Renewable Batteries

[Glennbrown]

Why cant you buy a battery where when it dies you can just open up replace the plates and acid

any hey-youve got a new battery

 

With the cost being many hundreds of pounds for a new battery bank why has this not been done?

[larkshall]

Its been done before.

 

Would you let the average punter loose with dangerous acids, chemicals and the like?

[Gibbo]

Why cant you buy a battery where when it dies you can just open up replace the plates and acid

any hey-youve got a new battery

 

With the cost being many hundreds of pounds for a new battery bank why has this not been done?

 

The plates and the acid come to about 99.9% of the cost of the battery. The casing is sod all. By the time you've added the extra shipping charges for the acid and plates (which now need two containers manufacturing - the battery case and the shipping container) it would cost more than buying a new battery.

 

Gibbo

[RLWP]

Why cant you buy a battery where when it dies you can just open up replace the plates and acid

any hey-youve got a new battery

 

With the cost being many hundreds of pounds for a new battery bank why has this not been done?

 

Somewhere I have an Odhams Motor Manual that shows you how to melt the seal on a bakelite battery to change the plates. Must be from the 1950's

 

Richard

 

The plates and the acid come to about 99.9% of the cost of the battery. The casing is sod all. By the time you've added the extra shipping charges for the acid and plates (which now need two containers manufacturing - the battery case and the shipping container) it would cost more than buying a new battery.

 

Gibbo

 

Perhaps you could ship the plates in the same sealed container as the acid, perhaps divided up into six chambers with the plates already connected together. You could even put a couple of terminals on the top to check the connectivity....

 

Richard

[Gibbo]

Perhaps you could ship the plates in the same sealed container as the acid, perhaps divided up into six chambers with the plates already connected together. You could even put a couple of terminals on the top to check the connectivity....

 

 

Gibbo

[Sir Nibble]

I used to do this! I kid you not, special lamp to melt the pitch, special cutter to remove the intercell connectors, new cell packs, breaking down raw acid the lot. Damned dangerous if you're not specially trained. Would I be happy to do it again? Yup. Would I advocate letting joe public loose on the job? Nope.

[Justme]

I found one in my woods just the other day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justme

[sueanddaren]

I used to do this! I kid you not, special lamp to melt the pitch, special cutter to remove the intercell connectors, new cell packs, breaking down raw acid the lot. Damned dangerous if you're not specially trained. Would I be happy to do it again? Yup. Would I advocate letting joe public loose on the job? Nope.

 

 

Sir Nibble

 

Im still doing this but only on large single cells. It's a bugger when you short something out, there goes another axe saw blade.

 

Daren

[Guest]

The Chloride man used to come and replace cells in our fork lift truck batteries when I was an apprentice. He would cut the cell out as SirNibble describes, then lift it out with a small winch that fitted to the battery case. On inserting the new one he would re-solder (are you looking Gibbo? SOLDER ) the connections with a carbon rod and a jump lead. Always looked dangerous to me, until I saw mains jointers joining live cables in a hole in the street, then battery soldering seemed quite sane.

[Gibbo]

The Chloride man used to come and replace cells in our fork lift truck batteries when I was an apprentice. He would cut the cell out as SirNibble describes, then lift it out with a small winch that fitted to the battery case. On inserting the new one he would re-solder (are you looking Gibbo? SOLDER ) the connections with a carbon rod and a jump lead. Always looked dangerous to me, until I saw mains jointers joining live cables in a hole in the street, then battery soldering seemed quite sane.

 

 

I have heard a rumour they also used to rivet aeroplanes together

 

Gibbo

[David Schweizer]

 

I have heard a rumour they also used to rivet aeroplanes together

 

Gibbo

They still do.

[Guest]

They still do.

And Araldite or similar type epoxy I was once told.

[Gibbo]

They still do.

 

Oh. Alright then.

 

Glue

 

Gibbo

[Keeping Up]

I have heard a rumour they also used to rivet aeroplanes together

Is that from the same source that says they drill a row of little holes along the wing, just where it joins the fuselage, to give it added strength - because as everybody knows paper never tears along the perforations

[jelunga]

I found one in my woods just the other day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justme

 

That looks like an old fashione Leclanché cell jar. They used to go on for ever!!!!

[Theo]

That looks like an old fashione Leclanché cell jar. They used to go on for ever!!!!

 

Nah.

 

Lead acid cells were frequently made up in glass tanks. The Leclanche cells were in jars with narrower necks. A bit like a square jam jar with a round top. the used to be used for powering door bells. The Westminster Bank Branch at 45 Mansfield Road, Nottingham had one. It was perched top of the "internal porch".

 

Nick

[alan_fincher]

Agreed,

 

Lead acid cells were often in precisely these.

 

I used to "tend" some when I worked as a lab steward as an after school evening job.

 

Depending in size, in those square jars, they were often just two single "plates", (more like blocks, actually), so no concept of interleaving positive and negative. As a result they couldn't really supply very large currents, (by lead acid standards).

 

Larger ones, (often oblong in cross section) were multiple plated, and hence could deliver bigger currents, though nothing like a car battery.

 

A typical application was to run the heaters in valve driven radio equipment, sometimes with a 90 volt (or similar) dry battery providing the high tension side.

 

God, what an old fogey I've become.

[chris w]

Nah.

 

Lead acid cells were frequently made up in glass tanks. The Leclanche cells were in jars with narrower necks. A bit like a square jam jar with a round top. the used to be used for powering door bells. The Westminster Bank Branch at 45 Mansfield Road, Nottingham had one. It was perched top of the "internal porch".

 

Nick

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