Battery fun...

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pishta

I know I'm right....
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So I got this fairly new battery in my SC400. I should actually describe it as "low mileage" because when my Dad put it in 4 years ago, he got sick and never drove it. funny thing about this car is the CD changer is ALWAYS on..whenever you pop the trunk the little light is on the eject button. Anyway, the dang thing's capacity is weak as hell. Itll kick it right over some days but leave it for 2 weeks and it wont even turn it over. Even after a 40 minute drive to a soccer game, it was scary slow cranking over to get home. So I look at the fluid levels and they are a tad low, with the tip tops of the plates exposed so I fill it with Distilled water. No change. So today I bought 24oz of battery acid and a hygrometer. I start pulling samples out of each cell and 1-4 are great, right in middle of green on meter. Cell 5 is terrible, it barely floated the test tube, all the way to the top of the red! Cell 6 was in middle of fair. So I start draining cell 5 with a turkey baster but I cant get past the plates so I keep pulling what I can and pouring in the 37% acid so as to replenish the acid to decent levels. After doing this for about 15 minutes, I get cell 5 and 6 in the middle of fair and Im left with about a quart of weak acid. So I think to myself..." I bet I could boil off the water to make a stronger acid so I could just add it and bring the levels up next time." Well, I google it and sure enough you can get it to like 98% by boiling off the water but you have to do it in a Pyrex or Borex flask on a hot plate...OUTSIDE. Well, why couldnt I do it in my (wifes) Pyrex measuring bowl on my BBQ? Hmm, it looks like it could take the heat if I put a pan under it...Sooo....Ill let you know how it goes once I get a day off and the wife takes the kids to school.
BTW, the acid they sell is ~37% and is perfect for a battery fill, but not perfect for a battery booster shot. It needs to be stronger like 50% or so. I understand the dry battery still has the powdered sulfuric acid in the cells just waiting for the distilled water to rehydrate it, but I think this battery needed the good stuff. Ill check it tomorrow to see if it got any stronger or if the charger boiled any off. I liked my old farm charger, that thing would boil a battery dry if you let it. These new PWM ones trickle charge at best and are too smart to overcharge the battery. Heck its a chore just to get it to start charging a dead *** batter, you need to wire up a battery in series behind it to allow it to sense the proper polarity and a voltage so it will even start charging.
 
"desulfation mode"....snazzy!

Right?:D
Everything about it was automatic and worked like it was supposed to.
All I had to do after a trip as far as batteries went was to plug the motorhome in when we got back and it charged then maintained 4 big 6 volt deep cycle batteries.
They advertised as "Clean DC sine wave" meaning electronic equipment calibration quality power output.

Car show cars with hydraulics and big stereo's use them at shows to keep their power up, and golf cart owners love them for their cart batteries.
 
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Unless you are after it for the challenge of it all, i would just buy a new battery for peace of mind, and for god's sake, wire the stereo so that it's not on all of the time.........
 
yeah, its a stock radio untouched...I suppose these things are made to drive, not sit for weeks at a time...

Ooh, check it out, boiling acid!
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the black color is the crappy BBQ Im using's burner. Its sooted up so the flame is ugly. The acid is actually crystal clear inside the pyrex coffee pot I found in the trash at work...like it was calling me! The acid was in the red before I started boiling off the water so well see what it measures at in about 15 more minutes. This is turning into more of an experiment than a replacement but its all for the experience and documentation.
 
success, the water boiled out concentrating the acid solution enough so as to get it in the green. So its enough to fill a battery again, but short of my goal of some super acid. But boiling it on the BBQ was a little sketchy so Ill just buy it at the store next time. Its about $7 for 24oz. I suspect a long group 34 would take about 4-5 of these. 6Qt size is a special order. Ill keep it on the trickle charger for a few days. I just dont drive it enough. I have a mountable 1A trickle charger Ill install so I just need to drag the power cord up to it.
 
Unless you are after it for the challenge of it all, i would just buy a new battery for peace of mind, and for god's sake, wire the stereo so that it's not on all of the time.........

I hate my radio being on a switched power supply.
But then I always turn it off when I'm not using it.

It's just nice to be able to use the stereo when everything else is totally off.
 
Try a teaspoon of boric acid in each cell and then charge it before you dispose the battery. I have done this several times over the years with about a 50% success rate on getting a longer life from a (dead) battery.
Yote
 
I hate my radio being on a switched power supply.
But then I always turn it off when I'm not using it.

It's just nice to be able to use the stereo when everything else is totally off.
Different strokes for different folks i guess, party on........
 
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