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Battery Recondition Tablets


WJM

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I recently noticed that my domestic batteries were failing to hold much charge. 18 months ago I had my domestic batteries replaced. I failed to notice that the old sealed no-maintenance batteries were replaced with 'open' batteries - meaning that after a year and a half of usage, I have never topped up the water! Bad, I know, don't laugh! Each battery took over one litre of water to refill! They are still not holding charge well even though they are now full and have had long periods of charging.

 

To try and recover them, I was thinking of putting these tablets into them (Granville Bat-Aid). Does anyone have any opinion of these tablets? Or any other advice on anything else I could do?

 

http://www.granville-oilchem.co.uk/product_info.php?prod_id=3

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My thoughts on those things are, what happens to the deposits when they're "removed" from the battery's internals? :wacko:

 

Not to mention, there are plenty of other treatments and "cures" out there, ranging from pouring in red wine to dropping in aspirin tablets... :blink:

 

Most 'traditional' batteries have a space below the plates designed to catch deposits are they drop off.

 

Not sure if bat aid is actually effective. Its certainly not a cure and I think they are less effective in modern batteries.

 

Probelm is if the lead has been totally used up then no chemical is going to reverse that fact.

 

On the subject of sulphated plates, an old boy once told me that discharging a battery as quickly as possibe has the effect of 'vibrating' the plates which then knocks off the sulphation. Could try that.

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I had a similar problem with batteries needing water. I re-watered them then charged them. The bank would not hold charge. The problem was that 2 of the 5 batteries had faults and were pulling the bank down - one of the failed ones even had the green ball showing. What I suggest is that you charge the bank then remove the connections between the batteries and leave them over night. Check them with a volt meter. A failed battery will show a lower terminal voltage then the rest, however they may all be dead.

 

I've tried these tablets in the past and had little joy with them. I've also used an indusrtial battery charger that uses different methods to try to recover batteries with very mixed results. I've since replaced the whole bank.

 

Gibbo is the expert in this area.

Edited by Chalky
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I once inadvertently left an immersion heater on for several hours which discharged our knackered batt bank but after recharging they had a new lease of life, didn't actually totally revive them but it gave us a few more weeks use. I know this goes against all perceived wisdom but it did actually have some benefit for us.

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Those battery tablets can help with an engine start battery. For a very short time.

 

When an engine start battery starts to become useless it's because the internal resistance has risen to the point that the terminal votage plummets under heavy load. Hence the engine won't start. The snake oil bat aid tablets decrease the internal resistance by filling the electrolyte with conductive pollutants. It lasts a couple of weeks at the most then starts to cause further damage.

 

They will achieve nothing with leisure batteries.

 

The problem you have is that the plates have been exposed to the atmosphere. They will now be oxidised. That's fine for one of them which is supposed be lead dioxide when fully charged but the other one should be just lead. Now it won't be. Also, this will have happened throughout various states of charge (when they are supposed to be lead sulphate).

 

The only thing you can do is top them up with pure water and cycle them several times. This cycling can be part of your normal battery useage. But ideally you also want to charge them at a higher voltage than normal (up to about 16 volts or so).

 

Keep your eye on the temperature when charging, if they start to get warm or one cell starts using more water then that battery is probably knackered.

 

Do not add anything to them apart from water. Nothing at all is going to help and most things you put in there will simply make matters worse.

 

I have recovered many batteries from this condition so it isn't all doom and gloom, but occasionally I've had one that simply wouldn't play.

 

I once inadvertently left an immersion heater on for several hours which discharged our knackered batt bank but after recharging they had a new lease of life, didn't actually totally revive them but it gave us a few more weeks use. I know this goes against all perceived wisdom but it did actually have some benefit for us.

 

Indeed, it can have a similar effect to an equalisation charge. Or rather, it gets rid of some of the crap so that the following charge can actually get to some fresh material which was previously caked up with sulphate.

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I recently noticed that my domestic batteries were failing to hold much charge. 18 months ago I had my domestic batteries replaced. I failed to notice that the old sealed no-maintenance batteries were replaced with 'open' batteries - meaning that after a year and a half of usage, I have never topped up the water! Bad, I know, don't laugh! Each battery took over one litre of water to refill! They are still not holding charge well even though they are now full and have had long periods of charging.

 

To try and recover them, I was thinking of putting these tablets into them (Granville Bat-Aid). Does anyone have any opinion of these tablets? Or any other advice on anything else I could do?

http://www.granville-oilchem.co.uk/product_info.php?prod_id=3

In my view they work well to give another season to tired batteries, more so if they have not been equalised regularly, but they work out a bit expensive to use as the manufacturers recommend.

 

If there is battery damage they cannot do anything unfortunately but at the price worth a go before replacing

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To try and recover them, I was thinking of putting these tablets into them (Granville Bat-Aid). Does anyone have any opinion of these tablets? Or any other advice on anything else I could do?

3 steps:

 

1) Find out from the batt manufacturer or supplier how your batts should be charged (especially charge voltage) and maintained.

2) Make sure the batts are charged and maintained in this way.

3) GOTO 1) :)

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited by smileypete
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1) Find out from the batt manufacturer or supplier how your batts should be charged (especially charge voltage) and maintained.

2) Make sure the batts are charged and maintained in this way.

3) GOTO 1) :)

Programming error... 3) should surely be GOTO 2)

 

;)

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Google 'battery EDTA'. EDTA, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic <sp?> acid is a wonder chemical - much better than Carl's Snake Oil! Some success reported but mainly by draining the acid from the battery not just chucking in additives. Some claim that EDTA is included in the electrolyte by some major battery manafacturers.

 

There's also loads of support suggesting that applying a sufficient voltage to cause gassing will improve the capacity of flooded lead-acid cells. Some suppliers even recommend it as an initial and monthly procedure. Gassing is not good for 'low maintenance' batteries and clearly will have no beneficial effect on AGM or GEL cells. Is this another reason that cheap, flooded cells are more economical; after you have abused them you have a chance to restore some of the capacity?

 

Alan S

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True - that program loop would run ok but it would hog processor cycles unnecessarily - though it would probably halt when the line 1 subroutine is stopped because it thinks you are trying a denial of service attack!

 

But GOTO 1 allows the program to correct itself each time the battery supplier changes his mind because he doesn't really know what he's selling.

 

Google 'battery EDTA'. EDTA, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic <sp?> acid is a wonder chemical - much better than Carl's Snake Oil! Some success reported but mainly by draining the acid from the battery not just chucking in additives. Some claim that EDTA is included in the electrolyte by some major battery manafacturers.

 

There's also loads of support suggesting that applying a sufficient voltage to cause gassing will improve the capacity of flooded lead-acid cells. Some suppliers even recommend it as an initial and monthly procedure. Gassing is not good for 'low maintenance' batteries and clearly will have no beneficial effect on AGM or GEL cells. Is this another reason that cheap, flooded cells are more economical; after you have abused them you have a chance to restore some of the capacity?

 

 

Eh?

 

You have to cause gassing to charge them fully.

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3 steps:

 

1) Find out from the batt manufacturer or supplier how your batts should be charged (especially charge voltage) and maintained.

2) Make sure the batts are charged and maintained in this way.

3) GOTO 1) :)

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

Better programming style?

 

Do

 

Find out from the batt manufacturer or supplier how your batts should be charged (especially charge voltage) and maintained.

Make sure the batts are charged and maintained in this way.

 

Loop Until Batteries changed

:rolleyes:

Edited by Chalky
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