Re: (ET) RE: Wanted: Electric Tractor - Aloha, Oregon

["David Roden (Akron OH USA)" <roden ald net>]

From:                   "Rick Barnes" <barnesr nwlink com>

> (I know you should not mix
> batteries with different ages and capacities).

When they're all old and clapped-out, it doesn't much matter any more.  
If possible, take them to a battery or golf car dealer and have them 
tested.  Use the best six regardless of brand or age.

Here's an old-timer's trick.  Badly sulphated batteries can be given a 
little more life this way.  

Buy a jug of fresh electrolyte from your battery dealer.  Remove battery 
cell caps and invert the battery over a plastic dishpan.  Fill the 
battery with fresh tap water, cap, agitate as well as you can for a 66 lb 
battery.  Drain again.  Repeat once or twice.  

Be sure to dispose of the drained gunk properly -- ~it contains lead~.  
You have rinsed out the lead sulphate which has shed from the plates and 
may be shorting a cell.

Now, pour in the fresh electrolyte.  Follow with a long, slow equalizing 
charge (2-4 amps at 8 volts or so for 2-3 days).  Discharge the battery 
and recharge several times, and you should see capacity come up, though 
it won't come close a new battery by any means.

I have tried this method (which I'm told is essentially what the battery 
dealers do to "rebuilt" batteries) with variable success.  How well it 
works depends on how much active material is actually left unsulphated in 
the plates, how much grid corrosion is present, and so on.  But if you 
have more time than money, it can get you a little more service life from 
a $300 battery pack.  

Just make sure you take that old electrolyte and rinse water to the 
recycling center or household toxic waste disposal site in your area.  
It's nasty stuff.


David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
1991 Solectria Force 144vac
1991 Ford Escort Green/EV 128vdc
1979 General Engines ElectroPed 24vdc
1974 Honda Civic EV 96vdc
1970 GE Elec-trak 36vdc