How are Lead Acid Batteries "Reconditioned"?

Go Fish!
Reconditioned Automotive Batteries!

Cost its still being done on large lead acid batteries. Like those used in fork lifts. The process is time consuming to be done on an automotive battery.

I remember a place that used to recondition batteries. Seemed like there would be health concerns, breathing the fumes. Maybe EPA problems etc. I would like to know the answer also. I had a thread on alkaline batteries also. They were used in the Detroit Electric car. Jay Leno owns one, and the original batteries still worked. One fellow was going to try to switch one over.

Back in the day when the world was young, ships were wood, men wer iron... There was a good old boy who lived across the street from me who made his living reconditioning auto batteries. Being young, I believed that I knew everything there was to know about everything and never went to watch the process, pity. He was a good place to buy a battery cheap. They would not last like a new battery but were good for a couple years anyway. Seems like a great time to reinvent the process.

Once upon a time you could melt the tar and disassemble the battery.

Modern batteries are plastic welded and often "maintenance free".

Hi...

Most reconditioners simply reline the used plates with lead and fix them back. Incase new plates are used the battery life is almost the same as a factory built battery.

However, most of these guys simply dump the discarded acids & leads in the open thus creating severe pollution problems with the lead pollutants find their way and ultimately polluting the ground water. Due to this reason most countries have banned reconditioneding of batteries by the un-organised sector.

Anil Tiwari / New Delhi

Is there lead in the acid solution? The acid could simply be neutralized before dumping. What are the poisons? Lead is a valuable commodity, and the plastic could be reprocessed or burned in a gasifier.

Hard Rubber/Rubber cased batteries with cell connections over the top are easily repairable. But such batteries have given away to intercell welded plastic case batteries. Repair can still be done but more expensive/difficult process. Secondly Use of better vehicle technology and Better production methods of battery has led to fewer battery failures . So reconditioners/ Battery charge equalisers are vanishing tribe. Many sale new batteries now. lastly VRLA batteries are not generally repairable.Except adding some electrolyte.

Great answer. This technique could greatly lower the cost of maintaining electric boats and cars. This would make short range new and converted vehicles and boats more viable. Also cut the waste stream. Thanks for the source.

yes, the vector smart charger with desulfation does work. i have a little problem in that i have to take it somewhere that has good 110 ac, as i am off grid. reason, it takes days, and i can not afford to run a generator that long. but on regular grid ac, it works fine. there is also a small unit that does desulfation that is 12v. it does not have much power, but is intended for long term desulfation. runs on a small solar cell. the solar cell is designed to mount on the light bar of emergency vehicals. this is so that the desulfation can occur continuously while the vehical is just setting around. i can't remember the brand name though.

Most of all Battery work has been pushed abroad do to the stringent EPA requirements (Japan). There are still those that find value in recycling the lead, but by the time you dispose of the acid and lead sulfide your at break even. The biggest problem most recyclers were faced with was the transportation of the cores(Weight). You will find that most car and toy Battery's wind up consumed in WTE plants or disposed of in landfills. As much as people are fixated on green house gasses, Lead and Mercury are pumped into our atmosphere by the metric ton. I believe regardless of the expense, that all Battery's should be recycled strictly for public heath concerns. With no economic driving force, the need to recycle will have to come buy way of regulation.

This is probably not what you are looking for, but what we used to do was just give the battery a long very slow charge at maybe 5-8% of the discharge rate for a few days. That frequently brought back the battery. Not very scientific, but it seemed to work.

Hi, I have recently learned about a company called www.pulsetech.com who makes and sell chargers, that automatically de-sulfates lead-acid batteries.

moe

Looks great. I could see someone starting a battery reconditioning or resale service with this equipment. Of course I would have to see it actually work over time and many cycles. I think I will buy one of their $100 units, because I want to turn my 14ft. tri hull boat into an electric boat. I prefer the quiet operation, and not maintaining a gas motor.

Hi ronwagn, I got the link from elnav, he is located in BC Canada, and an expert in fitting batterys and DC installation in yachts, he has a profile here in CR4. And he has got some experience with the pulsetech products.

I would think, that you could get some valuable hints and how NOT to do from this pro, please send my regards.

The idea of electric operation seems obvious as you can supply the batteries with a small marine wind turbine, stream turbine and/or photovoltaics, and the pulsetech products probably fits perfect for your application.

I also discovered a DC-DC converter/controller with very high efficiency which might be handy controlling speed of your DCmotor/propeller when going slow in the harbor. Full on-off operation could get tricky, and the switch would have to be heavy duty. And you could have "regenerative braking" (the DC-motor acting as generator), if going with sail. But I have no experience in this field, so please forgive my creative mind running wild. But it would be nice to hear about your experiences.

http://www.greenenergytechnologies.eu/index.php

Thanks for the GA ,

moe

One of the main causes of batteries failing was the material that sluffed-off the plates shorted-out the plates as it accumulated on the bottom. Reconditioning often amounted to cleaning out the residue and putting in a fresh acid solution. With welded plastic cases this is no longer practical.

I like to thank everyone for their comments and input on this, particularly the ones that led to direct explanations and/or data, but also the ones that identified 'brick walls' in need of circumvention.

Therefore some explanation is well deserved.

My involvements include establishing 'full energy process' parameters as distinct from the 'dock to door' view most 'economic thinking' is based in. At times it extends to such as hidden impact elsewhere in "green energy solutions", or conversely, the inclusion of that not factored in to 'energy process', that makes a "climate solution" workable.

What is not factored in to the lead acid 'full process' is more than I imagined.

To précis that for the curious;

So far, it appears that traditional 'smooth DC' charging of lead acid is large factor in reducing service life, degrading AH capacity and numbers of recyclable units.

Secondly, it would appear that 'smarter charging' from day one would maintain AH capacity to around double service life.

Subject to proper test and analysis, and solving of a few things in the universal application sense; this possibly quarters 'full process energy' in terms of climate impact. That doesn't mean it is a good system compared to others, just apparently we have been doing it in an inefficient, wasteful and climate vandal manner.

However, perhaps fatal to this technology, as illustrated by several comments, the industry is now paying the reputation price of resisting innovation.