When I'm not driving my cars, I keep them connected to a Battery Tender Jr and a Battery Tender Plus. They are both intelligent smart battery chargers that have 4 stages to its charging process. Once the chargers detect that my batteries are fully charged, they automatically switch to the 'maintenance voltage' and maintain my car batteries at the proper voltage - this way my batteries never overcharge. Been using these smart charges for many years, and have never had a problem with my car batteries - my batteries last between 6-7 years because of the Battery Tenders.
Hopefully those chargers have a timed de-stratification mode. A battery that sits for more than a few days becomes stratified where the heavier sulfuric acid component of the electrolyte sinks to the bottom and the lighter water component floats above it. The lower half of the cells become sulfated rapidly because of this. To prevent this from damaging the battery while it's being stored and unused, every few days you need to do a period of overcharging to do some electrolysis. The bubbles mix up the electrolyte again and it becomes homogenous. A smart charger optimized for flooded cell lead acid will do the bulk and absorption charging, then float at a steady voltage to maintain the battery. On a timer every 3-4 days, it will bump up to 14V or so and automatically do that for a couple hours before dropping back down to float. A charger like that will keep a FLA battery good for many many months in storage. A charger that simply maintains float voltage will not stop stratification and you'll eventually end up with a battery that has the bottom half of its plates all covered in a thick crust of sulfation and you won't even be able to tell because you can only see the top surfaces of each plate through the cell cap hole.
That sediment is what ultimately kills a large likely majority of batteries. It flakes off the plates and accumulates in the trap at the bottom of the battery. That trap is offset from the plates so that the plates don't short out each other by conducting through the sediment layer. Deep Cycle batteries are built for recharging, from very low voltages back to max voltage, again and again. They get this additional rating by increasing the thickness of the plates AS WELL AS deepening the trap where the sediment builds up. So it will take more time for them to fill up with sediment and short out the plates compared with regular battery. Deep Cycle batteries tend to have far fewer 'cold cranking amps', however. So be forewarned.
Well made video and that inquisitive engineer/scientist in you also keeps you from making wild and bold statements of fact like so many other videos do even when they’re not really sure what they’re talking about. That’s really refreshing. Two questions though- at 7:08 you mentioned increasing the voltage of the charger to try to overcome resistance/sulfation but then you selected a higher amperage on the charger. Does the higher 6Amp charge result in a higher voltage charging? Also, do you know what the real meaning is of that Amp meter built-into the charger? I have an old one similar to yours (I can't find the manual if it ever even had one) and I (rightfully/wrongfully?) always assumed that when the needle decreased to zero, charging was done and I should stop.
Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this topic. Yes, when you switch from 2A to 6A, the charger increases the voltage so that it can generate the 6A. Yes, you are correct that the Amp reading decreases until it is fully charged.
add about 2.5-4% H3Po4(phosphoric acid) and charge the battery fully a few charge/discharge cycles should help regenerate some capacity after that currently have my old battery in the process after 3 months with the lights on (complete discharge) and using it for a while i decided to take care of it still had good starting current but only 12 of 72Ah after adding the H3Po4 I did put the battery upside down and shake it a bit to mix properly I am currently waiting for the discharge cycle to complete, but I am past the 12Ah mark now and still got ways to go
@@GeniusAsian little update if the battery was in normal use you can recover almost 100% capacity if you use a battery pulser and leave it on a float charger for a while, not sure if the battery pulser did that much, but that's how i tried it the battery was first installed in 2015 and removed in winter 2022, as it was sealed I had to drill small holes in the side at about where the top level should be and mainly topped it off with destilled water and 10ml phophoric acid in each cell wipe off any spill and close the hole with a soldering iron, but you can also install plugs if you wish, I would recommend nylon screws with silicone O-rings, but go as small as possible as there's not much thread engagement with anything above M5 if the battery has been completely discharged for a while you can not recover it the battery that came with my used car was sitting with the lights on for 3 months, kind of amazing it even worked at all as well as it did, but it loses charge quite rapidly, like within 2-3 days you can't start the car both my battery testers rate it at about 420CCA EN of the rated 680CCA EN after the exact same procedure as the one I managed to recover, that one got back to 790CCA EN of the rated 780CCA EN and started at 616CCA EN
I once found some info that told me that sodium sulfate is better than magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) and to only add it as an additive on a new battery to help prevent sulfation and not to an old battery as it may cause flaking and shorts and ruin what's left of the battery. I have used it on a cheap new $60 550 CCA Walmart Value battery that would only hold 12.2 volts overnight brand new after a little driving. The battery is three years old and now holds 12.4 Volts even if I don't drive the car or charge the battery for months and charges up quickly when put on a trickle charger. The sodium sulfate has worked well in combination with trickle charging to cycle in the electrolytes. The Turquoise Energy website that originally recommended a 100 grams of sodium sulfate equally divided between the cells of a smaller car battery disappeared, but Duda Energy still sells sodium sulfate
thank you for taking the time to chime in and to share your experiences. Hope your post will lead to more people to post their experiment and to confirm this result. Your post of "$60 550 CCA Walmart Value battery" is very good because it tells us the kind of battery is Lead acid type, not AGM, EFB type, so hope other viewers can report their finding with specific types of batteries. The obvious questions people will ask are: 1. what is the side effect (disadvantage) of adding this chemical? 2. because this chemical is so cheap, why manufacturers are not adding it?
@@GeniusAsian I read that the sodium sulfate is used an additive sometimes in deep cycle lead acid batteries. Toxic things have "data safety sheet" (acronymed to MSDS OR SDS) pdf available as a legal thing these days, so you could probably figure out what brand of deep cycle lead acid uses sodium sulfate. Interstate auto batteries use antimony I found out recently, which is really toxic besides the lead.
I live in my car and use my battery a lot every day to run my laptop from it, charge my phone and tablet and run a small frudge all from starting lead acid calcium 55A battery and I use epson salts in my battery and it does really work better than when it was new. When it was new it could run 15l fridge for 2h before needing to idle engine and recharge with alternator, 6 months after when I added 1 spoon of Epson in each cell it can run the fridge now for 3h before dropping to 11.8v and needing to charge so yeah Epson salts works great for acid battery
Michael, if I was you, here's what I would do. If you are using a 12VDC-120VAC inverter setup to power those things: Take your inverter off of your car's 12V starting battery electrical system. Buy a 12V LiFePo4 battery and a DC-DC charger capable of charging that battery chemistry correctly. Install the LiFePo4 battery in your car's trunk and connect the charger's cables to your engine's alternator B+ terminal as well as a nice thick chassis location. Then put a battery disconnect switch in series with the positive cable of the DC-DC charger so that you can disconnect it from the LiFePo4 battery. Then hook the inverter system up to it. When you use the fridge and laptop etc., you'll draw from that LiFePo4 battery alone which is designed to be deep cycled and provides steady voltage amazingly well before it goes dead and the voltage drops off. When you need to recharge it, you can turn the disconnect switch of the charger on and start the car to recharge the LiFePo4 battery. I'd suggest getting a flexible solar panel array that you can put in your rear window or front windshield or outside on the roof as well to charge the battery for free. :) If you're using 12VDC accessories, you don't need the inverter and you can just hook up beefy sockets right to the battery. If you don't want to do the above, here's my second best plan: Buy 2 identical deep cycle lead acid batteries. Install them in parallel so that you get the same 12V that you would with 1, however you get double the capacity. Having 2 deep cycle batteries makes up for the lower starting current that a deep cycle provides compared to a standard starting battery. Having 2 paralleled also gives you double the run time and keeps you from draining the battery as low as you currently are (11.8V which is the absolute minimum you want to ever bring a LA down to). You can add as many batteries as you want in parallel. You can put them in the trunk of the car, running large copper welding cable from the trunk up to the engine bay to connect them to the existing arrangement. Buy a tote bin to put them in for protection, and make sure you get a battery model/brand which has a small nipple off the cell caps for a hose to run through a grommeted hole in the car chassis so that hydrogen and oxygen gas can be vented out there instead of building up an explosive mixture inside the car with you. If you went with more expensive AGM or sealed batteries, this would not be a problem. LiFePo4 batteries are sealed so this isn't a problem with them. You could also build your own batteries using salvaged 18650 lithium ion cells purchased cheap off eBay and a battery management system controller to keep the battery bank balanced correctly. If you're handy, you could DIY this. If not, don't attempt it because lithium battery fires are terrifying.
@@mannys9130 thanks for your advice, both options are nice but the first one with lithium is really good as I do have 100W portable solar panel that has saved me in past with flat battery under the bonnet not staring. I like option 1. with LiFePo4 and even buffing it a bit further with AGM start/stop under the bonnet.
I was wondering about Epsom salt. So many people were saying that you should only fill a battery with distilled water because any other kind of water contains contaminants. As such, I wondered if the Epsom salt people knew something that battery manufacturers didn't. Now I know they don't.
The solution has to be more saturated so it needs to be heated to above 150 degrees f. From what I read the mixture is supposed to be 250grams of Epson salt to 15 if oz of distilled water
My battery cells are all covered in white (sulfated) and I'm not sure how to revive the battery? I had it on charge every 15 minutes and an hour later charged it again! I did this 5 times and four cells between the negative and positive terminal seems to react by bubbling but the negative and positive terminals did not bubble at all! I don't have funds currently to replace the battery! Do you have some advice! Should I try Epsom salt or baking soda on the cells not bubbling?
what is the voltage now? When you charged it, how much was the current? Very tiny bubbling is fine, but if it is heavy bubbling, then it is a sign of overcharging.
@@GeniusAsian the bubbles are very tiny and not boiling as if I'm cooking water, so I did it carefully and the voltage after charging was 9.23V and that is much too low to start an automatic car?
@@GeniusAsian no, I've not done that and I'm too far from town or a mechanical workshop to test it for me! I'll have to walk to get to one as my only transport at this stage is my feet, so I'm kinda stuck! I'll keep on watching videos until I findca solution! If I had a 200amp charger, I would have fixed it using the same 15 minute process as explained in the beginning, but I don't!
this video invites people to comment to see if someone can provide a chemical formula to prove that the magnesium sulfate can dissolve lead sulfate build-up on the battery plates. If no one can provide a formula then when people claim that the Epsom salt work, it is not because it can fix the plates but because the liquid can have better conduction, thus it is really not a fix. So your question of gravity change, the specific weight change will not indicate how much charges are accumulated by the Epsom salt, but rather the conductivity of the liquid, thus it is not very relevant.
For a car battery, it's simple: 1. Buy an automatic charger. There are a lot of automatic chargers, cheapest 3 stage chargers around $4 to expensive ones. Even a cheap charger can accurately measure battery's capacity for fully charging and avoid overcharging. A good automatic charger should not heat up the battery. 2. Keep battery fully charged, recharge every 2 -4 weeks, but strictly avoid battery boiling (overcharging). The charging amps and voltage can be far higher than 0.1C and 14.4V for a short period, as long as the battery is not heated up. 3. When a battery is dead, buy new one, lead acid battery is cheap.
yeah, in this video we talked about "undercharged battery would lead battery sulfation", that is why we need to have good maintenance to keep the battery charged (as you commented). However the problem is that most people would not do anything for maintenance, similarly most people would not want to pay for anti-virus software unless they are infected with virus ...
sulfation is supposed to be removed with baking soda in each cell, a liter (1/4 gallon?)of distilled and agitation for a minute. Followed by a flush with more distilled and filling with new epsom salts solution. Have seen an isolated claim that the mag sulfate in Epsom salts is an "amps killer" vs straight sulfuric. if that holds, then could keep the inital acid as it is easily strained and then supplemented with Epsom salts. Or buy new sulfuric.
Very nice video. What is the qty of Epson salt to put per cell according to the battery capacity (Ah). That is very important. I think you miss one thing. After adding the Epson Salt you have to show the Specific Gravity. Epson salt means high gravity
if you watch my video, I have discussed that there are two reasons a battery is weak: 1. not fully charged, in this case the specific gravity is low. 2. sulfation, in this case your specific weight could be normal, however you don't have sufficient contact areas on the plates, so you will have weak battery. This sulfation is the case I tried to address, so the specific weight is not related. Anyway, thank you for you comments, this will help other viewers.
Instead of trying 'to recover dead batteries', better to maintain it in de first instance. Disconnect n grind / wire brush positive, negative terminals (20-30% poor start due to dis not done). Attach neg, positive clips of DC welder (wid variable amp setting) can do de job of 'de sulfating' batteries. (Once a year). Isolate battery, and top off low water levels, caps off (if not sealed) slowly bring charge up, turn amp control ( watch for bubbling or temp rise wid thermometer reader), do it for 5mins. Switch off, rest 30-45mins (cool down). Repeat X3 . Disconnect, Check voltage after 4 hrs, n amp reader hold charge??? If not repeat but wid higher amps.
Of cos, take all precautions I E. Wear gloves, eye goggles, mask, no smoking etc. Hydrogen is explosive. If U don't feel adequate to do dis, leave to professionals. Unfortunately, people who sell batteries r not helpful as it's counter productive to their biz.
Thank you for your attention to detail on your complete A-to-Z primer on battery restoration!!
When I'm not driving my cars, I keep them connected to a Battery Tender Jr and a Battery Tender Plus. They are both intelligent smart battery chargers that have 4 stages to its charging process. Once the chargers detect that my batteries are fully charged, they automatically switch to the 'maintenance voltage' and maintain my car batteries at the proper voltage - this way my batteries never overcharge. Been using these smart charges for many years, and have never had a problem with my car batteries - my batteries last between 6-7 years because of the Battery Tenders.
Very good. Many people are not aware of this, thank you for taking the time to share, this will help others.
@@GeniusAsian You're welcome.
Hopefully those chargers have a timed de-stratification mode. A battery that sits for more than a few days becomes stratified where the heavier sulfuric acid component of the electrolyte sinks to the bottom and the lighter water component floats above it. The lower half of the cells become sulfated rapidly because of this. To prevent this from damaging the battery while it's being stored and unused, every few days you need to do a period of overcharging to do some electrolysis. The bubbles mix up the electrolyte again and it becomes homogenous. A smart charger optimized for flooded cell lead acid will do the bulk and absorption charging, then float at a steady voltage to maintain the battery. On a timer every 3-4 days, it will bump up to 14V or so and automatically do that for a couple hours before dropping back down to float. A charger like that will keep a FLA battery good for many many months in storage. A charger that simply maintains float voltage will not stop stratification and you'll eventually end up with a battery that has the bottom half of its plates all covered in a thick crust of sulfation and you won't even be able to tell because you can only see the top surfaces of each plate through the cell cap hole.
That sediment is what ultimately kills a large likely majority of batteries. It flakes off the plates and accumulates in the trap at the bottom of the battery. That trap is offset from the plates so that the plates don't short out each other by conducting through the sediment layer. Deep Cycle batteries are built for recharging, from very low voltages back to max voltage, again and again. They get this additional rating by increasing the thickness of the plates AS WELL AS deepening the trap where the sediment builds up. So it will take more time for them to fill up with sediment and short out the plates compared with regular battery. Deep Cycle batteries tend to have far fewer 'cold cranking amps', however. So be forewarned.
Thank you for taking the time to share your tips. Your comments will help other viewers.
Well made video and that inquisitive engineer/scientist in you also keeps you from making wild and bold statements of fact like so many other videos do even when they’re not really sure what they’re talking about. That’s really refreshing.
Two questions though- at 7:08 you mentioned increasing the voltage of the charger to try to overcome resistance/sulfation but then you selected a higher amperage on the charger. Does the higher 6Amp charge result in a higher voltage charging?
Also, do you know what the real meaning is of that Amp meter built-into the charger? I have an old one similar to yours (I can't find the manual if it ever even had one) and I (rightfully/wrongfully?) always assumed that when the needle decreased to zero, charging was done and I should stop.
Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this topic. Yes, when you switch from 2A to 6A, the charger increases the voltage so that it can generate the 6A. Yes, you are correct that the Amp reading decreases until it is fully charged.
What if you spilled a car battery in the back floor mattes in a car over a year ago. Should you sill neutralize it?
I once charged a car battery with a 26 volts lipo battery it charged in about 5 minutes but I did it intermittent because the wires get too hot
add about 2.5-4% H3Po4(phosphoric acid) and charge the battery fully
a few charge/discharge cycles should help regenerate some capacity after that
currently have my old battery in the process
after 3 months with the lights on (complete discharge) and using it for a while i decided to take care of it
still had good starting current but only 12 of 72Ah
after adding the H3Po4 I did put the battery upside down and shake it a bit to mix properly
I am currently waiting for the discharge cycle to complete, but I am past the 12Ah mark now and still got ways to go
thank you for taking the time to to share, your comments will help many other viewers
@@GeniusAsian little update
if the battery was in normal use you can recover almost 100% capacity if you use a battery pulser and leave it on a float charger for a while, not sure if the battery pulser did that much, but that's how i tried it
the battery was first installed in 2015 and removed in winter 2022, as it was sealed I had to drill small holes in the side at about where the top level should be and mainly topped it off with destilled water and 10ml phophoric acid in each cell
wipe off any spill and close the hole with a soldering iron, but you can also install plugs if you wish, I would recommend nylon screws with silicone O-rings, but go as small as possible as there's not much thread engagement with anything above M5
if the battery has been completely discharged for a while you can not recover it
the battery that came with my used car was sitting with the lights on for 3 months, kind of amazing it even worked at all as well as it did, but it loses charge quite rapidly, like within 2-3 days you can't start the car
both my battery testers rate it at about 420CCA EN of the rated 680CCA EN after the exact same procedure as the one I managed to recover, that one got back to 790CCA EN of the rated 780CCA EN and started at 616CCA EN
thank you is a little word to give you . just want to say " May God be at your side "
Thank you for taking the time to leave comments
Also can we use to repair dry cell car battery with the epsom salt solution ? It would be helpful.
it depends on which kind of maintenance-free batteries you have. If you are able to inject liquid into the cell, then it may work.
confusing voltage with current?
which part that makes believe voltage and current are not described?
I once found some info that told me that sodium sulfate is better than magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) and to only add it as an additive on a new battery to help prevent sulfation and not to an old battery as it may cause flaking and shorts and ruin what's left of the battery. I have used it on a cheap new $60 550 CCA Walmart Value battery that would only hold 12.2 volts overnight brand new after a little driving. The battery is three years old and now holds 12.4 Volts even if I don't drive the car or charge the battery for months and charges up quickly when put on a trickle charger. The sodium sulfate has worked well in combination with trickle charging to cycle in the electrolytes. The Turquoise Energy website that originally recommended a 100 grams of sodium sulfate equally divided between the cells of a smaller car battery disappeared, but Duda Energy still sells sodium sulfate
thank you for taking the time to chime in and to share your experiences. Hope your post will lead to more people to post their experiment and to confirm this result. Your post of "$60 550 CCA Walmart Value battery" is very good because it tells us the kind of battery is Lead acid type, not AGM, EFB type, so hope other viewers can report their finding with specific types of batteries. The obvious questions people will ask are: 1. what is the side effect (disadvantage) of adding this chemical? 2. because this chemical is so cheap, why manufacturers are not adding it?
@@GeniusAsian I read that the sodium sulfate is used an additive sometimes in deep cycle lead acid batteries. Toxic things have "data safety sheet" (acronymed to MSDS OR SDS) pdf available as a legal thing these days, so you could probably figure out what brand of deep cycle lead acid uses sodium sulfate. Interstate auto batteries use antimony I found out recently, which is really toxic besides the lead.
@@OWK000 that makes sense, thank you for sharing
I live in my car and use my battery a lot every day to run my laptop from it, charge my phone and tablet and run a small frudge all from starting lead acid calcium 55A battery and I use epson salts in my battery and it does really work better than when it was new. When it was new it could run 15l fridge for 2h before needing to idle engine and recharge with alternator, 6 months after when I added 1 spoon of Epson in each cell it can run the fridge now for 3h before dropping to 11.8v and needing to charge so yeah Epson salts works great for acid battery
Michael, if I was you, here's what I would do.
If you are using a 12VDC-120VAC inverter setup to power those things:
Take your inverter off of your car's 12V starting battery electrical system. Buy a 12V LiFePo4 battery and a DC-DC charger capable of charging that battery chemistry correctly. Install the LiFePo4 battery in your car's trunk and connect the charger's cables to your engine's alternator B+ terminal as well as a nice thick chassis location. Then put a battery disconnect switch in series with the positive cable of the DC-DC charger so that you can disconnect it from the LiFePo4 battery. Then hook the inverter system up to it. When you use the fridge and laptop etc., you'll draw from that LiFePo4 battery alone which is designed to be deep cycled and provides steady voltage amazingly well before it goes dead and the voltage drops off. When you need to recharge it, you can turn the disconnect switch of the charger on and start the car to recharge the LiFePo4 battery. I'd suggest getting a flexible solar panel array that you can put in your rear window or front windshield or outside on the roof as well to charge the battery for free. :) If you're using 12VDC accessories, you don't need the inverter and you can just hook up beefy sockets right to the battery.
If you don't want to do the above, here's my second best plan:
Buy 2 identical deep cycle lead acid batteries. Install them in parallel so that you get the same 12V that you would with 1, however you get double the capacity. Having 2 deep cycle batteries makes up for the lower starting current that a deep cycle provides compared to a standard starting battery. Having 2 paralleled also gives you double the run time and keeps you from draining the battery as low as you currently are (11.8V which is the absolute minimum you want to ever bring a LA down to). You can add as many batteries as you want in parallel. You can put them in the trunk of the car, running large copper welding cable from the trunk up to the engine bay to connect them to the existing arrangement. Buy a tote bin to put them in for protection, and make sure you get a battery model/brand which has a small nipple off the cell caps for a hose to run through a grommeted hole in the car chassis so that hydrogen and oxygen gas can be vented out there instead of building up an explosive mixture inside the car with you. If you went with more expensive AGM or sealed batteries, this would not be a problem. LiFePo4 batteries are sealed so this isn't a problem with them.
You could also build your own batteries using salvaged 18650 lithium ion cells purchased cheap off eBay and a battery management system controller to keep the battery bank balanced correctly. If you're handy, you could DIY this. If not, don't attempt it because lithium battery fires are terrifying.
@@mannys9130 thanks for your advice, both options are nice but the first one with lithium is really good as I do have 100W portable solar panel that has saved me in past with flat battery under the bonnet not staring. I like option 1. with LiFePo4 and even buffing it a bit further with AGM start/stop under the bonnet.
A little bit complicated for me. But good to know. Subscribed. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the sub!
Well explained......thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.
I was wondering about Epsom salt. So many people were saying that you should only fill a battery with distilled water because any other kind of water contains contaminants. As such, I wondered if the Epsom salt people knew something that battery manufacturers didn't. Now I know they don't.
Thank you for taking the time to chime in.
The solution has to be more saturated so it needs to be heated to above 150 degrees f. From what I read the mixture is supposed to be 250grams of Epson salt to 15 if oz of distilled water
Thank you for taking the time to chime in
My battery cells are all covered in white (sulfated) and I'm not sure how to revive the battery? I had it on charge every 15 minutes and an hour later charged it again! I did this 5 times and four cells between the negative and positive terminal seems to react by bubbling but the negative and positive terminals did not bubble at all! I don't have funds currently to replace the battery! Do you have some advice! Should I try Epsom salt or baking soda on the cells not bubbling?
what is the voltage now? When you charged it, how much was the current? Very tiny bubbling is fine, but if it is heavy bubbling, then it is a sign of overcharging.
@@GeniusAsian the bubbles are very tiny and not boiling as if I'm cooking water, so I did it carefully and the voltage after charging was 9.23V and that is much too low to start an automatic car?
@@kirstenrivera2790 did you use hydrometer to test each cell?
@@GeniusAsian no, I've not done that and I'm too far from town or a mechanical workshop to test it for me! I'll have to walk to get to one as my only transport at this stage is my feet, so I'm kinda stuck! I'll keep on watching videos until I findca solution! If I had a 200amp charger, I would have fixed it using the same 15 minute process as explained in the beginning, but I don't!
How much quantity of Epsom salt and water so you need ? For the gravity to reach 1280. Like what is the ratio of the mixture
this video invites people to comment to see if someone can provide a chemical formula to prove that the magnesium sulfate can dissolve lead sulfate build-up on the battery plates. If no one can provide a formula then when people claim that the Epsom salt work, it is not because it can fix the plates but because the liquid can have better conduction, thus it is really not a fix. So your question of gravity change, the specific weight change will not indicate how much charges are accumulated by the Epsom salt, but rather the conductivity of the liquid, thus it is not very relevant.
250 grams of epson salt to 15 fl. Of distilled water and it has to be heated to above 150 degrees f. To saturate the solution
For a car battery, it's simple:
1. Buy an automatic charger. There are a lot of automatic chargers, cheapest 3 stage chargers around $4 to expensive ones. Even a cheap charger can accurately measure battery's capacity for fully charging and avoid overcharging. A good automatic charger should not heat up the battery.
2. Keep battery fully charged, recharge every 2 -4 weeks, but strictly avoid battery boiling (overcharging). The charging amps and voltage can be far higher than 0.1C and 14.4V for a short period, as long as the battery is not heated up.
3. When a battery is dead, buy new one, lead acid battery is cheap.
yeah, in this video we talked about "undercharged battery would lead battery sulfation", that is why we need to have good maintenance to keep the battery charged (as you commented). However the problem is that most people would not do anything for maintenance, similarly most people would not want to pay for anti-virus software unless they are infected with virus ...
sulfation is supposed to be removed with baking soda in each cell, a liter (1/4 gallon?)of distilled and agitation for a minute. Followed by a flush with more distilled and filling with new epsom salts solution. Have seen an isolated claim that the mag sulfate in Epsom salts is an "amps killer" vs straight sulfuric. if that holds, then could keep the inital acid as it is easily strained and then supplemented with Epsom salts. Or buy new sulfuric.
Very nice video. What is the qty of Epson salt to put per cell according to the battery capacity (Ah). That is very important. I think you miss one thing. After adding the Epson Salt you have to show the Specific Gravity. Epson salt means high gravity
if you watch my video, I have discussed that there are two reasons a battery is weak:
1. not fully charged, in this case the specific gravity is low.
2. sulfation, in this case your specific weight could be normal, however you don't have sufficient contact areas on the plates, so you will have weak battery. This sulfation is the case I tried to address, so the specific weight is not related. Anyway, thank you for you comments, this will help other viewers.
Hey I'm definitely not genius enough to understand this video.
Instead of trying 'to recover dead batteries', better to maintain it in de first instance. Disconnect n grind / wire brush positive, negative terminals (20-30% poor start due to dis not done).
Attach neg, positive clips of DC welder (wid variable amp setting) can do de job of 'de sulfating' batteries. (Once a year). Isolate battery, and top off low water levels, caps off (if not sealed) slowly bring charge up, turn amp control ( watch for bubbling or temp rise wid thermometer reader), do it for 5mins. Switch off, rest 30-45mins (cool down). Repeat X3 . Disconnect, Check voltage after 4 hrs, n amp reader hold charge??? If not repeat but wid higher amps.
Of cos, take all precautions I E. Wear gloves, eye goggles, mask, no smoking etc. Hydrogen is explosive. If U don't feel adequate to do dis, leave to professionals. Unfortunately, people who sell batteries r not helpful as it's counter productive to their biz.
Thank you for taking the time to chime in
I am a battery reconditioner. Even I have chemical (My own Stuff) to retrieve dead cell. (Not bubbling cell)
Can you share what kind of chemical is yours? Why don't most companies sell the chemical in auto stores?