Has anyone restored 12 volt batteries?

[Birken Vogt]

That battery is from 2016 and I know they have changed design since then.

I have a couple of 31s in the shop and will try to remember to check on this tomorrow.

 

[Truck Shop]

They should be called lower maintainance not maintainence free.

The term lower maintenance doesn't sell, any thought of no work does-maintenance free.
When it comes to marketing any phrase relating to work or maintenance care--is a bad selling point.
The object for most is to get fatter and dumber and marketing is betting on the buyers ignorance.

 

[Welder Dave]

Maintainence free is misleading maybe low maintainence? After having a battery violently explode in my 5th wheel it seems they should use a different term. Kind of like the class action suit on small engines with mis leading HP ratings.

 

[Old Doug]

Anyone have any luck with those red top Optima AGM batteries?

Have used them in the past. Worked great in the cold, better than anything else I've used, but never seemed to get near the life out of them that was claimed. Had my first one replaced after year 2 or 3 under warranty and the replacement was on its way out again after year 2.

I was around a lot of sport rigs race cars and such. The Optimas didnt ever last any time . The worst battery i was ever around maybe they have changed or maybe it was the way they were used.

 

[James Sorochan]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Watched Uncle Tony utube video and it looks doable. Grabbed a weak battery that I just pulled out of the Volvo loader that would only get up to 11.7 volts when I charged it. Did one 5 minute interval with our little Millar welder starting at 50 Amps moving up to 140amps. Really got boiling. You could see the fumes rising from each cell. I will let it cool down for 15 minutes and do it again. I load tested it before I started and it was at 11 volts down to about 7volts when I hit the switch. Going back now to go again.

 

[James Sorochan]

I put it on the load tester showing 12.65 volts. Hit the switch and it went down to around 12.5 volts or so. Just about finished second round.

 

[James Sorochan]

Sorry I meant 11.5 volts when I hit switch.

 

[Welder Dave]

Did you do anything with the fluid in the battery? There was or used to be stuff you could buy to put in batteries to help with sulfation. I think there was a liquid and/or pellets you put in.

 

[James Sorochan]

No Welder Dave. I only topped up with distilled water.

 

[DMiller]

Can do that for a time, will have to elevate the acid level to keep that working.

 

[mitch504]

I would definitely be doing that outside, away from the shop. Part of what is off-gassing is hydrogen.

 

[James Sorochan]

Good advice. I had the garage door open and fan on. Ran one more cycle this morning. Checked the cells with hydrometer and found one cell dead. Should have checked before I started. It’s still doing a lot better than when I started. I use this battery for a fence charger until it’s fully dead.

 

[hosspuller]

Deep cycles are a sure way of killing lead/acid batteries. Before I knew better. I replaced four batteries in a portable lifter with regular auto batteries. In a short time, they were toasted. Deep cycle marine (also known as trolling motor) batteries lasted much better.

 

[John C.]

The other problem with using high voltage and current is that the plates will deform to the point of touching an adjacent plate and shorting out the cell.

I've also seen a battery guy melting on a burned out post one time when the battery exploded. He had a face shield on but had to hit the shower in short order and go home wearing only a clean pair of coveralls.

 

[Coaldust]

Do you guys remember the old-timers, telling us to add an aspirin tablet to each cell to keep an old battery going longer? I just remembered that.

 

[James Sorochan]

Coaldust, what's the science behind that? On another note maybe don't buy the maintenance free batteries if you plan on maintaining them. Tried to take the top off one with no success.

 

[Coaldust]

Speaking of burned out, lead battery posts: I still have a pair of post molds. I was a hero saving a precious 8D or 4D battery out in the bush. The trick for not getting all explody was to let it sit and stabilize over night. Then, remove the cell caps, duck, engage safety squints and run the torch flame over the top to burn off the hydrogen.

 

[John C.]

I did a lot of those terminals with my molds. You can't even find where to purchase a set of them anymore.

 

[Coaldust]

James, the ones that came before us, believed the acetylsalicylic acid in the tablet combines with the sulfuric acid to form acetic acid. Which, increases the overall specific gravity. Which, normally is 1.260 for a fully charged lead-acid cell.

 

[James Sorochan]

OK, thanks for this Coaldust.