battery can indicate 100% charge, which is 12.66v using a VOM like he is in this video, but you hit the button on a load tester type battery meter and watch the needle dive down into the yellow or red zone on the scale, which means that even though with a VOM it's showing 100% charge it won't pass the load test (which simulates cranking on the starter).
Then you have whether or not a battery will hold it's charge after sitting overnight or a few days, you can charge a battery to where it shows 12.66v with a VOM which is 100% charge and leave it sit for 2 days and then put a VOM on it and it'll indicate 12.24v which is 50% charge, meaning that it lost half it's charge sitting for 2 days.
It's far more complicated than this guy leads on to be, the only way to properly test an automotive/motorcycle battery is to charge it to where it indicates 100% charge (12.66v) and then hit it with a load tester for 10 seconds and see if the needle stays in the green zone (acceptable) on the scale or drops down into the yellow (meaning weak) zone on the scale or into the red zone of the scale (meaning bad).
Hand held VOM meters only tell part of the story, and can't properly evaluate that type of battery, auto parts stores like Autozone usually have a hand held load tester and will gladly walk outside to your car with it and load test the battery for you.
The battery still drop.
Safety first. Good foot protection is essential when pouring battery acid, like his industrial strength flip flops.
Sometimes it works and sometimes no. Worth a try though.
My thoughts on it too
A few bucks worth of distilled water and a few hours of mucking around is always worth a try to save $90.
Alternator on my 1999 ford ranger killed by battery, and being broke at the time, couldn’t buy another. Read about this treatment somewhere and have it a shot.
Thy was 8 months ago, and it worked like a charm till just this week when it began slacking on the recharge. But I’m in a better possision to buy a new one now
No one believes me. Lol!
Thanks for the comment on your battery John.
Im gonna be honest...was in doubt at first and even more so after the video thinking this was far to easy.WELL....
I was wrong...I so appreciate someone actually taking the time showing all of the steps and not leaving out or to the imagination anything un explained ...
B. R. A. V. O. to you my new found friend.
And YES I did subscribe...Thank you for taking the time in making the video.
Frank from Phx Az
Washing batteries out with flip flops on. This guy is braver than me.
what about AMPs? Cant assume their good just on voltage.
Secured Party
Hey everyone, the best success that I have had was by following the Magic Mender Wizard (i found it on google) without a doubt the most helpful info that I have ever followed.
I had one that'll charge to 12.7 volts, but after an hour, it'll die to 10.9 volts. Sign of a dead cell. It's dangerous, but you can pop it with a welder sometimes & get the dead cell to take. There's a video on here somewhere where a Mexican guy did it.
@@virginia7125
Very dangerous, when you "cook" a battery like that it makes hydrogen gas which is highly explosive.
I had a motorcycle battery blow up in my face like that, it wasn't a car battery but it was a large motorcycle battery, one of the biggest one's ever used and when it blew up it blew an entire section off of it, I'm lucky I still have my face.
I was putting it back in the bike after trying something like that and when I was putting the chrome cover back on it the cover touched the positive terminal and sparked, an instant later there was a white flash and the next thing I remember was standing fully upright about 6 feet from the bike with my 2 friends screaming at me but I couldn't hear anything they were saying, because I'd temporarily blown out my hearing.
Sometimes in life it just pays to bite the financial bullet and buy a new battery instead of trying these homemade ways of doing things thinking your going to beat the system, you do wind up with a new battery out of it after all.
Its the cranking amps that start the vehicle So 13V means SQUAT really!!!! if the cranking AMPs are not there.
Had a 10yr old battery that would charge to 14.5v but would not start the car because the cracking AMPS was only 120 or so
CCA
@@LegendLength Just going to have to try and see what happens.
@@LegendLength it depends. Clean the top of the battery. Use a battery tender to get it to 100 pc. Will take 3,4 days. At 100 pc, take it to auto zone or similar for a conductive battery test. That will tell you how good it is. Oh, if it's a battery that you can add water, top off with distilled and let it sit overnight. Then connect the tender. Do not use a trickle charger. Good luck.
Holy shit what a waste of 13:37 mins of my life
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The charge is held in the acid through the exchange of electrons between the plates. A charged battery will have a strong acid of high specific gravity as shown by a hydrometer & a discharged battery will show weak acid of low SG.
A dry battery cannot show voltage as it needs the acid as the conduction media.
Thats what I said! I have had batteries in the past that showed 13v! But under load, it couldn't start my truck! So because you got a battery to show 12v from 2v doesn't mean you reconditioned a battery!
It shows that the epson salt cleans the plates. It then started the vehicles. You most likely had bridged plates because one or more of them is broken. There is no solution fix for that. Just because it didn't work for your battery doesn't mean that everyone in the world shouldn't give it a try. If we all went by your way of thinking we would never if have had light bulbs...
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It's not 100% but for $3.00 in epsom salt, it's worth the gamble. I get about half of them to work when I do it.
Your testing is inadequate.
The batteries maybe restored to like new. Idk
But testing a battery for voltage doesnt represent in anyway what the batter does under load. A big amp draw like a starter might see the battery voltage fall below what is acceptable. Get yourself a load tester and be sure about your findings. Thanks for posting though.
Thanks for the Video clip! Forgive me for butting in, I would appreciate your opinion. Have you ever tried - Lammywalness Trendy Trade Guide (google it)? It is an awesome one off guide for learning how to recondition batteries at home without the normal expense. Ive heard some super things about it and my BF after a lifetime of fighting got excellent results with it.
CCA video coming this week.
ua-cam.com/video/RNnSYuTuLk4/v-deo.html
Would of liked to see a load test on all 3. But good job restoring them. 👍
There is an easier method that only requires 15 minutes of 200 cranking amps 5 times, let the battery sit for an hour in between each 15 minutes, it boils all the crap off the inside of the battery and brings it back to life.
1000% correct. Only if people knew
What?
WTF?
This won't remove the contaminants. It's more akin to acid dipping a rusty frame, and letting it sit in it's own oxide juices so they can recombine again. Let your acid cold settle, then decant and filter your acid solution.
Maybe not wear flip flops
Im hoping youll do a follow up video showing if all of the batteries took a full charge and held it. Good video
never did...
Always use trickle charge. When battery gets up to 75%, make battery "use up" volts down to 25%. Then trickle charge until 100%. Use a charger that will add juice whenever it drops. Leave it hooked up for 1 week. This will crack crystals loose. Try it. I did and it works...as long as your old battery isn't completely dead!
You need some additional steps, friend. Before you drain, shake it up like hell, like a paint shaker to loosen up all the solidified debris on the bottom if you can. Then dump the acid and before you mix the salts mix, "filter" the drained acid with some quality large coffee filters so the acid is lead/metal/contaminant free (clear). No use putting the debris back onto the plates you just spent time & effort cleaning.
Is it better to buy new acid or just replace the old one in? From Cyprus
@@antonios4926 My revised understanding is that the acid is still in the battery just crystalline sulfated onto the places hindering the ability of electron passage between the plates. I believe the "grey gunk" is actually spent dead lead that has discharged it's electrons in the normal process. All that spent lead needs to go from top to bottom of the cells. DO NOT put Baking Soda into the battery. It will ruin the acid that's turned into crystal sulfate that's attached to the plates. We want to reconstitute that back off the plates and into the distilled water solution so the electrons can flow freely again to create voltage/current. So, what I'm going to do is by a Specific Gravity (SG) battery fluid Hydrometer tester to monitor during the process and possibly an acid Ph test kit. If you do the Baking Soda thing, you'll need more acid to get the SG back up to where it needs to be for best performance of the plates after the plates are clean. Folks are doing this for a business reconditioning batteries I've discovered.
The way, now that I've spent some time comparing a number of folks talking about this and better understand what's going on, I plan to buy a small bottle of Sulfuric battery acid which is available everywhere, to top off at the end of the process to get the right SG reading.
1. Wash the battery squeaky clean than trickle charge for 12 hours, take SG and voltage measurements..
2. Shake the battery "vigorously" in all directions except upside down to loosen spent, collected on the bottom lead sludge and dump in to plastic tub.
3, "Slowly" neutralize spent acid solution in tub with Baking Soda/tap water mix to make it safe to dispose of. No more foaming/bubbling means acid is neutralized and safe.
4. Thoroughly rinse out the core with clean tap water until no more spent lead, nothing but clear water comes out when draining , then allow to completely drain upside down for 5 minutes.
5. Mix up the Epsom Salts solution. I'm seeing roughly 12 oz./gal of hot distilled water, filling cells just coving plate tops and taking SG & voltage measurement. (If you're seeing a different mix, please share links!)
6. Putting the battery on a 2 amp trickle charge overnight (10-12 hrs). Re-measuring SG & voltage. I may bump the charger/starter charge unit to start mode (50-75 amps) every once in a while to help knock off the sulfate to help it dissolve back into the new distilled water solution to speed up the process.
Trickle charge again, after total 24 hours of trickle charging take measurements again and visually inspect plates with a good LED light to see if I can see any leftover sulfate deposits. If I see deposits I'll leave trickling for another 6 hours & recheck. After all looks good, final measurements.
If SG is good is good, I'll top off with distilled water to bottom of cap opening just below the inner top of the core and fully covering all the plates and call it a day.
If SG is low(voltage will most likely be low also), I'll pull some Epsom Salts solution out and replace with new battery acid & recheck until SG is good, recharge, measure and top off with distilled if need be and be done .
If SG and voltage (12.9 or better) is good after final recharging, I'm calling it reconditioned & good. Your mileage may vary, that's just how I'm doing it because this Epsom Salts fix appears to be for real the way it's helping reconstitute the acid back off the plates and into the distilled water solution so they conduct and the electrons start flowing freely again.
@@ThePreyMantas I thank you for your time. You are very knowledgeable. I wish you well
@@antonios4926 If only that were true. :) Sure thing and let us know how you make out on the project!
Pray Mantas. I am just about to attempt this with two marine batteries from my boat. Good on you to take such time and patience. 👍👍
You might want to consider a 'smart' battery charger - one with a battery 'restore' function. The restore function will also knock/remove the 'Sulfonation' from the plates. You might want to do both: a 'restore' with smart charger followed by the Epsom Salt treatment. ;-)
Thanks, I’ll look into that.
desulfation is attempted with spikes of voltages produced by a coil... don't fry your car ECM/computer!
You need a Tesla Charger or a Bedini SSG wheel
also get a charger 200amps for 15 minutes then let the battery rest for an hour, repeat the process 5 time and that should help a lot as well.
*SWEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTT !*
yeah
Ok
@@CarGroves UA-cam certified !! lol
Great video man. Better then all the ones I saw and my brain 🧠 understands. Haha, but I’m confused 🤷🏻♂️ on you mixing the old acid with the Epsom salt and putting it back in the batteries. Is that an option that you did or can I just refill the batteries back up with epsom and distilled water without the old acid?
Without the old acid
How they hold up when you put a load on the batteries with a load tester
Cheers for the video content! Forgive me for the intrusion, I would love your thoughts. Have you thought about - Rozardner Powerful Battery Reality (google it)? It is a good one off product for learning how to recondition an old battery without the normal expense. Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my mate after many years got great results with it.
Agree, getting an open circuit voltage is one thing but if there is still plate oxidation on the outside of the plates, you won't be able to pull any decent current. So you have nice voltage restored, but still no ability to crank a motor. He needs to do short circuit current testing
what he said at the begining of the video about some of them having voltage but not being able to crank an engine is what some people call a "surface charge" it is a sign the battery is shot basically if it has voltage but not much amperage
How much epsom salt do you put in the battery acid before refilling the battery?
None!!
Cool idea... and i see you are using the acid to clean the corns off of your bare feet at the same time...
I had sandals on, thank you
@@CarGroves Ahhhh - full coverage.
My apologies to your corns.... haha
Finally . A video that shows how to properly charge a battery!!! Just what I was looking for.
Thanks!
Sorry, but what you are measuring is a float voltage. After a period of drain, they will go low again.
Seemed to work good for me.
ua-cam.com/video/RNnSYuTuLk4/v-deo.html
Yea
I watched your video with great interest. Please provide a followup and let us know if each of those batteries will now crank the vehicle from which they were removed. It will be a combination of the voltage and the amperage they provide that will determine if they indeed are now better and reconditioned. Thanks for sharing.
Second video coming soon
My car solenoid just clicked, I read the battery with the volt meter, it read 11.2 volts and didn’t have enough juice to turn the engine. Amazing how that works. It has to be 12 volts +.
Yup, old sediment, it is as if u had an internal load on the battery as it is a resistance across the
plates. I'd put a load tester on the batteries now, proper voltage with no real amps won't do much.
You failed to load test each of your batteries. A good battery should not drop below 10v while under load and the load should be held for at least 5 secs. A recharged battery will show 12v if tested shortly after a charge if the battery has no dead cells.
It cld show 13 volts and still fall on it's face with a load tester. Agreed.
Load test completed...
ua-cam.com/video/RNnSYuTuLk4/v-deo.html
Ups fixes car batteries quickly, it needs a computer and monitor to be connected. When the ups stops, one car bulb is needed to drain it fully for one night. The trick works, because the ups has a transformer, that is inductive, causing the memory effect to leave the battery.
There are too many people talking smack about the process and materials and load test. It’s a cheap fix guys. It will be a win even if the batter just last 2 months more. It’s not that deep.
Thanks for watching!
tell us CCA of each battery after charging....getting 12V doesn't mean anything
I'll do a second video soon with CCA
@Brunz M That would be nice to see befores and afters. You'd think that folks would be aware of that since that's what it's all about. ;)
ua-cam.com/video/RNnSYuTuLk4/v-deo.html
Had a Sears battery that being about a month old died in the middle of a crank. Full voltage yet no amperage would not even activate the solenoid.
Took back to Sears told the guy what it did, he put on test bench put big leads on to it. Tested acid with hygrometer- all even- full charge. He hit the amps test and the needle hardly flinched. Threw it in the pile wrote me up for another.
No, it means SOMETHING, but..I know what you mean. And even the 12V, we need to know if it HELD that 12V.
50 amp is generally used for jump starting a low battery. It will boil water out. And over charge a battery quickly.