My attempt to revive a dead battery

[cuong-nutz]

Here's a good read explaining a dead/bad battery:
http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_to_...attery_is_dead

I'm just sharing an experience.

I acquired a free used battery from a seller as part of a parts bundle I had purchased. It was a stock Yuasa battery which read 0.0 volts.

These lead acid batteries are really not "sealed". So I carefully popped the covers and topped off each cell with distilled water.

The battery would not take a charge so I hooked in parallel with another good battery I had and then hooked it up to the charger. Most battery chargers will not charge or start a charge on a battery if it's reading less than 10 volts. You can trick the charger by hooking it up in parallel with a good battery. Well, my good battery came to the full charge but the donor battery was still reading 0.0 volts. So I'm thinking that donor battery is heavily sulfated, has bad cells, or both.

This is where the BatteryMINDer 1500 puts all other battery tenders to shame. This tender can charge batterys reading as low as 3.volts, has a built in temperature compensator, and 5 stage charging process. http://batteryminders.com/12-volt-ma...esulfator-1500

So with the battery tender hooked up to the batteries in parallel, the tender went about working on the batteries. I left it hooked up to the batteries for a day and came back and that the donor battery was taking on a charge. I went ahead and disconnected the good battery and hooked the tender straight to the donor battery.

A day later it looks like the battery is holding a full charge but I may have a bad cell or two since I noticed some consistent bubbling in a couple cells with one more than the other with the tender hooked up. Some bubbling is normal, but continuous bubbling is not.

It's been roughly a week since I had the tender disconnected from the donor battery and the current battery voltage is at 5+ volts. The recent cold weather may have some small effect on the battery. In conclusion, the battery is bad but one thing is for sure is that the BatteryMINDer 1500 desulfator works!

[alex.s]

i'm probably wrong but wouldn't too much bubbling mean there's too much salt? and if it's only coming from one cell, wouldn't that mean that the electrode in that cell is caked in electrolytes and calcium? maybe from ****** water going in instead of distilled before? the bubbling is from the current causing the water to electrolyze, releasing hydrogen and oxygen gases. maybe dump the battery and run CLR through it? lol

[csmith12]

[cuong-nutz]

Lol

You know more than me Alex. I don't know much when it comes to electricity

[alex.s]

here's a great page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93acid_battery

Precise float voltage (±0.05 V) is critical to longevity; insufficient voltage (causes sulfation) is almost as detrimental as excessive voltage (causing corrosion and electrolyte loss)

Charging[edit]
A lead-acid cell with one plate oxidized.

Fully charged: lead and lead oxide plates
In the charged state, each cell contains negative plates of elemental lead (Pb) and positive plates of lead(IV) oxide (PbO
2) in an electrolyte of approximately 33.5% v/v (4.2 mol/l) sulfuric acid (H
2SO
4). The charging process is driven by the forcible removal of electrons from the positive plate and the forcible introduction of them to the negative plate by the charging source.
Negative plate reaction:
PbSO
4(s) + H+
(aq) + 2e− → Pb(s) + HSO−
4(aq)
Positive plate reaction:
PbSO
4(s) + 2H
2O(l) → PbO
2(s) + HSO−
4(aq) + 3H+
(aq) + 2e−
Overcharging with high charging voltages generates oxygen and hydrogen gas by electrolysis of water, which is lost to the cell. Periodic maintenance of lead-acid batteries requires inspection of the electrolyte level and replacement of any water that has been lost.

Desulfation is the process of reversing the sulfation of a lead-acid battery. Desulfation is achieved by high current pulses produced between the terminals of the battery. This technique, also called pulse conditioning, breaks down the sulfate crystals that are formed on the battery plates.[14] Short high current pulses tend to work best. Electronic circuits are used to regulate the pulses of different widths and frequency of high current pulses. These can also be used to automate the process since it takes a long period of time to desulfate a battery fully. Battery chargers designed for desulfating lead-acid batteries are commercially available. A battery will be unrecoverable if the active material has been lost from the plates, or if the plates are bent due to over temperature or over charging.

[alex.s]

i'd say put it back on the fancy charger and give it a few more days.