Is it possible to recondition your batttery?

[Raymond673]

Hello all - I recently purchased a totally off the grid solar home and I am told my batteries should last at least 2 more years with proper care, which I think I am doing.

I have been watching some You Tube videos about reconditioning a dead battery and bringing it back to life.

I don't really understand how all this works and I am reading as much as possible, but there is so much to learn that it is becoming jello in my head.

We have 28 deep cycle batteries and looking at the cost of them where we live, When the time comes to replace them (2 Years) I am looking at a heafty price tag.

SO... is it true, once these batteries "die" can I do something to get a few more years out of them?

If not years, then approximately how long will a reconditioned battery last? One video that used epson salts, the guy said you can do that to a battery about 4 times before it is totally dead.

Thanks for your time

Ray
Panama

[inetdog]

"Reconditioning" is a very broad topic.
Things like sulfation are reversible until the sulfate crystals harden, and that can be done by a simple monitored equalization charge.
Once hardened, techniques get into magic and religion.
Things like positive plate corrosion and flaking off of active material simply cannot be reversed.
Chemical cures for sulfation. are dubious at best and I would not trust them for any battery that I depended on.

The battery makers standard for end of life is 80% of initial capacity.
If you design for 20% daily discharge then once the battery is at 50% of its initial capacity you are actually doing a daily 40% discharge instead.
"Not completely dead yet" may in fact be totally useless for off grid use.

[rsilvers]

SO... is it true, once these batteries "die" can I do something to get a few more years out of them?

No, it is not true. I have tried and was never able to using the desulfate programs on various chargers.

[Sunking]

No it is not possible. At least to no significant degree.

If you have 28 batteries tells us whoever made the system had no clue what they were doing to start with. I have no idea how you determined the batteries have 2 year left in them. Depending on the manufacture and product line, they will last 1 to 5 years. With 28 improperly installed batteries, much less.

[Amy@altE]

To SunKing's point, what is the voltage and amp hour of the battery and the battery bank? Do you have 7 parallel strings of 4 in series? If so, that can greatly reduce the life of the battery bank. You want to minimize the number of parallel strings, one string is best. So when you do have to replace the bank, and there's no getting around that, do not replace with the same configuration. You want to get a high amp hour and low voltage battery that you can wire many in series, and few in parallel.

[peakbagger]

The standard warning to new off grid folks is buy cheap batteries for the first set as even if you get the design right, its highly likely you will "murder" the new batteries by inadvertently treating them badly. Depressingly it usually takes ponying up the cash for a new bank after the initial bank is "murdered" to get religion and learn how to treat the batteries correctly.

[Sunking]

The standard warning to new off grid folks is buy cheap batteries for the first set as even if you get the design right, its highly likely you will "murder" the new batteries by inadvertently treating them badly. Depressingly it usually takes ponying up the cash for a new bank after the initial bank is "murdered" to get religion and learn how to treat the batteries correctly.

That does not mean Parallel Strings ever. .

[joerossjr]

The standard warning to new off grid folks is buy cheap batteries for the first set as even if you get the design right, its highly likely you will "murder" the new batteries by inadvertently treating them badly. Depressingly it usually takes ponying up the cash for a new bank after the initial bank is "murdered" to get religion and learn how to treat the batteries correctly.

So where can the N00bs find the "proper" (recommended by THIS forum) way to treat batteries for the maximum expected lifetime? I love this forum, but we noobs hear a lot of "UR DOIN IT WRONG" with little explanation. I'd LOVE to know the info, even though I won't use it for a few years.

[Amy@altE]

What's the size of your battery bank? We may be able to make recommendation, but without details, can't really be more helpful.

[SunEagle]

So where can the N00bs find the "proper" (recommended by THIS forum) way to treat batteries for the maximum expected lifetime? I love this forum, but we noobs hear a lot of "UR DOIN IT WRONG" with little explanation. I'd LOVE to know the info, even though I won't use it for a few years.

First determine that total Ah rating of your battery system based on your daily watt hour needs.

Then you can look for battery cells rated at that Ah rating with lower voltages. You then wire them up in a series configuration which will result in the desired system voltage and Ah rating.

If you need to wire parallel paths of batteries to increase your system Ah rating, then you are going in the wrong direction.

[Sunking]

So where can the N00bs find the "proper" (recommended by THIS forum) way to treat batteries for the maximum expected lifetime? I love this forum, but we noobs hear a lot of "UR DOIN IT WRONG" with little explanation. I'd LOVE to know the info, even though I won't use it for a few years.

Have you tried the Stickies? That is what they are there for.

Like this one.

[Mike90250]

To murder a battery:
don't use a generator to recharge it in cloudy weather
leave the charge controller set to factory default (which is fine for the OTHER battery your neighbor has)
use large loads in the evening
don't bother checking the specific gravity of the electrolyte
rely on the inverter alarm for when the battery is low
parallel batteries
don't check state of charge before purchase
buy surplus telcom batteries on sale
And I'm sure I missed more than half of the stories about dead banks.

[Sunking]

And I'm sure I missed more than half of the stories about dead banks.

• Let the plates become exposed to air.
• If electrolyte spills or boils out replace with water.
• Rotten egg smell is a good thing in a battery room
• Its under warranty
• My friend designed it, what could possible go wrong
• Battery systems are 12 volts and come in a box.

[Raymond673]

Hey Sunking - I live in Caldera, would you be willing to come over and check out what I have and see if things are correct? Let me know . Thanks

[PNjunction]

Reconditioning is usually a waste of time, or at least just a long process for very little gain.

The problem that most of the junior-high school reconditioning videos have is that after the reconditioning, the batteries are put into very trivial service, well below what the batteries were originally capable of.

By far the biggest issue is the SECONDARY damage. Even IF you could magically remove all the hardened sulfate, what you have left are warped / buckled / touching plates, eroded grids etc.

I have reconditioned batteries to the point where trivial loads are no problem, but the battery itself now has hot-spots, high self-discharge and more requiring a lot of babysitting and monitoring. In essence, once a battery gets to a state that it needs reconditioning, you are just on borrowed time, or are supporting junior high school science experiment loads.

[Raymond673]

No it is not possible. At least to no significant degree.

If you have 28 batteries tells us whoever made the system had no clue what they were doing to start with. I have no idea how you determined the batteries have 2 year left in them. Depending on the manufacture and product line, they will last 1 to 5 years. With 28 improperly installed batteries, much less.

Hello Sunking - I live in Caldera, would you be willing to come over to my place and look at what I have, see if things are set up correctly? See if I am doing things right? mail me - raymond673 AT yahoo.com -- Let me know. It would be a big help. Thanks!

[joerossjr]

Have you tried the Stickies? That is what they are there for.

Like this one.

Yes... I have been here a while now, and gotten that far. It was rhetorical, but thank you.