Reconditioning a Lead Acid battery?

JT,

Do you know if there is a way, even if just theoretically, to recondition the lead in a lead acid battery?  Could you (or anyone) explain exactly why a lead acid battery goes bad in the first place?

I have heard (can’t vouch for authenticity) that the lead forms little crystals and fractures with repeated changes and discharges.  According to this theory, melting and recasting the lead makes it as good as new.  But again, I can’t vouch for the authenticity of this idea, it was merely one that I had heard and I had always wondered how much, if any validity there is to the idea.

Thoughts?

Eric

That's a little off topic and it will probably get moved by a moderator.
But I have been having good luck hooking a bad battery
directly up to a 30 watt 12 volt solar panel and letting it run up to as much as 16 volts
for a few hours.
Remember batteries can offgass when charged that high and hydrogen is explosive.
NO SPARKS

It won't run up that high the first day, or even the second.
And during the night it will run back down to 12 volts or less.
After about a week of this it does start to come back.
Charges higher and stays up near 12.7 or more at night.

Then I can put my power Pulse brand electronic desulphator on it.
It cannot handle high voltage so it is disconnected from the solar panel and allowed to sit and do it's magic.
Then off the powerpulse I got from Abraham solar (plug).
And back on the solar panel, now with other batteries and loads.
And the whole bunch gets bumped up past 15volts occasionally.
An "equalizing charge".

I bought a new battery for the '79 chevy van.
The regulator ran it up way too high on the way back from the summer camp spot.
It was boiling and hot.
I fixed the regulator.
Couple months later went to take the battery out for winter and it was only reading 2 volts.
Sat like that for how long?? Thought it was fried.
Using my solar panel and powerpulse I was able to bring it back.
2 volts is pretty low and I was really surprised it worked.
It took weeks to come back. I almost gave up and took it back to NAPA.
Now it holds a charge again.
And I forgot to unhook it from the woodburner fans. It ran for over 12 hours and only drew it down to 12.2 volts.

I think there are a number of ways that Flooded-Lead Acid (FLA) batteries (for solar applications, not starter batteries for vehicles) go dead ... this might be a partial list:

1. sulphation of the lead plates: usually caused by over-discharge; FLA's don't like to be discharged more than 50% (the 50% penalty that turns a 100Ah battery into a 50Ah capacity) ... I've heard that some folks will only take about 20% to 40% out of them, to get longer life. I've heard of the "I got 10 years out of my FLA batteries" stories, but alas ... I got a year or so at most.

2. maintenance: have to check and replenish (with only distilled water) the cells ... if they get too low, the plates are damaged. Have to periodically test the acid levels ... if they get too low, chemistry is thrown off. Most folks kill their batteries in a year or so because of improper maintenance.

3. temps: not too hot, not too cold ... per manufacturer.

There are numerous snake oil claims to bringing them back to life (pulse devices, acid replacement, etc.), or keeping them from sulphating in the first place. I've tried several, but still managed to always kill my FLA solar batteries ... I finally switched to LiFePO4, and did away with all the grief. No maintenance at all, full discharge (to 90% or more), etc.

The only thing that *might not* be snake oil for FLA is the NOCO Genius battery charger (10-amp), which has an unusual "wake up" feature for overly discharged FLA batteries ... I've tried it on a handful of dead FLA's, and a few have come back to life. Most did not ... so, that feature is more like "worm oil", and not full-blown snake oil? Could also be that the FLA's were too far gone ...

Hope this helps ...


PS: what little I know came from these folks ...

 https://batteryuniversity.com/articles

Even then, I might have munged things from memory ... read their articles!

BatteryUniversity is awesome.

Edit: I have played with half-dead FLA car batteries and solar panels for years, with mixed results. The new reconditioning chargers look interesting, but I don't have high hopes of bringing batteries back to their original capacity.

If someone wanted a setup to, say, charge a cell phone in an extended outage, though, an older car battery matched with a trickle charge solar panel and the widely available USB 5 volt converters is entirely viable.

Has anyone here tried the method people use on YouTube where they use a welder to recondition batteries? There was a popular one not too long ago from  Uncle Tony's Garage:



and the follow up here:



I haven't tried it myself and usually in the past I just replaced batteries for people because they tend to get very impatient when their car won't work. It isn't perfect for all situations, as from what I understand the sulfation can fall to the bottom of the battery and bridge between cells creating a short. But if it's dead anyway and you have all the tools and safety equipment, it seems like a worthwhile option even if it only buys you a few months of battery life.

I once had a book on products you can make at home and sell.
One was a battery rejuvenator.
 The plan was to add epsom salts to the battery.
Magnesium sulphate is supposed to dissolve the lead sulphate that forms on the surface of the lead plates.

I am not sure but I think the electronic desulphators use a resonant frequency that breaks the crystals and the sulphate goes back into solution.
The epsom salts probably does send it to the bottom of the battery.
It would be nice if they made batteries that could be easily taken apart and refurbished. Maybe some day.