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Magnesium sulphate

What is the chemistry behind regenerating old lead/acid batteries?

Reply to
Weatherlawyer
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Probably not much help, but have a look on YouTube for a channel called "Rinoa Super-Genius"; there are a few of his videos which explore such things. I didn't pay attention to them though, so can't really comment on how useful they might be.

Reply to
David Paste

The practice is as old as the invention. How would it not be? But I can't find anything on the actual physical chemistry

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

When sulphation occurs, "insoluble" lead sulphate crystals form on one of the plates. Perhaps magnesium sulphate just adds replacement sulphate ions? Although it would seem simpler just to add more concentrated acid.

Reply to
newshound

Here's some more authoritative info (should have looked first!)

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Reply to
newshound

It's based on desperation, any improvement is marginal. When I were lad, I went there and got a T-shirt.

Cheers

Reply to
Syd Rumpo

I have *salvaged* a number of supposedly sulphated lead acid batteries by repeated charge/discharge cycles.

I have no means of testing the actual performance other than they operate electric fencing loads for reasonable periods.

Reply to
Tim Lamb

A work colleague many years ago who had been one of the engineering ranks on a WW2 submarine reckoned he could prolonged the life of his car battery. about one a year he drained it completely ,rinsed it out ,filtered the electrolyte and put it back in topping it up with some new. No idea if his battery actually lasted longer or not, I have a feeling that while it may have done some good on older designs of batteries by the time I knew him in the 1970;s batteries construction had moved on and doing that would not help much.

G.Harman

Reply to
damduck-egg

Here is another take on the same topic although they favour cadmium sulphate as the only one of these remedies that actually works.

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Reply to
Martin Brown

Unless it did you mean? Or not, that is.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

They were out of kicker elastic were they?

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

WHo is going to do sucha thing as set up a commercial enterprise as this?

"Therefore, if sulfation can be reliably treated, there would be a desulfat ion treatment service center on the main street of every auto parts-and-ser vice retail area in every city. Where are they?"

How does he work out any of his claptrap? Guesswork?

If all it takes is a refill with a salt and water I would be loath to inves t in such a service. Although i might offer such a service as an extra to a going concern except that it doesn't work on rejects and doesn't have the same remuneration as selling a new battery. If it was going to cost me 20 o r30 quid I'd rather put that on a new battery with a guarantee I won't be s tuck somewhere far from home in the middle of the night. Because: "The underlying lead sulfate takes up more space than lead. The plates buck le. This seems to be by far the simplest, the most likely correct explanati on that traditionalists seem to have overlooked.

...seems to be ...the simplest, ...most likely ...tradition ...seem to have Are not buzz words designed to inspire a bank manager. oh wait. Here is a b usiness model after all: A combination of pulse charging and cadmium sulfate treatment is commonly u sed by commercial lead-acid battery reconditioning specialists. Their "feed stock" consists of worn out and neglected batteries. It takes a week and is known to provide a 30% recovery rate on reclaimed scrap batteries.

Apparently 10% of them are good batteries so who knowingly threw them away? Must have come from those crooked agencies one hears about. Pity these hone st souls are not chemists.

I am guessing you never actually read the article: "This attracts many newcomers, who scramble to get into what they believe t o be a very easy line of business - only to find it is next to impossible t o make money."

Probably the cost of the salts being a couple of quid to DIY. and you would have enough left for a shed load of salt to go into business over the next twenty to forty years. So it both works and doesn't but best with cadmium but with no explanation why. Nor where you can get cadmium as opposed to an health specific.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Is there any purpose to this garbage or have your meds just worn off?

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

It does seem Mr Weatherlawyer has failed to fully understand things.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

ble to make money."

Obviously you must have known better than to read the diatripe that Martin posted. I am guessing, as stated, that he didn't bother reading it himself, either.

Someone has posted that the remedy the world an his wife should employ is n ot the one that everyone is saying works. The one that is readily available is cheap and costs nothing to get wrong if is only going in a dead battery but instead should invest in a remedy that is unavailable and thus could do more than simply poison the unwary but cost him a few bob in the process .

He (the unknown author) is using for the argument, that if it were possible people would be doing it for a living in a land where a new battery only c osts 30 to 50 quid (£100 for a large diesel) and comes with a guarantee f or several years.

Then he states that there is a large firm doing what he said nobody does an d evidently they are using the bogus method everyone else is, including eve ryone that everyone else KNOWS does it as seen on most videos posted to you tube.

And I am the one posting garbage? Seriously?

I know it is nearly impossible for the chumps on this forum to be unequivoc al but really, some of you should learn that if you don't know something th en you shouldn't be copying and pasting reams of rubbish that concludes by telling you not to waste your time by reading the article you have just wad ed through.

Is this a standard I should aspire to on here? Really?

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Correct, except that Mr Weatherlawyer thinks he understands adequately enough that you are not capable of answering a question that you failed to edit. Rather than post reams of redundant postage why not just snip the irrelevant?

What else do I understand?

That I shouldn't endeavour to find out if anyone on here knows anything about what seems to be quite complex chemical reactions in a standard do it yourself piece of electrical equipment.

That and the fact you all seem to be rascals I should not have troubled.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

They were out of knicker elastic were they?

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Take your meds

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

You came here expecting others to do research that you couldn't be arsed to do yourself and then ridicule anything offered.

Suggestion. Do your own research.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

People do though after having abused their car battery one time too many and not having a decent battery charger. Some of the scrapped batteries would recover if they were charge cycled a couple of times.

Plenty of electric fences are running on previously scrapped batteries.

I expect today cadmium sulphate would not be easily bought in the UK.

He knows nothing about anything.

Reply to
Martin Brown

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