Hello, I am a battery tech. Nice video. Baking soda treatment works during cycle life. After cleaning with backing soda. Trickle charge battery with old acid as it was done. Remove the old acid and fill with new battery acid with correct spefic gravity. Charge with standard or negative pulse charger. It will work like new battery if there is no internal damage to seperators or plates. Every battery has a cycle life. You can't use a battery beyond it's cycle life. Lead plates will not exchange electrones beyond it's cycle life. Hope this information is useful.
I tried the new acid after draining an cleaning out the battery but it most likely passed it's cycle life because it did not work. This was years ago and I thought I could save money I did not have. I have since just wound up buying a new battery - the cost of meterials and all the time and work involved in the process doesn't seem like you're really saving much anyway. Maybe now a days it might be more worth it but when I tried, it was probably 12-15 years ago - my car battery was around 70 bucks. ( i just replaced one in a Fusion..it $110.00 that was for the cheap one.)
It might not start a tractor but it could still be used for emergencies during a power outage for charging cell phones and running CB & Ham Radios. “You tried - my friend”.. I admire your determination…
A sincere "Thank you" for sacrificing days worth of patience and some expense, so that we don't have to. Great to see honest, non BS vids like yours. All the best from the UK.
I learned a great lesson from this! Battery is just like a relationship, never give up easily, you kept trying and trying until you found out that every resource you used didn’t work, then you know for certain it didn’t work! You are a man with great virtue of patience! Thank you! I really enjoyed watching your video! Thanks!
I really appreciate your tenacity, thorough preparation and expert production of audio and video. I was intent on doing this myself with several batteries I hope to save. Given your tremendous efforts and unflinching courage to show results, you saved me serious heartache. Thanks so much.
So, on the last attempt, you used epsom salts and water, and then tried to charge? Why wouldn’t you dump the epsom salt water and put in fresh acid… then charge? Hmmm. I have bounced a battery, shook it hard, dumped acid and replaced with new acid and ta da! Great starting amps for another two years.
7 year old, that battery was a legend already LOL . Mine last about 2-3years. Thanks for doing all the hard work so we don't have to go thought all that.
I admire your persistency. I'm trying to revive a 6 year old battery as we speak. Got it up to 12.5v with the stick welder. Had one cell that was dead during the cycle but came back in the end. After an hour off the stick welder the volts dropped down to 8. On the trickle charger and now reading 9v and rising. I will leave it to charge for 48hrs but I don't think it will have the cranking amps to turn over my small block V8 engine. Only a miracle will save this battery.
Reconditioning an old battery only works under certain situations. First off, it will only work if the only issue is sulfation, the other one is if it's a deep-cycle battery. The plates they use on regular batteries are thin which wear out inside of the 3-5 year lifespan of the battery. For deep-cycle batteries, the plates are thicker and there is a better chance of it coming back to life once the sulfation is removed. The proper combination for the restoration is to drain the acid, do the rinsing with water like you did, then put in the epsom salt as you did. The only difference is that you want to do a few charge-discharge cycles over a few days to allow the epsom salt to fluff of the sulfates covering the plates. After this, drain out the epsom salt, then rinse out again with water. The final step is to fill it up with fresh acid. You could re-use the original acid you drained out, but you want to let it sit for a few days to allow the solids to settle, then take out the clear layer and filter it a few times. You can then re-use it in the battery and top off with distilled water. This will not bring back the battery to its original state, but should give you a few more years of use at a lower AH. You could probably redo this step after a few years when it sulfates again after regular use.
Used to work for what was at the time a viable car battery recycler in 1979. All we did was scrape all of the labels off, bang them on a pallet pretty hard a few times to clean the plates and then recharged them. Their policy on these reconditioned batteries was $20.00 out the door with a one year warranty. I still use that method but I leave the labels on! Simple, SAFE and efffective. I've an Everstart Maxx-T5 650/800 here dated 12/2018. It was at 1.2 Volts after sitting unused in a vehicle for about a year. It would not go past 10.4V and the charger said it was 'bad' even after a second attempt. Did the battery xchange thing, reset the charger and this morning it was auto trickle charging and is at 12.7V static. Of course, I am losing capacity but here we are ready to crank. I find pretty much zero data about this technique online. Considering a video myself since I have two more to check on. I have no reason to bs anyone
Big problem with your method is detached then deposited particles to which gravity dictates.. they fall and short the plates in one concentrated area.. Respect to your knowledge mind👏👏
Diesels are a real test for a battery - all that compression! I dabbled in lead/acid batteries a while ago. Over a few years I attempted to revive dozens of them ranging from little 4A batts for small motorcycles up to fishing boat batteries about 300A. I realised fairly soon that if a battery was shorted then it wasn't worth any effort - unless you wanted a 10V battery for some reason - but if one cell is shorted then the rest probably won't be far away. I could go on for hours about bits I've learned about lead/acid batteries, but I'll try to be brief in the hope that some people can get some improvement in their old batteries. The death of a battery is the disintegration of the positive plates. It happens and there's nothing you can do about it except get new plates. Some manufacturers would of course have better-made plates. See if you can find the most reliable batteries in your locale and get an idea of what might be worth the effort to try to refurbish. While I'm on the subject of quality, I'd say always get batteries which have a long 'well' under the plates, as when a battery shorts-out, it's most likely from the detritus at the bottom, so batteries with little clearance underneath will be more prone to shorting. Batteries can also short from sharp sulphation deposits poking through the insulators in a cell. Small motorcycle batteries seemed to be worse when it came to keeping the lead/oxide on the positive plate grid when compared to larger batteries. If a battery has cells which are bulging then I'd be wary of it because even though it may be working at the time, it will likely short out soon. If sulphation is the only problem - say for example you left it and didn't charge it for years, or it was stuck in a back-up power supply for a computer and therefore on a constant charge for years so it eventually dried up, then it is possible to revive it to some extent. I've also tried various chemicals to 'wash' the plates or dope them - but without any real success stories - but some were much better than before. Mag sulph may keep a lower compression engine cranking longer after a dose of salts, but I don't think it is good for the battery. But if the battery's junk anyway then why not have a go? Here's the real deal with sulphation. It came to me after a lot of experimentation and I found confirmation from someone knowledgeable at a lead/acid battery factory. Here's what you do:- Just put enough demineralized water in each cell to cover the plates. The acid level will increase as the state of charge improves, so if you put too much in then it'll likely spill over. Keep the battery on a float charge of 13.1V or close to it for as LONG AS IT TAKES to clear all the sulphation. I'm talking possibly a month here. Another effective way to rid the sulphation is to put the battery on a miniscule charge of a few tens of milliamps for weeks, testing the discharge occasionally to watch the progress. I do that with tiny bike batteries with about 50% success - but bikes are quite easy to crank. Diesel's would be far less likely to be strong enough to do the job. If you leave a battery on a float charge for long enough then the sulphation WILL clear. You can also make a pulse charger. I made a half dozen or so pulse chargers from parts from inverter air-con electronics. I hit the batteries with very sharp spikes of DC. I made them with a simple multivibrator and a relay. The relay was driving an air-con transistor array which shoved up to hundreds of amps into the battery for a small fraction of a second. I chose to use a relay for two reasons. One is that I'm not very good with electronics and the second was that a relay must be just about the sharpest pulse you can get. I made those chargers with everything variable as far as pulse-width, voltage and power, and I believe they got many batteries cranking again. I use to get old batteries, then fix well-over half of them. I sold some and gave some away. The battery in my smaller motorcycle is over 20 years old and goes well. But many simply do not respond. I think if I had a diesel I'd rather pay more and get the largest battery I can get into the compartment and then I could sleep easily. I've managed to get lots of batteries for diesels working again, but they are quite hard and most failed. A pulse-charged and float charged/desulphated battery for a diesel could be better replaced by a refurbished larger battery which has been nursed back into some sort of health again. The smart chargers and so-called pulse chargers I've used have all been as good as useless and a waste of money. The old fashioned chargers with a transformer and a rectifier work best for me. It's lo-tech, but you could run a vehicle lamp of a lower wattage in series to the charger to give you a very low charging current to clear the sulphation. Just running a normal charge through a weary battery isn't going to do much (if any) good. I hope something in what I've written is of some help to someone. Wow! I've never typed so much in a reply! Scuse the typos if there are any.
Thank you for your experience. I have a few old school battery chargers laying around. What is the component on them that wears out? Seems they could be repaired but I have not figured out what part has failed. rectifier?
@@wisconsinfarmer4742 Check if there is any voltage on the transformer's secondary coil. Use the AC range on your multimeter to see if you've got A/C going in and out of that transformer. Depending on a few things such as physical size of the transformer, you should be getting at least 15V, and maybe up to 18V. If you've got no voltage from the secondary then it is not worth trying to fix. It will be impracticable. If the transformer is OK then the next step is the rectifier [there's not much else that can go wrong except the fuse]. Use your meter to see that's got voltage going in and out. If you're not getting DC out, then the rectifier needs replacing. I get all my bits from old circuit boards, and you'll likely find some hefty bridge rectifiers in old air conditioner inverter boards that are perfectly good. Just screw it tight to something metal (heatsink) inside the charger's box and you should be all right. I've tried fixing chargers with clever circuitry but without much success - but I've often just replaced the clever circuitry with a simple rectifier and got them usable again. To limit the current to protect the rectifier you might use the resistance quality of a 60W headlamp - that should get you at least three, four or five amps worth of charging. If the charger is a high power one then use an arbitrarily large bridge rectifier. You don't need to limit the current providing the unit doesn't overheat. If it smells too hot then limit the current. Most transformers with rectifiers will take a lot of punishment before they give out. Chargers stuffed with electronics are a good idea, but in reality the stuff made these days is mostly made from components operating at or near their specified maximum rating, so if you inadvertently overload it for a moment it'll blow and the circuit board(s) will have to be replaced, which is probably more expensive than buying a new charger. I'm sure there are decent chargers using masses of electronics out there, but they're not made in China. Most modern electronics hav got no tolerance whereas the old stuff could take a hammering.
@@danielrivera7958RUclips blooper? Please explain? I think this was a trial and error video... Right? So it wasn't a waste, because we all learned something.
@@JayCold-dy5qh Yup, very instructive ...always good to know why things work out or don't work out ... surely not a blooper as it's very instructive. It's linked to similar videos on YT that promise results even if they are not guaranteed
Thank you for sharing this info. You saved me much time and heartache. Simple tasks take a lot effort for me being 80% disabled. I was just about to try to “revive” 3 deep cell marine batteries to take my kids on a very anticipated fishing adventure. Thanks again : )
Maybe using fresh (new) acide could have helped as I believe the electrolytic density in the old acide would be much lower and after all the flushing and cleaning the battery plates, I would not recommend reusing the old acide . Nice video presentation .
This video is very well done! Good lighting and camera angles. Good sound. Well organized. You did a fair test of the restoration techniques on the other videos and followed the instructions. I feel like I got useful information from this video. Thanks.
I believe the problem was the baking soda. It takes a very small amount of baking soda to totally mess up a battery. You seen the results when you poured the baking soda solution to the cells a chemical reaction was the neutralizing acid that was still left in the shelves. I don't know what you do with the old acid but you shouldn't have used it.
You miss the point entirely and your assumptions are useless. He followed the instructions exactly and they did not work. If you tried one of these and been successful, then you would have some useful information. Everyone knows that baking soda neutralizes acid, that is why you take it for heartburn.@@johnsmccullough9431
You can restore batteries but it takes much more work and the actual casing has to be able to opened completly. The problem is the plates, which are technically not real plates but grates that contain lead-dioxide and not lead. The problem is that lead-dioxide is not a complete solid metal but more like a sticky pulver that is sticking in the grates. What happens if over time is that the pulver is leaving the plates and floats in the acid (you did try to filter it out0. Fun fact: when you fully discharge a battery the pulver is less sticky and can fall out of the plate more easy. Bumping and rocking a fully discharged battery actually is total destruction. The powder in the acid and not in the grates means 2 things. Your plate is thinner and not as effective and the stuff floating in the acid means the acidf is now conductive and causing internal draining of the electricity (old battries die sooner after charging even if hardly used). So what you should do for full restoration is 1 open the whole battery and instll fresh plates if possible. If not possible the only and best thing you can do is drain the dirty acid rinse with water but remember to rocking bumping shaking. And refill with clean acid and charge (best done with a computer charger that has deep uncharge/charge cycle program). The rinsing with all the shaking you did actually killed the battery more then it already was degraded before you did that, so now it is really toast. Also trying to clean with baking soda only made more lead-dioxide leave the grates.
We did deep discharging for batteries with computerized racks mostly NiCD, Lithium, Alkaline, and other high value rare earth batteries. I hired crews of temporary workers to do this as a refurbishment for mobile phones.
I agree with the comment here about battery construction and design for starting batteries. However, the average lamen isn't going to have access to new plates and would have a hard time replacing them, hence the reason why I suggested in my comment to simply replace the battery as a whole.
Together with this video that's a really helpful post explaining what's actually going on, along with other comments lined up one or two batteries to try myself, saved me a lot of time and effort, cheers
Thanks for sharing your experience so we don't have to. I noticed your acid was black which meant your plates were eaten up by the acid which means it won't hold enough charge.
Two yrs ago I did the Epson salt protocol, but I my mixture had so much salt it was the consistency of a Slurpee. Then used high Amp charger like you did, But only brought the batt too a boil for about 5 min, let it rest to cool. Did this 3 or 4 times. Drained the salt mixture and filled with distilled water. Then charged. Battery worked for 2 more yrs. I got lucky I guess.
Thank you for doing what you did. You are honest, what we all wish everyone was. You saved a lot of people a lot of time and money. I am sure you will be rewarded greatly for showing your work, God bless you, and enjoy your blessed life.
Yep, we want to save money if we can - 7 years ago I got it at Walmart for $99 (group size: 51R). Now, it costs $149 - INFLATION!!! Thank you for sharing🙏
At Walmart I bought a battery my pickup about a year ago for less than $100 plus tx and this week bought a similar one for wife's vehicle for $150 plus tx. Nancy Pelosi says to ignore inflation. As she and Paul are very wealthy, they can ignore inflation. Middle class Americans can't.
I tried 4 different batteries to desulfate them using the welder and my charger. Zero worked they looked like they would work, but no luck bought 4 new batteries and the acid made a mess on my ground cable to my welder. Thanks for doing this video now I know I didn’t screw it up.
I agree about replacing the acid. After many cycled, adding distilled water and if you didn't flush out the baking soda, that acid is nowhere near the strength it should be. A hygrometer would show that more than a surface charge. All of this is moot for a sealed and especially an AGM battery!
Great video... You could try one other thing... Put back the acid in the cells, discharge the battery completely. Reverse terminal polarity when charging. Reversing polarity should remove sulfation from the positive plates... But the big question is if you have enough lead on those plates. As well you could measure resistance in between cells to determine which cell is actually bad.
Lol thats funny, I guess the dead battery on my trailer might be saved since it’s a deep cycle and somehow I managed to charge it reversing the polarity last time.
I found one by a creek.. I took it home. Drained the acid. Hit the bottom with a rubber hammer as I did. Then put new battery acid in it.. Worked for 3 more years...
Try one last method. Use a garden hose sprayer to wash out the battery, using the pressure to dislodge the chunks of lead sulfate that are at the bottom of the battery. Then use brand new acid. This is your only chance of revitalizing a battery. If it works, you'll get another year out of it at most. The plates in a lead acid battery cannot last forever due to the degradation effect of the charge/discharge process. Personally, I replace the battery in our cars every 4 years to avoid problems. Very well made video.
I had one last 5 years with just normal use in the car. No charging or anything. Just regular use of the car. It is a Duralast. Im researching the best proper way to recondition it. I'm thinking a drain of old acid, rinse with just distilled water(so no metals get in) or possibly hose rinse, then distilled rinse, and then drain. May use air compressor with small amount of distilled water to each cell to try and create some disturbance around the plates. Then add electrolyte that you buy at an auto store. I have the electrolyte already. Gonna skip the baking soda process(which i feel is unnecessary in the battery itself, because it neutralizes battery acid, and may leave some behind), and skip the whole epsom salt method as well, since I have new clean electrolyte. I hope this method works. Maybe I can get a year or two more from this. We shall see.
I purchased a new battery charger that had a setting call "Repair Battery".For about 3 years I never gave that a second thought. When I had a battery go bad, decided to try it. I've used that battery since and for 3 seasons it's still working. It's a Schmacher charger, picked it up at Walmart and was less than $50 at the time. Saved me $ and time, and it's still going.
I've had a couple, when doing that (regen) it pulses the battery... seems to discharge it but it does help clean the plates. it still would help to drain and filter /replace the acid tho.
There are desulfation chargers that pulse the battery at a high frequency that resonates with the lead sulfide crystals to assist in shaking them from the plates.
Once you’ve cleaned it out try new sulfuric acid. Salts are weak acid and really don’t do much. A pulse charger will help knock down the sulfate or convert it back to lead. Maybe add this to your scientific method. Id really like to see the same battery with new acid. Thanks for your time.
I took a battery apart & soldered in good cells(non degenerated) but lasted less than a year - Later I watched this happen on backup generator batteries at a nuclear power station - They had interior plates 6 times larger & used clear plastic housing so I saw small layers of the plates fall off & build up on the bottom between the plates till they were ready to short out after about 20 years - I watched the last 5 years during monthly tests.
For many years I tried reviving batteries. I always failed beacause the batteries were dead+dead. For the headache and heartache, I give up and went to dry gell batteries. I learnt to have them recycled when all life in them is gone. 7 years life out of a battery is awesome. To extend battery life, maintenance is crucial; charge/discharge. I am still learning.
Same thing happened to me on a brand new $150 850 CCA battery. I bought a 200 amp Charger for $114(never have to buy another one) and did what you did and it worked 100% as stated on the youtube vid. My problem was I was running a 1985 with a diesel motor, gotta have those glow plugs and of course the auxiliary cooling fans always draining it down. My problem was I'm no mechanic and had to wait and wait until I finally found a good HONEST Mechanic to correct the problems with the belts, Idlers and pullies. I have three brothers that are Mechanics but their on the other side of the mountains, lol. My younger brother is a Certified Diesel Specialist but he had a Stroke and his Meds turned him into a raving maniac and I don't even like to be around him.
They put my bro on depression meds and it did the same thing. Drs are pumping ppl full of those things just to get their money. He has since got off of them but the effects are still there
Got a car 4 yrs old- 35,000 miles & battery is dead. Jumped it 2x. What the heck? No lights being left on to drain battery. Batteries are made so crappie now- just to keep trying to drain our $. Thank you for this. Batteries use to last a lot longer years ago.
Halfway through I was ready to try it on a battery here, I'm glad I watched the end. Just because you got particles from the original acid with a filter that doesn't mean it's still good. Maybe a PH test would tell. wish you would have tried fresh acid after the Epsom salt flush. Thank you for the informative honest video
the 51 series batteries only have 350/400 cold cranking amps,you can buy a lawn mower battery with the same amps for less than 50 bucks at rural king and some other farm/fleet stores
The epson salts probably cleaned the plates. The epson salts should have been drained from the battery and new acid (buy at an auto parts store) be used for "refilling" the battery.😄
I gave you a thumbs up because you were 95 % there after all those steps. The one thing that didnt occur even after you mentioned draining the epsom salts and replacing the battery acid ( As in your remarks ) was ...... " its MEMORY " When the epsom salts were in the battery it should have been drained of any CHARGE to as close to dead zero as you can. Then poured the epsom out and replaced the acid and then recharged to the new memory. The Memory would have worked with the epsom even if you kept it in there, however the original acid works best for more amperage and acid is the last to be added.
I grew up in the service station business when service stations was the main source of tire, batteries, and actually repaired automobiles. In those years we had retread tires, and rebuilt batteries. We need to first understand that the difference in a 3 year lead acid car battery, and a 5 year battery was the amount of vacant space below the lead plates. The most common reason a battery goes bad is the lead plates flake off, and fill the bottom space. When the bottom gets full of flakes it then shorts out the battery. Battery lead plates at that time was encased in a hard rubber case, and sealed with hard tar like compound. To rebuild the battery they would remove the plates from the case, dump out the lead flakes from the bottom, place the lead plates back in, and reseal the battery. After putting the battery bac k together it would be refilled with battery acid, recharged, and sold as a rebuilt battery. Last winter my battery powered golf cart would not go up my short driveway after recharging. It is charged with six large 6 volt batteries. I know cold weather steals the power of a lead acid battery, but I knew I would have to spend about $800 for their replacement. I read an article that said I could restore my batteries by bring a gallon of distilled water to 150 degrees on a stove, and the put epsom salt into the water epsom salt until I it couldn't dissolve anymore into the water. This is the same principal as a water softener dissolving salt. Water will only hold so much dissolved salt. I then took a turkey baster, and removed the battery acid down to the top of the plates, and refilled it with my epsom salt water. Strain out any epsom salt that did not dissolve. DO NOT PUT SALT CRYSTALS DIRECT INTO BATTERY. After doing this my golf cart batteries will hold a charge good enough to work for me a couple of miles between charges.
Thanks for making THIS! I've been considering trying some of these methods after having to pay OVER $200 for a new battery recently. But it seems these methods may not be the answer after all! Appreciate your time.
It's a lead/ acid battery, baking soda, nuatraize the acid, and if you dump it out the electrolyte "acid solution" you will need to replace it! It's like trying to run your car without gas! Remember how the old soda/acid fire extinguisher worked, they had a bottle of Sulfuric acid in the top, and a baking soda water in the bottom.
All that work has gone to the waste side, And so it would've been great to have added the actual correct way to recycle the battery with new acid at the last half of the video, However if the lead plates have deteriorated there might not be enough material to salvage... Never buy a cheap lightweight battery. Nevertheless, any battery that you chose should have maintenance access if you can find one and simply keep it maintained, and the first thing to do is incorporate the proper amount of de-mister in each cell, secondly is to use the desulfator setting on your charger about once every two months!
I've tried the baking soda, Epsom salt, and new acid methods. NONE of them worked... What I do to save money is go to the salvage yard and get a gently used battery, usually only about a year old. These might come from a crashed car or even a non-crashed car that has just worn out. These used batteries usually last three or four years... I agree with other people who commented on how this gentleman was not wearing gloves or even eye protection and in the last section he was wearing shorts. Very dangerous very risky but I'm glad he made it through the whole series of procedures without incident... ☝🏼praise the Lord❗
I've tried various battery restore tricks with no success. I've completely ruined a couple of weak batteries. My last gambit was to buy an Xtreme XC100 Electronic Desulfator/Charger on ebay, and set it up on my weak riding lawn mower battery. It was hard to tell if it was doing anything after a few days, so I created a daily log tracking voltage, cranking amps and resistance, and went at it for the long haul. What I pay the most attention to is the battery resistance. My Centech battery analyzer tests for this. Ideal new battery resistance is supposed to be down around 2 u Ohms, the battery was at 10.35 u Ohms. It does seem to be improving the battery in all ways, but it appears to be a glacial time process. It's down to 9.92 u Ohms after 3 weeks. At that rate, getting it down to 2 u Ohms, is going to take months. We'll see where it is by spring.
No new battery acid? I was waiting for you to replace the old battery acid with new, that would have covered everything and would have de-bunked the whole battery revival theory. Great video BTW, well done.
You did pretty well to get 7 years out of your lead acid battery. Also, something I would have liked to see is what was the voltage drop between the negative post and the clamped-on connector at the negative terminal during the load test. Sometimes a poor connection will cause the voltage to drop across such connections. Perhaps you removed it and cleaned the post and the inside of the clamped connector already.
Your stubbornness /determination is admirable. I've watched a few other tries which didn't work either. I've spoken with battery shop employees about different means of trying to resurrect a failed battery--- they basically said "when it's done, it's done"---hope spring eternal...
Great video, I appreciate that you tried out so many things on the same battery and really showing us the process and your thoughts while doing it. It is sad that you didn't manage to revive it, but you did however share a lot of information to the rest of us. My battery just randomly died after I used it to start my car several times one day, and the next morning it is not even taking a charge enough to keep the dash board lit up. Thank you!
I've had a few car batteries give me a faulty battery warning and they would not charge on my trickle charger. I connected a jump start pack to the battery and let it absorb some juice, then it was able to start charging properly on the trickle. There are ways to make cordless tool batteries come back to life also... using one battery to boost the other.
Finally, an honest person. All this other crap that they say it doesn’t work. I wasted so much time myself. Had I seen this video, I wouldn’t have not wasted my time. Thank you for your service.
Very well done and explained, but let's get down to business. In order to support the " battery production industry", we the consumers have to buy batteries for our toys every 3 1/2 to 5 years.
I've already had a lot of experience reviving batteries. I think the desulfation worked well. the main problem is that you lost too much lead. this is known as Active Mass. Deshakb was also so black because of the battery acid. The less active mass, the worse the performance. You can do whatever you want if the acid is so dark then the battery is usually already lost
I've done this numerous times oh, and if you do it properly it works. Then you flush it several times with just plain distilled water. All you are trying to do is flush out the lead the lad mix at the bottom of the battery which is shorting out the plates. Then take one pound of Epsom salts and distilled water and do what just what you did before he did enough where dissolves but don't boil the water. Then fill the battery up to the point where it's supposed to go above the plates and do not add distilled water. Then I put it on my 10 amp charger for about an hour to two hours to get it boosted and then I change it over to the trickle charger overnight. Install it and drive the vehicle that day. That night pull the battery out again stick it back on the trickle charger overnight and then replace it back in the vehicle the next day and it should be fine from that point on. This is work for me numerous times on different vehicles. I actually have two batteries on the patio now, as backups that I did this with
I got a cheep battery to last 13 years. I have a charger with a revive mode n did a couple times. It was still good when the car pooped. Only thing was psyche as didn’t know how long it would last but sure did. Never did anything else to it over the time period. Even started the car well at below zero temperatures best $5 I ever spent !!
You were supposed to put the Epsom salt mix in, run a heavy charge allowing it to bubble. Do it a couple times. Dump out the salt mixture, and put back in the battery acid, give it a charge, and bam.....done. However, I am glad that you showed everyone the wrong way to do it. Because the guy you referenced, had good charge and strong cranking amps afterwards. JS
I mentioned that i could never get the CCA up above 2. Was about to get multi meter volts up to 12 + with high short charge rate like you did, but when i charged with small 2amp float charger. Voltage kept dropping. Tried for days. All failure just like you. The battery is for my gravely rider mower, im in ohio. And the battery new is over $200!!! The heck with that. I will reinstall this battery and use my big jump starter to start mower when i need it. So glad i watched you. Thanks for all your effort and honesty.
Great job. Glad you had "success" .. LOL. During the initial reviving process, it looked like you had one, maybe two, cells that were not bubbling as much as the others. All cells need to be bubbling equally hard. This may take many more cycles than one may think, especially with a very old battery with a lot of sulfation.
Buy a new one bud . Good video and enjoyed . I had a motorcycle battery do this once and it would not accept a charge . I inv on the Web and found a article saying put the battery in a bowl of hot water and charge . It worked and cold cranks the bike a treat.
Such an Excellent post! You have made a complete waste of time, for yourself, completely useful for others 💪🏾 📜 You are a natural man in proper standing 🏆 Many thanks for your patience and work 🤠
Watching this goes to show sometimes all manufactured goods have a life expectancy and would you really waste your time doing this so well done for the exercise
did you try cycling the battery ?Put a load on the battery until voltage is drained then charge the battery again .Repeat a couple times, this worked for me .I didi this after the cleaning and epsom salt . Good luck
Thank you. You have confirmed the fact that physics and chemistry still work. However, you have an exceptionally clean paperweight as a result of your efforts.
Appreciate video documentation. Check fluid levels frequently add distilled water as necessary. Next, check battery acid health with hydrometer. If lead plates are cracked or disintegrated that battery is dead. Buy battery with longest warranty. Replace battery before warranty expires? I saw your golf cart, this isn't your first rodeo!
I am wondering if the problem might be the used acid, maybe after the desalinating and then cleaning with baking soda then the epsom salt, My last effort would have been fresh acid.
Fresh acid might do it. But filtering it well enough and replacing any losses should work as well. But the lead plates, and particularly their spacing, also matters. If they lose too much thickness the spacing will be off and electrons won't move around like they should. I've heard in africa guys take out the lead, melt it and clean that, then pour new plates in some kinda mold. So maybe a battery is 90% recyclable, little fresh acid, little fresh lead, once it's worn down enough
Just a hint every time you show charging the Positive it threw a spark So there is a bad or cross connection internally Its shot or you would need to take the cover off and find the bad connection or bad isolation pad in the lead panel
I think removing sulfation works if your battery was just not maintained properly and allowed to discharge very deeply but it wasn't worn down by prolonged use. In that case, the lead plates inside are still in decent shape, but coated with sulfate crystals. However, in your case, the lead plates inside seems to have been worn down so much that its next to impossible to revive without replacing all the plates and rebuilding the battery. It definitely needs to be replaced. Some of the tricks you used would have worked well on a battery that wasn't at the end of its life.
Fantastic video :) thank you. But I have to say it can be done. I bring my old weak battery to battery shop and they restore the battery to original cranking amps in 24 hours but they did'n want to tell me how they did it. So I,m still searching.
When a cell deteriorates small particles fall to the bottom and shorts out the cells....Removing those particles will not restore the deteriorated cells so the battery still needs to be replaced....A car battery will usually last about three years and the first time the starter begins to turn over slow save yourself being stranded by replacing the battery....It will usually leave you stranded in cold winter weather when you had no trouble during the past summer....
Fresh new acid & dc welder with 20-40-60-100-150 amp cycles at 15 min. zaps & cool 30 min. intervals would of rewarded him greatly. I really watched every second of this man's thorough efforts (plural)...I think I felt as disappointed each time he experience it... really felt he had it !... I'm thinking just rushed putting high amps back in battery...but I guess I would of been to impatient as well with all that work and effort sacrificed... Damn !!
If CCA (cold crank amps) is low even if voltage is high, it will not be of any use. A hydrometer can tell which cells a low in acid ratio n a voltage test between terminal n plate can tell U which plates r either 1) low in acid or high sulfation.
Thanks for this video, because i have learned a lesson that it is not worth a dime messing around trying to revive with a dead battery. After all the days, effort, a bit danger & hard works dedicated to restore a dead battery, it is clear in my opinion to discard whenever you have a dead battery with no cranking amps, conclusion is just a waste of your precious time.
Nice detailed video I have batteries that are starting to die hence why I made my way to this video. Observation though - from 18m30 you dont show us or mention that you drained the epsom salt solution and returned the proper battery acid into the battery before trying to test it again, the acid solution is why lead acid batteries are called just that. So you were charging the battery without the proper chemical reaction. I'm surprised to see no-one else noticed this
Baking soda is the most well-known most widely used common household item for neutralizing acid so intuitively I would think not the thing you'd want to put in a lead acid battery but let's see where this takes us because I would have thought any number of other things would have been a much better choice with of course battery acid being at the top of the list and baking soda at the very bottom of the list and things like Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) and many others in between the two extremes as there are multiple options available
the video i watched.. he took the caps off.. topped it off with distilled water, cause they were a bit low. He put 2 teaspoons of epson salt in each hole..put it on the big charger for quite a bit of time.. a few of the cells bubbled out some stuff.. and when he was done it read good on both meters Was a great video.. loved watching it
First of all, always release compression before trying to spin a YanMar Diesel engine over. The battery may be weak, but cranking without compression allows the engine to build speed, and a little heat to help start it. Even a new battery would "complain" about cranking against compression.
It took me a few days to view the video and read all the comments. I now have become an expert on lead-acid battery charging and reviving old batteries - the failures and successes! If all the comments are put together, it would make a valuable book! Maha from Malaysia.
Did we try cleaning the plates as you did, then adding new acid? Another trick is to charge with double volts. I forget the formula as its been decades since I seen the old timers do it but they were doing 12v deep cycle batteries using a 24v charge. They used two 12v chargers in series or something along those lines.
I mechanic-ed for some years. I did run into one trick that I have had some good results from about half the time. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid. 2 tablets in each cell and leave to trickle. I have had this work several times. Really small batteries less, big batteries more aspirin...
Hey I am interested to do your method. How do this works. I got an almost death battery after a test in walmart. I need to replace it but I would like to give it a try to your experience. Tell me what to do step by step, please.
i've done same . asprin works . i found wifes car bat. dead one morning put asprin in it then jumped it . didnt have any problems . it was 6 yrs. old at the time and lasted 3 more yrs. after
On another video that I saw, someone said that the battery has to sit for about a week to be restored. I, too went through this process and have had no results yet as of 2 days of charging except a slight increase in volts
I have a question. Instead of filtering the old acid and pouring it back into the battery, what if you used fresh battery acid that you bought from an auto store and poured that into the battery instead? I did this and it restored a battery. A separate comment is I used a cheap load tester purchased from Harbor Freight and it used it on a different battery after recharging the battery. The load testor stated that the battery was bad. I then took that battery to OReilly’s and had them test it on their tester which they stated was a good battery with 82% of it’s original lifespan left. Not sure I could trust my load tester; so I am glad you tried to start the tractor even though your load tester showed the battery to be weak.
What if you washed it out , filled it with sodium bicarbonate, then charged it with big charger until hot, washed it out clean again, and then install new fresh acid? Or, what if you put the old acid in a crock pot and boiled it down until the hydrometer said it is good acid? That’s what I plan to do after I get 500 other things done.
Dont do it with baking soda in it that is dangerous. You can get hydrogen and oxygen build up and blow the windows out of the building down the street. And leave a crater where you were standing
Putting the acid in the freezer would help any disolved lead sulphate in solution to crystalise out. The acid could Then be poured off and evaporated to bring the concentration back up to specification.
I really appreciate your efforts. Once you said 7 year old battery I knew it was an up hill battle. I learned a lot thanks to you and people in the comments. Now I have a good idea about whether or not I think the effort to recharge a battery would be worth it or not.
Good video and you have just confirmed to me that the test I did years ago was also a waste of epsom salts.. Better used for a good soak in the bath to ease the back pain.
I would think using a trickle charger labeled as a desulfator when it sits for a while will help the battery last longer. Going dead or spending time depleted isn't good for battery life.
I liked and subscribed simply because you put effort in mate! Seen a vid where a mechanic uses a stick welder as a power supply to de sulphate a battery, it was more about getting each cell to boil.. This was done in short bursts several times so the battery could cool down. first one cell boiled then the next until all the cells where boiling for five minutes then the battery worked fine. Dangerous tho. Must wear face visor and gloves. Better luck next time eh?! 😎
I only revive deep cycle batteries. Like golf cart or marine grade. I don't even bother with car batteries unless they have just recently gotten weak. Then I can usually get another year or maybe 18 months out of one.
Hello, I am a battery tech. Nice video. Baking soda treatment works during cycle life. After cleaning with backing soda. Trickle charge battery with old acid as it was done. Remove the old acid and fill with new battery acid with correct spefic gravity. Charge with standard or negative pulse charger. It will work like new battery if there is no internal damage to seperators or plates.
Every battery has a cycle life. You can't use a battery beyond it's cycle life. Lead plates will not exchange electrones beyond it's cycle life. Hope this information is useful.
Thanks Bro, Ill try your suggestion, Im following the post in this channel for recycling of old but still useful battery
😊😊😊😊
I tried the new acid after draining an cleaning out the battery but it most likely passed it's cycle life because it did not work. This was years ago and I thought I could save money I did not have. I have since just wound up buying a new battery - the cost of meterials and all the time and work involved in the process doesn't seem like you're really saving much anyway. Maybe now a days it might be more worth it but when I tried, it was probably 12-15 years ago - my car battery was around 70 bucks. ( i just replaced one in a Fusion..it $110.00 that was for the cheap one.)
Useful yes
Where do you get the new battery acid from?
It might not start a tractor but it could still be used for emergencies during a power outage for charging cell phones and running CB & Ham Radios. “You tried - my friend”.. I admire your determination…
Breaker breaker .. CB radios and channel 4 back n the 90s ...Winchester va
A sincere "Thank you" for sacrificing days worth of patience and some expense, so that we don't have to. Great to see honest, non BS vids like yours. All the best from the UK.
I learned a great lesson from this! Battery is just like a relationship, never give up easily, you kept trying and trying until you found out that every resource you used didn’t work, then you know for certain it didn’t work! You are a man with great virtue of patience! Thank you! I really enjoyed watching your video! Thanks!
Or hump and dump.
I really appreciate your tenacity, thorough preparation and expert production of audio and video. I was intent on doing this myself with several batteries I hope to save. Given your tremendous efforts and unflinching courage to show results, you saved me serious heartache. Thanks so much.
Thanks for your knowledge..No way will I do this.
Me to
Hell no
So, on the last attempt, you used epsom salts and water, and then tried to charge? Why wouldn’t you dump the epsom salt water and put in fresh acid… then charge? Hmmm. I have bounced a battery, shook it hard, dumped acid and replaced with new acid and ta da! Great starting amps for another two years.
... and me! I would have tried this. You've saved me a lot of time and hard work.
7 year old, that battery was a legend already LOL . Mine last about 2-3years. Thanks for doing all the hard work so we don't have to go thought all that.
Trickle charge in the off season. I got 8 years out of my last riding mower battery.
Yes, 👍👍 😂
I admire your persistency. I'm trying to revive a 6 year old battery as we speak. Got it up to 12.5v with the stick welder. Had one cell that was dead during the cycle but came back in the end. After an hour off the stick welder the volts dropped down to 8. On the trickle charger and now reading 9v and rising. I will leave it to charge for 48hrs but I don't think it will have the cranking amps to turn over my small block V8 engine. Only a miracle will save this battery.
Any luck?
@@RogerPackthe battery exploded 💥 and his head left his body 😭
@@mariocooldude9092😱
Reconditioning an old battery only works under certain situations. First off, it will only work if the only issue is sulfation, the other one is if it's a deep-cycle battery. The plates they use on regular batteries are thin which wear out inside of the 3-5 year lifespan of the battery. For deep-cycle batteries, the plates are thicker and there is a better chance of it coming back to life once the sulfation is removed.
The proper combination for the restoration is to drain the acid, do the rinsing with water like you did, then put in the epsom salt as you did. The only difference is that you want to do a few charge-discharge cycles over a few days to allow the epsom salt to fluff of the sulfates covering the plates. After this, drain out the epsom salt, then rinse out again with water. The final step is to fill it up with fresh acid. You could re-use the original acid you drained out, but you want to let it sit for a few days to allow the solids to settle, then take out the clear layer and filter it a few times.
You can then re-use it in the battery and top off with distilled water.
This will not bring back the battery to its original state, but should give you a few more years of use at a lower AH. You could probably redo this step after a few years when it sulfates again after regular use.
Exactly. Epsom salt water won’t charge 😜
Used to work for what was at the time a viable car battery recycler in 1979.
All we did was scrape all of the labels off, bang them on a pallet pretty hard a few times to clean the plates and then recharged them. Their policy on these reconditioned batteries was $20.00 out the door with a one year warranty.
I still use that method but I leave the labels on! Simple, SAFE and efffective.
I've an Everstart Maxx-T5 650/800 here dated 12/2018. It was at 1.2 Volts after sitting unused in a vehicle for about a year.
It would not go past 10.4V and the charger said it was 'bad' even after a second attempt.
Did the battery xchange thing, reset the charger and this morning it was auto trickle charging and is at 12.7V static.
Of course, I am losing capacity but here we are ready to crank.
I find pretty much zero data about this technique online. Considering a video myself since I have two more to check on. I have no reason to bs anyone
Simple is always good ,I'm old and trust the old way of doing things ,
Big problem with your method is detached then deposited particles to which gravity dictates.. they fall and short the plates in one concentrated area..
Respect to your knowledge mind👏👏
Was that in Los Angeles?
@@keepemmovinglogisticsllctv1924 Battery Xchange in Portland, Oregon
Not sure how many stores they had.
Where is your video?
I like his honesty about the work he's done to this battery
Try using a super capacitor for the same starting duty
Buy a new battery you cheap b
Honesty or stupidity.. lol
@@-MrRichBiker1967 ....lol?...I don't think so.
Diesels are a real test for a battery - all that compression! I dabbled in lead/acid batteries a while ago. Over a few years I attempted to revive dozens of them ranging from little 4A batts for small motorcycles up to fishing boat batteries about 300A. I realised fairly soon that if a battery was shorted then it wasn't worth any effort - unless you wanted a 10V battery for some reason - but if one cell is shorted then the rest probably won't be far away. I could go on for hours about bits I've learned about lead/acid batteries, but I'll try to be brief in the hope that some people can get some improvement in their old batteries. The death of a battery is the disintegration of the positive plates. It happens and there's nothing you can do about it except get new plates. Some manufacturers would of course have better-made plates. See if you can find the most reliable batteries in your locale and get an idea of what might be worth the effort to try to refurbish. While I'm on the subject of quality, I'd say always get batteries which have a long 'well' under the plates, as when a battery shorts-out, it's most likely from the detritus at the bottom, so batteries with little clearance underneath will be more prone to shorting. Batteries can also short from sharp sulphation deposits poking through the insulators in a cell. Small motorcycle batteries seemed to be worse when it came to keeping the lead/oxide on the positive plate grid when compared to larger batteries. If a battery has cells which are bulging then I'd be wary of it because even though it may be working at the time, it will likely short out soon. If sulphation is the only problem - say for example you left it and didn't charge it for years, or it was stuck in a back-up power supply for a computer and therefore on a constant charge for years so it eventually dried up, then it is possible to revive it to some extent. I've also tried various chemicals to 'wash' the plates or dope them - but without any real success stories - but some were much better than before. Mag sulph may keep a lower compression engine cranking longer after a dose of salts, but I don't think it is good for the battery. But if the battery's junk anyway then why not have a go? Here's the real deal with sulphation. It came to me after a lot of experimentation and I found confirmation from someone knowledgeable at a lead/acid battery factory. Here's what you do:- Just put enough demineralized water in each cell to cover the plates. The acid level will increase as the state of charge improves, so if you put too much in then it'll likely spill over. Keep the battery on a float charge of 13.1V or close to it for as LONG AS IT TAKES to clear all the sulphation. I'm talking possibly a month here. Another effective way to rid the sulphation is to put the battery on a miniscule charge of a few tens of milliamps for weeks, testing the discharge occasionally to watch the progress. I do that with tiny bike batteries with about 50% success - but bikes are quite easy to crank. Diesel's would be far less likely to be strong enough to do the job. If you leave a battery on a float charge for long enough then the sulphation WILL clear. You can also make a pulse charger. I made a half dozen or so pulse chargers from parts from inverter air-con electronics. I hit the batteries with very sharp spikes of DC. I made them with a simple multivibrator and a relay. The relay was driving an air-con transistor array which shoved up to hundreds of amps into the battery for a small fraction of a second. I chose to use a relay for two reasons. One is that I'm not very good with electronics and the second was that a relay must be just about the sharpest pulse you can get. I made those chargers with everything variable as far as pulse-width, voltage and power, and I believe they got many batteries cranking again. I use to get old batteries, then fix well-over half of them. I sold some and gave some away. The battery in my smaller motorcycle is over 20 years old and goes well. But many simply do not respond. I think if I had a diesel I'd rather pay more and get the largest battery I can get into the compartment and then I could sleep easily. I've managed to get lots of batteries for diesels working again, but they are quite hard and most failed. A pulse-charged and float charged/desulphated battery for a diesel could be better replaced by a refurbished larger battery which has been nursed back into some sort of health again. The smart chargers and so-called pulse chargers I've used have all been as good as useless and a waste of money. The old fashioned chargers with a transformer and a rectifier work best for me. It's lo-tech, but you could run a vehicle lamp of a lower wattage in series to the charger to give you a very low charging current to clear the sulphation. Just running a normal charge through a weary battery isn't going to do much (if any) good. I hope something in what I've written is of some help to someone. Wow! I've never typed so much in a reply! Scuse the typos if there are any.
Thank you for your experience. I have a few old school battery chargers laying around. What is the component on them that wears out? Seems they could be repaired but I have not figured out what part has failed. rectifier?
I learned more from you than ten Scotty videos.
Your nuts,you could blow yourself up, please all be careful, you really think it worth 100$
By the way ,I like you rubber gloves and glasses
@@wisconsinfarmer4742 Check if there is any voltage on the transformer's secondary coil. Use the AC range on your multimeter to see if you've got A/C going in and out of that transformer. Depending on a few things such as physical size of the transformer, you should be getting at least 15V, and maybe up to 18V. If you've got no voltage from the secondary then it is not worth trying to fix. It will be impracticable. If the transformer is OK then the next step is the rectifier [there's not much else that can go wrong except the fuse]. Use your meter to see that's got voltage going in and out. If you're not getting DC out, then the rectifier needs replacing. I get all my bits from old circuit boards, and you'll likely find some hefty bridge rectifiers in old air conditioner inverter boards that are perfectly good. Just screw it tight to something metal (heatsink) inside the charger's box and you should be all right. I've tried fixing chargers with clever circuitry but without much success - but I've often just replaced the clever circuitry with a simple rectifier and got them usable again. To limit the current to protect the rectifier you might use the resistance quality of a 60W headlamp - that should get you at least three, four or five amps worth of charging. If the charger is a high power one then use an arbitrarily large bridge rectifier. You don't need to limit the current providing the unit doesn't overheat. If it smells too hot then limit the current. Most transformers with rectifiers will take a lot of punishment before they give out. Chargers stuffed with electronics are a good idea, but in reality the stuff made these days is mostly made from components operating at or near their specified maximum rating, so if you inadvertently overload it for a moment it'll blow and the circuit board(s) will have to be replaced, which is probably more expensive than buying a new charger. I'm sure there are decent chargers using masses of electronics out there, but they're not made in China. Most modern electronics hav got no tolerance whereas the old stuff could take a hammering.
You’ve convinced me! I sure rather pay a few hundred than go through all you’ve done to try and revive a battery.
He did made me worry some. I thought he was going to get acid splash in the eyes.
The video was another RUclips blooper. Guys be careful these people will mislead you
@@danielrivera7958RUclips blooper?
Please explain? I think this was a trial and error video... Right? So it wasn't a waste, because we all learned something.
@@JayCold-dy5qh Yup, very instructive ...always good to know why things work out or don't work out ... surely not a blooper as it's very instructive. It's linked to similar videos on YT that promise results even if they are not guaranteed
Thank you for sharing this info. You saved me much time and heartache. Simple tasks take a lot effort for me being 80% disabled. I was just about to try to “revive” 3 deep cell marine batteries to take my kids on a very anticipated fishing adventure. Thanks again : )
Maybe using fresh (new) acide could have helped as I believe the electrolytic density in the old acide would be much lower and after all the flushing and cleaning the battery plates, I would not recommend reusing the old acide .
Nice video presentation .
This video is very well done! Good lighting and camera angles. Good sound. Well organized. You did a fair test of the restoration techniques on the other videos and followed the instructions. I feel like I got useful information from this video. Thanks.
R
very well said and the author did a get job thanks
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I believe the problem was the baking soda. It takes a very small amount of baking soda to totally mess up a battery. You seen the results when you poured the baking soda solution to the cells a chemical reaction was the neutralizing acid that was still left in the shelves. I don't know what you do with the old acid but you shouldn't have used it.
You miss the point entirely and your assumptions are useless. He followed the instructions exactly and they did not work. If you tried one of these and been successful, then you would have some useful information. Everyone knows that baking soda neutralizes acid, that is why you take it for heartburn.@@johnsmccullough9431
You can restore batteries but it takes much more work and the actual casing has to be able to opened completly. The problem is the plates, which are technically not real plates but grates that contain lead-dioxide and not lead. The problem is that lead-dioxide is not a complete solid metal but more like a sticky pulver that is sticking in the grates. What happens if over time is that the pulver is leaving the plates and floats in the acid (you did try to filter it out0. Fun fact: when you fully discharge a battery the pulver is less sticky and can fall out of the plate more easy. Bumping and rocking a fully discharged battery actually is total destruction. The powder in the acid and not in the grates means 2 things. Your plate is thinner and not as effective and the stuff floating in the acid means the acidf is now conductive and causing internal draining of the electricity (old battries die sooner after charging even if hardly used). So what you should do for full restoration is 1 open the whole battery and instll fresh plates if possible. If not possible the only and best thing you can do is drain the dirty acid rinse with water but remember to rocking bumping shaking. And refill with clean acid and charge (best done with a computer charger that has deep uncharge/charge cycle program). The rinsing with all the shaking you did actually killed the battery more then it already was degraded before you did that, so now it is really toast. Also trying to clean with baking soda only made more lead-dioxide leave the grates.
We did deep discharging for batteries with computerized racks mostly NiCD, Lithium, Alkaline, and other high value rare earth batteries. I hired crews of temporary workers to do this as a refurbishment for mobile phones.
Well said
Thank you for this additional info, very helpful 🙏🏻
I agree with the comment here about battery construction and design for starting batteries. However, the average lamen isn't going to have access to new plates and would have a hard time replacing them, hence the reason why I suggested in my comment to simply replace the battery as a whole.
Together with this video that's a really helpful post explaining what's actually going on, along with other comments lined up one or two batteries to try myself, saved me a lot of time and effort, cheers
Thanks for sharing your experience so we don't have to. I noticed your acid was black which meant your plates were eaten up by the acid which means it won't hold enough charge.
It's just a band-aid and nothing more, but new batteries..
I have tried all these same processes on 4 Different batteries and never had any luck either! Great video…
Two yrs ago I did the Epson salt protocol, but I my mixture had so much salt it was the consistency of a Slurpee. Then used high Amp charger like you did, But only brought the batt too a boil for about 5 min, let it rest to cool. Did this 3 or 4 times. Drained the salt mixture and filled with distilled water. Then charged. Battery worked for 2 more yrs. I got lucky I guess.
So you only put the distilled water back in, no acid and it worked for 2 years ?
@@newjazzmusic7078
Maaaaate... You know what he means !!!
Hond a
Thank you for doing what you did. You are honest, what we all wish everyone was. You saved a lot of people a lot of time and money. I am sure you will be rewarded greatly for showing your work, God bless you, and enjoy your blessed life.
Yep, we want to save money if we can - 7 years ago I got it at Walmart for $99 (group size: 51R). Now, it costs $149 - INFLATION!!! Thank you for sharing🙏
At Walmart I bought a battery my pickup about a year ago for less than $100 plus tx and this week bought a similar one for wife's vehicle for $150 plus tx. Nancy Pelosi says to ignore inflation. As she and Paul are very wealthy, they can ignore inflation. Middle class Americans can't.
ThanksObiden
Joe burden yay!
I tried 4 different batteries to desulfate them using the welder and my charger. Zero worked they looked like they would work, but no luck bought 4 new batteries and the acid made a mess on my ground cable to my welder. Thanks for doing this video now I know I didn’t screw it up.
I agree about replacing the acid. After many cycled, adding distilled water and if you didn't flush out the baking soda, that acid is nowhere near the strength it should be. A hygrometer would show that more than a surface charge.
All of this is moot for a sealed and especially an AGM battery!
Thanks for going through all of that and demonstrating things so clearly. You've surely saved a lot of people a lot of trouble.
This folks, is a MAN! not afraid, just wants to get the job done!
Great video...
You could try one other thing... Put back the acid in the cells, discharge the battery completely. Reverse terminal polarity when charging.
Reversing polarity should remove sulfation from the positive plates...
But the big question is if you have enough lead on those plates.
As well you could measure resistance in between cells to determine which cell is actually bad.
Thanks for doing that. You saved me a lot of time and energy.
WOWZIE !!! .... THANKS FOR THAT !!!
Lol thats funny, I guess the dead battery on my trailer might be saved since it’s a deep cycle and somehow I managed to charge it reversing the polarity last time.
I found one by a creek.. I took it home. Drained the acid. Hit the bottom with a rubber hammer as I did. Then put new battery acid in it.. Worked for 3 more years...
Disappointed... stressed!! Can't be revived ..or can a dead battery come back to life?!
@@winstoncleghorn470 I have revived 9 out of 10 batteries and am convinced and satisfied with the results
Try one last method. Use a garden hose sprayer to wash out the battery, using the pressure to dislodge the chunks of lead sulfate that are at the bottom of the battery. Then use brand new acid. This is your only chance of revitalizing a battery. If it works, you'll get another year out of it at most. The plates in a lead acid battery cannot last forever due to the degradation effect of the charge/discharge process. Personally, I replace the battery in our cars every 4 years to avoid problems. Very well made video.
I had one last 5 years with just normal use in the car. No charging or anything. Just regular use of the car. It is a Duralast. Im researching the best proper way to recondition it. I'm thinking a drain of old acid, rinse with just distilled water(so no metals get in) or possibly hose rinse, then distilled rinse, and then drain. May use air compressor with small amount of distilled water to each cell to try and create some disturbance around the plates. Then add electrolyte that you buy at an auto store. I have the electrolyte already. Gonna skip the baking soda process(which i feel is unnecessary in the battery itself, because it neutralizes battery acid, and may leave some behind), and skip the whole epsom salt method as well, since I have new clean electrolyte. I hope this method works. Maybe I can get a year or two more from this. We shall see.
Forgot to add that I am going to drain after the compressor method.
I purchased a new battery charger that had a setting call "Repair Battery".For about 3 years I never gave that a second thought. When I had a battery go bad, decided to try it. I've used that battery since and for 3 seasons it's still working. It's a Schmacher charger, picked it up at Walmart and was less than $50 at the time. Saved me $ and time, and it's still going.
TY for your comment
Do you know what the model number is of your Schumacher charger ?
TY for your comment
Do you know what the model number is of your Schumacher charger ?
Wonder what it does...
I've had a couple,
when doing that (regen) it pulses the battery... seems to discharge it but it does help clean the plates.
it still would help to drain and filter /replace the acid tho.
There are desulfation chargers that pulse the battery at a high frequency that resonates with the lead sulfide crystals to assist in shaking them from the plates.
Once you’ve cleaned it out try new sulfuric acid. Salts are weak acid and really don’t do much. A pulse charger will help knock down the sulfate or convert it back to lead. Maybe add this to your scientific method. Id really like to see the same battery with new acid. Thanks for your time.
I took a battery apart & soldered in good cells(non degenerated) but lasted less than a year - Later I watched this happen on backup generator batteries at a nuclear power station - They had interior plates 6 times larger & used clear plastic housing so I saw small layers of the plates fall off & build up on the bottom between the plates till they were ready to short out after about 20 years - I watched the last 5 years during monthly tests.
For many years I tried reviving batteries. I always failed beacause the batteries were dead+dead. For the headache and heartache, I give up and went to dry gell batteries. I learnt to have them recycled when all life in them is gone. 7 years life out of a battery is awesome. To extend battery life, maintenance is crucial; charge/discharge. I am still learning.
So you recycle (i.e. replace) them after 7 years? Just wondering...
Same thing happened to me on a brand new $150 850 CCA battery. I bought a 200 amp Charger for $114(never have to buy another one) and did what you did and it worked 100% as stated on the youtube vid. My problem was I was running a 1985 with a diesel motor, gotta have those glow plugs and of course the auxiliary cooling fans always draining it down. My problem was I'm no mechanic and had to wait and wait until I finally found a good HONEST Mechanic to correct the problems with the belts, Idlers and pullies. I have three brothers that are Mechanics but their on the other side of the mountains, lol. My younger brother is a Certified Diesel Specialist but he had a Stroke and his Meds turned him into a raving maniac and I don't even like to be around him.
Thank you for the research you did on this video
They put my bro on depression meds and it did the same thing. Drs are pumping ppl full of those things just to get their money. He has since got off of them but the effects are still there
Got a car 4 yrs old- 35,000 miles & battery is dead. Jumped it 2x. What the heck? No lights being left on to drain battery. Batteries are made so crappie now- just to keep trying to drain our $. Thank you for this. Batteries use to last a lot longer years ago.
You just saved me a whole bunch of time ....Time for a new battery
Thank You for showing the honest results
BINGO
Halfway through I was ready to try it on a battery here, I'm glad I watched the end.
Just because you got particles from the original acid with a filter that doesn't mean it's still good. Maybe a PH test would tell. wish you would have tried fresh acid after the Epsom salt flush.
Thank you for the informative honest video
the 51 series batteries only have 350/400 cold cranking amps,you can buy a lawn mower battery with the same amps for less than 50 bucks at rural king and some other farm/fleet stores
The epson salts probably cleaned the plates. The epson salts should have been drained from the battery and new acid (buy at an auto parts store) be used for "refilling" the battery.😄
I gave you a thumbs up because you were 95 % there after all those steps. The one thing that didnt occur even after you mentioned draining the epsom salts and replacing the battery acid ( As in your remarks ) was ...... " its MEMORY " When the epsom salts were in the battery it should have been drained of any CHARGE to as close to dead zero as you can. Then poured the epsom out and replaced the acid and then recharged to the new memory. The Memory would have worked with the epsom even if you kept it in there, however the original acid works best for more amperage and acid is the last to be added.
I grew up in the service station business when service stations was the main source of tire, batteries, and actually repaired automobiles. In those years we had retread tires, and rebuilt batteries. We need to first understand that the difference in a 3 year lead acid car battery, and a 5 year battery was the amount of vacant space below the lead plates. The most common reason a battery goes bad is the lead plates flake off, and fill the bottom space. When the bottom gets full of flakes it then shorts out the battery. Battery lead plates at that time was encased in a hard rubber case, and sealed with hard tar like compound. To rebuild the battery they would remove the plates from the case, dump out the lead flakes from the bottom, place the lead plates back in, and reseal the battery. After putting the battery bac k together it would be refilled with battery acid, recharged, and sold as a rebuilt battery.
Last winter my battery powered golf cart would not go up my short driveway after recharging. It is charged with six large 6 volt batteries. I know cold weather steals the power of a lead acid battery, but I knew I would have to spend about $800 for their replacement. I read an article that said I could restore my batteries by bring a gallon of distilled water to 150 degrees on a stove, and the put epsom salt into the water epsom salt until I it couldn't dissolve anymore into the water. This is the same principal as a water softener dissolving salt. Water will only hold so much dissolved salt. I then took a turkey baster, and removed the battery acid down to the top of the plates, and refilled it with my epsom salt water. Strain out any epsom salt that did not dissolve. DO NOT PUT SALT CRYSTALS DIRECT INTO BATTERY. After doing this my golf cart batteries will hold a charge good enough to work for me a couple of miles between charges.
Thanks for making THIS! I've been considering trying some of these methods after having to pay OVER $200 for a new battery recently. But it seems these methods may not be the answer after all! Appreciate your time.
It's a lead/ acid battery, baking soda, nuatraize the acid, and if you dump it out the electrolyte "acid solution" you will need to replace it! It's like trying to run your car without gas! Remember how the old soda/acid fire extinguisher worked, they had a bottle of Sulfuric acid in the top, and a baking soda water in the bottom.
All that work has gone to the waste side,
And so it would've been great to have added the actual correct way to recycle the battery with new acid at the last half of the video,
However if the lead plates have deteriorated there might not be enough material to salvage... Never buy a cheap lightweight battery.
Nevertheless, any battery that you chose should have maintenance access if you can find one and simply keep it maintained, and the first thing to do is incorporate the proper amount of de-mister in each cell, secondly is to use the desulfator setting on your charger about once every two months!
I've tried the baking soda, Epsom salt, and new acid methods. NONE of them worked... What I do to save money is go to the salvage yard and get a gently used battery, usually only about a year old. These might come from a crashed car or even a non-crashed car that has just worn out. These used batteries usually last three or four years...
I agree with other people who commented on how this gentleman was not wearing gloves or even eye protection and in the last section he was wearing shorts. Very dangerous very risky but I'm glad he made it through the whole series of procedures without incident... ☝🏼praise the Lord❗
I've tried various battery restore tricks with no success. I've completely ruined a couple of weak batteries. My last gambit was to buy an Xtreme XC100 Electronic Desulfator/Charger on ebay, and set it up on my weak riding lawn mower battery. It was hard to tell if it was doing anything after a few days, so I created a daily log tracking voltage, cranking amps and resistance, and went at it for the long haul. What I pay the most attention to is the battery resistance. My Centech battery analyzer tests for this. Ideal new battery resistance is supposed to be down around 2 u Ohms, the battery was at 10.35 u Ohms. It does seem to be improving the battery in all ways, but it appears to be a glacial time process. It's down to 9.92 u Ohms after 3 weeks. At that rate, getting it down to 2 u Ohms, is going to take months. We'll see where it is by spring.
No new battery acid? I was waiting for you to replace the old battery acid with new, that would have covered everything and would have de-bunked the whole battery revival theory.
Great video BTW, well done.
You did pretty well to get 7 years out of your lead acid battery. Also, something I would have liked to see is what was the voltage drop between the negative post and the clamped-on connector at the negative terminal during the load test. Sometimes a poor connection will cause the voltage to drop across such connections. Perhaps you removed it and cleaned the post and the inside of the clamped connector already.
I was thinking the same thing
Your stubbornness /determination is admirable. I've watched a few other tries which didn't work either. I've spoken with battery shop employees about different means of trying to resurrect a failed battery--- they basically said "when it's done, it's done"---hope spring eternal...
Great video, I appreciate that you tried out so many things on the same battery and really showing us the process and your thoughts while doing it. It is sad that you didn't manage to revive it, but you did however share a lot of information to the rest of us. My battery just randomly died after I used it to start my car several times one day, and the next morning it is not even taking a charge enough to keep the dash board lit up.
Thank you!
thanks for your visit
If battery die coz u left lights on u can restore it by charging.
A old battery using reviving attempt is not worth it . Trash it and buy new 1 .
Appreciate your sincere efforts to call bluff on many misguiding videos on this topic. Bless you!
I've had a few car batteries give me a faulty battery warning and they would not charge on my trickle charger.
I connected a jump start pack to the battery and let it absorb some juice, then it was able to start charging properly on the trickle.
There are ways to make cordless tool batteries come back to life also... using one battery to boost the other.
Same
Finally, an honest person. All this other crap that they say it doesn’t work. I wasted so much time myself. Had I seen this video, I wouldn’t have not wasted my time. Thank you for your service.
Much thanks, I had two batteries, I was just getting ready to attempt recovery on. You have saved me a large headache.
Very well done and explained, but let's get down to business. In order to support the " battery production industry", we the consumers have to buy batteries for our toys every 3 1/2 to 5 years.
I've already had a lot of experience reviving batteries. I think the desulfation worked well. the main problem is that you lost too much lead. this is known as Active Mass. Deshakb was also so black because of the battery acid. The less active mass, the worse the performance. You can do whatever you want if the acid is so dark then the battery is usually already lost
Thanks that takes care of 1 problem
I've done this numerous times oh, and if you do it properly it works. Then you flush it several times with just plain distilled water. All you are trying to do is flush out the lead the lad mix at the bottom of the battery which is shorting out the plates. Then take one pound of Epsom salts and distilled water and do what just what you did before he did enough where dissolves but don't boil the water. Then fill the battery up to the point where it's supposed to go above the plates and do not add distilled water. Then I put it on my 10 amp charger for about an hour to two hours to get it boosted and then I change it over to the trickle charger overnight. Install it and drive the vehicle that day. That night pull the battery out again stick it back on the trickle charger overnight and then replace it back in the vehicle the next day and it should be fine from that point on. This is work for me numerous times on different vehicles. I actually have two batteries on the patio now, as backups that I did this with
Love your determination and special invisible PPE ... Personal Protection Equipment. Take care
I got a cheep battery to last 13 years. I have a charger with a revive mode n did a couple times. It was still good when the car pooped. Only thing was psyche as didn’t know how long it would last but sure did. Never did anything else to it over the time period. Even started the car well at below zero temperatures best $5 I ever spent !!
Thanks for trying everything you could think of and showing us all the steps and testing you did.
Incredible amount of patience and determination. Good job....
You were supposed to put the Epsom salt mix in, run a heavy charge allowing it to bubble. Do it a couple times.
Dump out the salt mixture, and put back in the battery acid, give it a charge, and bam.....done.
However, I am glad that you showed everyone the wrong way to do it. Because the guy you referenced, had good charge and strong cranking amps afterwards. JS
I mentioned that i could never get the CCA up above 2. Was about to get multi meter volts up to 12 + with high short charge rate like you did, but when i charged with small 2amp float charger. Voltage kept dropping. Tried for days. All failure just like you. The battery is for my gravely rider mower, im in ohio. And the battery new is over $200!!! The heck with that. I will reinstall this battery and use my big jump starter to start mower when i need it. So glad i watched you. Thanks for all your effort and honesty.
Great job. Glad you had "success" .. LOL. During the initial reviving process, it looked like you had one, maybe two, cells that were not bubbling as much as the others. All cells need to be bubbling equally hard. This may take many more cycles than one may think, especially with a very old battery with a lot of sulfation.
Buy a new one bud . Good video and enjoyed . I had a motorcycle battery do this once and it would not accept a charge . I inv on the Web and found a article saying put the battery in a bowl of hot water and charge . It worked and cold cranks the bike a treat.
Such an Excellent post!
You have made a complete waste of time, for yourself, completely useful for others 💪🏾
📜 You are a natural man in proper standing 🏆
Many thanks for your patience and work 🤠
Glad it was helpful!
Watching this goes to show sometimes all manufactured goods have a life expectancy and would you really waste your time doing this so well done for the exercise
did you try cycling the battery ?Put a load on the battery until voltage is drained then charge the battery again .Repeat a couple times, this worked for me .I didi this after the cleaning and epsom salt . Good luck
Thank you. You have confirmed the fact that physics and chemistry still work. However, you have an exceptionally clean paperweight as a result of your efforts.
One thing is sure: You don't give up easily :) Thanks for sharing!
Agre count all the time and work. So new battery is the best solution. Thanks for sharing.
I thought that I was the only one to try all 3 methods....LoL
Ended up buying a new battery, too.
Appreciate video documentation. Check fluid levels frequently add distilled water as necessary. Next, check battery acid health with hydrometer. If lead plates are cracked or disintegrated that battery is dead. Buy battery with longest warranty. Replace battery before warranty expires? I saw your golf cart, this isn't your first rodeo!
I am wondering if the problem might be the used acid, maybe after the desalinating and then cleaning with baking soda then the epsom salt, My last effort would have been fresh acid.
Fresh acid might do it. But filtering it well enough and replacing any losses should work as well. But the lead plates, and particularly their spacing, also matters. If they lose too much thickness the spacing will be off and electrons won't move around like they should. I've heard in africa guys take out the lead, melt it and clean that, then pour new plates in some kinda mold. So maybe a battery is 90% recyclable, little fresh acid, little fresh lead, once it's worn down enough
Just a hint every time you show charging the Positive it threw a spark So there is a bad or cross connection internally Its shot or you would need to take the cover off and find the bad connection or bad isolation pad in the lead panel
I think removing sulfation works if your battery was just not maintained properly and allowed to discharge very deeply but it wasn't worn down by prolonged use. In that case, the lead plates inside are still in decent shape, but coated with sulfate crystals. However, in your case, the lead plates inside seems to have been worn down so much that its next to impossible to revive without replacing all the plates and rebuilding the battery. It definitely needs to be replaced. Some of the tricks you used would have worked well on a battery that wasn't at the end of its life.
You are right.
Fantastic video :) thank you. But I have to say it can be done. I bring my old weak battery to battery shop and they restore the battery to original cranking amps in 24 hours but they did'n want to tell me how they did it. So I,m still searching.
When a cell deteriorates small particles fall to the bottom and shorts out the cells....Removing those particles will not restore the deteriorated cells so the battery still needs to be replaced....A car battery will usually last about three years and the first time the starter begins to turn over slow save yourself being stranded by replacing the battery....It will usually leave you stranded in cold winter weather when you had no trouble during the past summer....
In the desert southwest it will fail in the summer from heat. Cold reduces capacity but heat ruins capacity.
Fresh new acid & dc welder with 20-40-60-100-150 amp cycles at 15 min. zaps & cool 30 min. intervals would of rewarded him greatly. I really watched every second of this man's thorough efforts (plural)...I think I felt as disappointed each time he experience it... really felt he had it !... I'm thinking just rushed putting high amps back in battery...but I guess I would of been to impatient as well with all that work and effort sacrificed... Damn !!
That spark next too the open battery cell made my heart jump.
This man had a battery named after him!!!... epic video. Thank you!!!
If CCA (cold crank amps) is low even if voltage is high, it will not be of any use. A hydrometer can tell which cells a low in acid ratio n a voltage test between terminal n plate can tell U which plates r either 1) low in acid or high sulfation.
Thanks for this video, because i have learned a lesson that it is not worth a dime messing around trying to revive with a dead battery. After all the days, effort, a bit danger & hard works dedicated to restore a dead battery, it is clear in my opinion to discard whenever you have a dead battery with no cranking amps, conclusion is just a waste of your precious time.
Nice detailed video I have batteries that are starting to die hence why I made my way to this video. Observation though - from 18m30 you dont show us or mention that you drained the epsom salt solution and returned the proper battery acid into the battery before trying to test it again, the acid solution is why lead acid batteries are called just that. So you were charging the battery without the proper chemical reaction. I'm surprised to see no-one else noticed this
Baking soda is the most well-known most widely used common household item for neutralizing acid so intuitively I would think not the thing you'd want to put in a lead acid battery but let's see where this takes us because I would have thought any number of other things would have been a much better choice with of course battery acid being at the top of the list and baking soda at the very bottom of the list and things like Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) and many others in between the two extremes as there are multiple options available
the video i watched.. he took the caps off.. topped it off with distilled water, cause they were a bit low. He put 2 teaspoons of epson salt in each hole..put it on the big charger for quite a bit of time.. a few of the cells bubbled out some stuff.. and when he was done it read good on both meters Was a great video.. loved watching it
First of all, always release compression before trying to spin a YanMar Diesel engine over. The battery may be weak, but cranking without compression allows the engine to build speed, and a little heat to help start it. Even a new battery would "complain" about cranking against compression.
So how would you release the compression?
@@charless1186 you can't.
It took me a few days to view the video and read all the comments. I now have become an expert on lead-acid battery charging and reviving old batteries - the failures and successes! If all the comments are put together, it would make a valuable book! Maha from Malaysia.
You should use hydrometer to check acid density.
Did we try cleaning the plates as you did, then adding new acid? Another trick is to charge with double volts. I forget the formula as its been decades since I seen the old timers do it but they were doing 12v deep cycle batteries using a 24v charge. They used two 12v chargers in series or something along those lines.
I mechanic-ed for some years. I did run into one trick that I have had some good results from about half the time. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid. 2 tablets in each cell and leave to trickle. I have had this work several times. Really small batteries less, big batteries more aspirin...
Hey I am interested to do your method. How do this works. I got an almost death battery after a test in walmart. I need to replace it but I would like to give it a try to your experience. Tell me what to do step by step, please.
Extra aspirin is needed for the battery owner, if the process failed.
So you don't drain the acid and clean the cells you just add aspirin on cells...?
Then you charge it after or...?
i've done same . asprin works . i found wifes car bat. dead one morning put asprin in it then jumped it . didnt have any problems . it was 6 yrs. old at the time and lasted 3 more yrs. after
On another video that I saw, someone said that the battery has to sit for about a week to be restored. I, too went through this process and have had no results yet as of 2 days of charging except a slight increase in volts
Very helpful. Saves lots of people lots of effort to accomplish nothing. Thank you.
Saw one where a guy ran current through the battery with an arc welder. Aliviates all those veins coming off the plates.
This a one of the BEST videos I've watch in a long time very interesting and very well done! Saved me a ton of ridiculous work! SUBBED!
Great to hear!
I have a question. Instead of filtering the old acid and pouring it back into the battery, what if you used fresh battery acid that you bought from an auto store and poured that into the battery instead? I did this and it restored a battery. A separate comment is I used a cheap load tester purchased from Harbor Freight and it used it on a different battery after recharging the battery. The load testor stated that the battery was bad. I then took that battery to OReilly’s and had them test it on their tester which they stated was a good battery with 82% of it’s original lifespan left. Not sure I could trust my load tester; so I am glad you tried to start the tractor even though your load tester showed the battery to be weak.
What if you washed it out , filled it with sodium bicarbonate, then charged it with big charger until hot, washed it out clean again, and then install new fresh acid?
Or, what if you put the old acid in a crock pot and boiled it down until the hydrometer said it is good acid?
That’s what I plan to do after I get 500 other things done.
Dont do it with baking soda in it that is dangerous. You can get hydrogen and oxygen build up and blow the windows out of the building down the street. And leave a crater where you were standing
Putting the acid in the freezer would help any disolved lead sulphate in solution to crystalise out. The acid could Then be poured off and evaporated to bring the concentration back up to specification.
Thanks for showing several ways not to revive a battery....I was kinda looking for ways to revive one.
I really appreciate your efforts. Once you said 7 year old battery I knew it was an up hill battle. I learned a lot thanks to you and people in the comments. Now I have a good idea about whether or not I think the effort to recharge a battery would be worth it or not.
Good video and you have just confirmed to me that the test I did years ago was also a waste of epsom salts..
Better used for a good soak in the bath to ease the back pain.
I would think using a trickle charger labeled as a desulfator when it sits for a while will help the battery last longer. Going dead or spending time depleted isn't good for battery life.
hi,whats the deference between the food salt and the epsam salt that u used it to recovery our battery ?
I liked and subscribed simply because you put effort in mate!
Seen a vid where a mechanic uses a stick welder as a power supply to de sulphate a battery, it was more about getting each cell to boil.. This was done in short bursts several times so the battery could cool down. first one cell boiled then the next until all the cells where boiling for five minutes then the battery worked fine. Dangerous tho. Must wear face visor and gloves. Better luck next time eh?! 😎
🗣️ If there was an award for the best utube video, this would take top honors 🏆. Thank you!!!
I only revive deep cycle batteries. Like golf cart or marine grade. I don't even bother with car batteries unless they have just recently gotten weak. Then I can usually get another year or maybe 18 months out of one.