Reviving my deep cycle battery

[Mister G]

The older cases would also seep acid over time and eat the concrete or if the floor was painted; it wouldn't be after the batteries were there for awhile. LOL

Back in the 70s all our batteries, we had in stock were left dry; until they were sold. We had a keg of acid in the stock room where we'd fill the batteries and then put them on slow charge for at least 4 or 5 hours before the customer got their car back.

 

Dan.

No not really..........but you are correct about many batteries being shipped dry and even today that is true at some places. However, it has nothing to do with the battery case material.

[Garnet]

I re read your post and you should clean those battery post and make sure your charger clips are clean.

 

Dirty oxide post means less and less charge over time until you think battery is toast.

 

Get a wire brush from $1 store.

[aplumma]

Cut paste from the internet

 

​However, this legend is historically based in fact. The first lead-acid batteries consisted of glass cells that were enclosed in tar-lined wooden boxes. A damp concrete floor could cause the wood to swell, breaking the glass inside.

The Edison cell (i.e. the nickel-iron battery) that preceded the rubber-cased battery was encased in steel. Those that weren't isolated in crates would discharge into concrete quite easily. Later battery cases used primitive hardened rubber, which was somewhat porous and could contain lots of carbon. A moist concrete floor combined with the carbon in the battery cases could create electrical current between the cells, discharging them.

Art

[aplumma]

Art I need to come up with a question for you that you don't know anything about, not likely. Ironmaking maybe? I know you would be interested in that. You are one of the most well read men that I have never met. A virtual cornucopia of information. I could spend a good week asking you about stuff and learning from you. You remind me of my dear " Nono " (Grandfather) that I miss badly to this day. I would sit next to him for hours as he taught me to speak Italian and going through every page of a Colliers Atlas that was pre WW2. I have his Atlas and is my most treasured thing I have. He passed in 67'. I will have been the 4th generation of Steelworkers in the family. I wish he could have seen how I turned out, maybe he does.

 

floater, I wouldn't spend a 100 on a basket case battery when I can buy a very good new one with warranty for 150 to 200. If I had a fleet of vehicles on the road maybe. Why would this be a smart thing to do?

Thank you for the complement I have a wealth of knowledge both from my friends as well as life experience. I was very lucky that I was part of the Navy SeaBees that trained you in you desired rate mine was water, and refrigeration along with access to building, steelworking, mechanics, electrical and heavy equipment.I have sense surrounded myself with experts that I can ask questions on different subjects and they trade info with me as well. Some of the best money I make is on water treatment and sewage reprocessing design and repair. When I do get stumped I will go to the internet and read up till I understand and form my answer from there.

 

Cheers Art

[Old Ironmaker]

Like I said Art you have a bevy of great information. Surrounding owns self with good people with expertise makes us all look good. One of my sayings is " experience is a lifetime of mistakes, wisdom is knowing how not to make them again". My on the job training in the Mills since 11th grade on weekends and summers gave me a leg up on all the Engineers graduating into supervisory positions after I transferred to operations, where the $$ was. I finally got my Metallurgical Degree after 10 years of night and some day classes at our local University. By then I had a few engineers working for me. It didn't give me an advantage then but did after I took a ridiculously very early pension at 45 and went on and worked as a Ministry of Labour inspector for the province of Ontario for 8 years. A job that I would have done or free actually.

 

As far as batteries sitting on concrete what would the big deal be to sit it on a piece of plywood. That concrete is always going to be colder than the rooms air, so set it on plywood and keep it warmer. Batteries like to be nice and warm.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Old Ironmaker

[John Bacon]

As far as batteries sitting on concrete what would the big deal be to sit it on a piece of plywood. That concrete is always going to be colder than the rooms air, so set it on plywood and keep it warmer. Batteries like to be nice and warm.

 

Extreme cold temperatures are not good for batteries; but, I think cool is better than warm for storage.

 

Unless you have the battery on constant trickle charge, the plywood wouldn't make much difference to the battery temperature anyway.

[Canuck]

You need to make sure your charger has a desulphate feature to get the most life from deep cycles. Some of the new charger maintainers have that, but they are not designed for large capacity batteries. If you do some research, you will read that large deep cycles need high amperage bulk loading charging with a charger that is at least 10% of the amp hour capacity (or something like that). So a high capacity battery will not last if you charge it with a small trickle charger. It will need maybe 30 amps. Plus the new chargers have a condition mode that you run periodically to break up the crystals that settle to the bottom. It uses high amp/voltage and basically boils the battery for a short period, then drops off to a trickle mode again.Another less helpful alternative if you have an older but high amp automatic charger is to use a Battery Life Save or similar pulse unit. You can read up on them. It basically constantly pulses into the battery that continuously desulphate said. They add that circuitry to the new small maintainers to help make batteries last while in storage. They prevent desulphation or slow it, not fix it. And they are not as effective on large capita batteries unless you get the really large maintainers. This is an area where if you go too small, you pay the price in cost of new batteries over the long run.I bought one of these to use on my golf cart battery bank on my bigger boat because it had an old charger without desulphate mode. It worked well until I replaced the charger with a higher capacity new one. It's now not in use. I should sell it.https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Life-Saver-BLS-12-24BW/dp/B006X24P50