Reviving a "Dead" Deep Cell Battery

[Matt Janes]

So I cleaned out the boat today which I store in my garage for the winter. I have 2 deep cell batteries, one of which charged up fine. The other doesn't even take a charge. The red "charging" light doesn't even come on when I connect the terminals on the charger. When I test the battery with a voltage tester I get 1.4 volts. Obviously not what you want. I saw a video on YouTube where a guy with a similar problem emptied out the cells, poured in a baking soda and water solution, poured that out and then finally replaced with another solution. Is this something I should try or just suck it up and buy a new battery? Or any other suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

Matt

[davey buoy]

So I cleaned out the boat today which I store in my garage for the winter. I have 2 deep cell batteries, one of which charged up fine. The other doesn't even take a charge. The red "charging" light doesn't even come on when I connect the terminals on the charger. When I test the battery with a voltage tester I get 1.4 volts. Obviously not what you want. I saw a video on YouTube where a guy with a similar problem emptied out the cells, poured in a baking soda and water solution, poured that out and then finally replaced with another solution. Is this something I should try or just suck it up and buy a new battery? Or any other suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

Matt

I'm not sure Matt?,but this should be interesting.

[irishfield]

"red charging light" .. I can only assume you have a smart charger.. and they are pretty stupid when it comes to dead batteries. If you don't have an old style charger to boil the crap out of it to get it going again... put a set of jumper cables from the good battery to the dead battery and then throw the smart charger on them both to get it going.

[Roy]

Curious here...are they identical batteries? Are they part of a 24v system? What did the other battery test at? Do you use an on board charger during the softwater season?

[Roy]

Yea, and what Mr. Irish said.

[Terry]

"red charging light" .. I can only assume you have a smart charger.. and they are pretty stupid when it comes to dead batteries. If you don't have an old style charger to boil the crap out of it to get it going again... put a set of jumper cables from the good battery to the dead battery and then throw the smart charger on them both to get it going.

 

 

that's pretty much what I was going to say

[Matt Janes]

They aren't identical batteries, and they aren't part of a system. The other battery tested at 12.9 volts. No on board charger either...

[Fisherman]

No maintenance over the winter eh..better pay attention, batteries are like women and don't like to be neglected..for any period of time..The likelyhood of coming back from 1.4 volts is pretty remote.

[Matt Janes]

Thanks for the quick replies as always. I think I am going to take this as a lesson learned the hard way. This battery is at least 4 years old so I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get a new battery and take better care of the new one.

[bigbuck]

Bite it they are not that pricey at costco. Under a hundred bucks for a new group 27. You may have been able to revive it somewhat by flushing and changing the acid but it would not work that great for very long. The plates inside are pooched, new acid will work for only so long and wont deliver very good performance. There used to be a place in Scarborough that sold 'rebuilt' batteries for less than half the price of a new one. Problem was, they would only last a couple of months. Many of the small car lots bought batteries from them back in the day. They used the above mentioned process.