Measuring and Tracking Specific Gravity in Lead Acid Batteries
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Learn how to measure and track the strength of the acid in your off-grid solar system's batteries.
Standard Hydrometer: amzn.to/2nto7XD
Hydrovolt Temperature-Compensating Hydrometer: amzn.to/2nKM1zz
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Thanks! Don't forget your safety glasses and a mention that the leg will be in bad shape if you read with the metering device over your lap. Also we will add that you get free "acid washed jeans" on your battery maintenance days.
Very nicely documented with great information. Appreciate your time to post this information!
Great jobs!
Very educating. Thanks
i wouldn't be putting hydrometers on my lap unless my last name was strauss.
you mentioned that you should wash the hydrometer because due to evaporation you would end up having concentrations of acid left behind... But I'm led to believe that acid has a lower boiling point than that of water... I watched some videos on how to separate the sulfuric acid from water by distilling and the acid evaporation occurred before the water... when batteries are low on electrolyte, the first thing that people do is add water, but if the acid is the first one to go.... then that means that everyone is diluting the electrolyte and slowly killing off the batteries... The hydrometer gives readings of the ratio of water versus acid and the readings can only be accurate if they are taken always at the same temperature... But the fact that you have multiple batteries, you can simply cross reference the batteries against each other. Naturally the readings will be different depending on state of charge and temperature on the given day but ultimately all the batteries should be equal. when the batteries are fully charged the acid becomes heavier it causes the float to sit higher. Water is an insulator and won't conduct electricity and it's only purpose is to dilute the acid, by adding more water to the electrolyte... you are possibly diluting the electrolyte even further. The problem is that sulfuric acid is very hard to get hold of. Hence the reason why I was watching videos on separating sulfuric acid from water from old batteries... I have seen videos where people have emptied the electrolyte from an old dead battery and washed it out with distilled water and then used a fresh mix of sulfuric acid and distilled water and then placed on charge, the battery was restored... there's a lot of videos and some people say that you can't fix a battery, some say that it's possible and then some people have no clue what they are actually doing... By watching a lot of videos you start to see where are getting it wrong... But washing out the battery is a good idea because lead particles that have come loose over time and they are now sitting on the bottom effectively shorting out the cell... I hope that this information is helpful, by just adding water won't fix the battery... To test the theory, use a tube... possibly even the glass tube from the hydrometer, sticky tape it to the battery so that it vents through the tube. also sticky tape paper to the top of the tube. if sulfuric acid is evaporating from the battery while charging then the acid should have discolored the paper, if not then it's just the water evaporation and the paper should be just wet... well that's my take on it so far.. any way, thanks for a great video.
I’m interested to see someone respond to your comment. Could you send along some videos on the topic? I have been doing tons of research on flooded lead acid batteries. It’s such old technology yet so many people are clueless about them.
You were led wrongly. The boiling point of sulfuric acid is 337 degrees Celsius while water is 100 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, evaporation at room temperature depends on vapor pressure, not boiling point. The vapor pressure of sulfuric acid is 1/30 that of water.
@@richardyao9012 thank you for your response, I'm just trying to get a better understanding of lead acid batteries.... Going by the boiling points of the water and acid, the first thing that I would think is that the water should be the first to begin evaporation, but then again we have to factor in the bond between the water and acid... There might be a bond between the two that changes their properties which may shift the boiling points either way!
One example is solder, made if tin and lead, independently they display different boiling points to what they do combined together as solder!
Solder should not melt at the temperature that it does but yet it does!
So I'm thinking that maybe there's a similar effect on water and acid!
What do you think? If we were to bring the temperature up of water and acid, would the water boil off at 100°C or would it start earlier or later? Someone somewhere must have researched this!
Thanks a lot.
very god lesson/advice. what about filling battery w/ the same meter? should work?
What's your opinion on the Hydrovolt?
It appeared to be more of a Mickey Mouse novelty than a scientific instrument. It sounds as if you prefer it over the older style hydrometer, I can tell you have knowledge in lead acid so I was hoping for some feedback.
An Equalization video to your battery maintenance series would be enjoyable, it doesn't seem that there's enough of them on RUclips.
Thanks and I'll stay tuned!!
What do you think about adding electrolyte/acid back into the batteries to bring them back?
Why are the batteries sitting on a concrete slab??? Good .. bad?
That used to be a problem. Back before batteries were all encased in plastic.
It's effectively a wives tale today.
That almost dead battery hydrometer reading gave 1.205 way bettter than my 1.85, without it being charged, whilst mine wS charged, iam depressed now
Why do you charge the batteries in series?
Because its a 48v system built on 8 6v batteries. I have 2 parallel strings totalling 16 batteries
Water and acid???
I added too much acid to my batteries. How can I measure how much to take out? Or is there any way to know how to balance the acid water ratio??
Take out full solution from battery. Estimate total solution requirement. Drain solution from battery fully.Prepare solution so that drained solution + prepared solution ( one acid to four distilled water ratio ) makes about two and half litre or estimate your requirement. Pour the solution in cells upto marked level on the cell. Now specific gravity will approx. 1.200. Now charge the battery & specific gravity will be near to standard requirement. Best of luck, my dear.
and run a battery desulphinator. i have 4 on my large 1410 ah 12v bank.
a desulphinator works .my buddy gave me 255 ah 6v batteries industrial deep cycle ones that sat 4 years uncharged no voltage in the cells at all and very sulphated for core fees i could trade in for new ones and i decided to put 2 table spoons of epson salt in each cell and level the water levels and attach a 8 stage smart charger and desulphinator 6v to 12v and charged them for about 3 days each till i had 10 of them tied into a large bank then i put a desulphinator on each series chain.and hooked up my duel 80 amp samlex marine charger for a month and a small 50 watt load so it would keep charging and discharging and equalizing at 14.8v absorb and 15.5 equalizing charges .eventually after 2 weeks i noticed the batteries started holding a good charge and gravity checks came out good and i could actualy see clean plates instead of white and gray crap all over them. i was able to fully restore that bank and i decided to use it on my wind and solar hybrid system for 5 years then sold them with 4/0 cables and bus bar for 1200.00 and purchased some crown cr235 6v deep cycle batteries 12 total brand new. and inam currently using those and love the power i get.i have a portable wind and solar hybrid trailer and 12kw and 7.5 kw inverters and 2 30 amp rv ports and i have 1800 watt array and single axis tracker and linear acuators and a 500 watt 3 phase ac wind turbine that has been at 1200 watts in 30mph winds .in all this system is awesome and wind turbines can clean battery plates off too.