Gel-Cell Battery repair?

That's not large;-) We use 100 Ah types for powering location broadcasting units. And that limit is purely through the weight for carrying.

IMHO, when any type of lead acid is dead, it's dead. If they've been left discharged for any length of time for whatever reason they can't be sorted.

Gell cells are not servicable. They must be replaced when they go defective. You are supposed to have the old ones properly disposed of.

Jerry G. ======

So what's with the little covered panels on top? I thought maybe it was a place to add water.....

Hello, Chris! You wrote on Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:33:19 GMT:

??>> Jerry G. ??>> ====== CF> So what's with the little covered panels on top? I thought maybe it was CF> a place to add water.....

Nope, they are there to provide a safety vent in case of a fault developing that might otherwise cause a bang.

With best regards, 3T39. E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

That's easy enough, anywhere that sells car batteries will take just about any sort of dead lead acid batteries for disposal. I take them down to the local Schucks autoparts.

Is there any way to "revive" them by applying higher charge voltage or something?

will

have

and

used?

No.

--

Dave Plowman snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I found a website that had plans for a "desulfator" that claims to be able to revive at least a small percentage of such dead batteries. These batteries probably failed from sulfation, as they were hardly used and kept in storage for years. I'll give it a try sometime.

little

hole.

inrush

Sulfation can be cured by long slow trickle charging, but cells which have actually dried out can only be fixed by adding water. In most gel cells and starved lead acid cells this is difficult, if not impossible.

Unfortunately, the onex I had were dried out, and even after cutting one of them open, I couldn't figure out any reasonable way to get water in there without destroying them.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

-----------------------------------------------

This may mean something, maybe not. I lifted off one of the rubber caps, and tried poking a small rod down through. There seemed to be a hard film on top, but underneath the gel appeared to be at least moderately wet. I'm guessing that perhaps poking a hole in the hard film, then adding water, might just work.

able

kept

and

Not if they're sulfated. I suppose you've got nothing to lose by trying but I've never had any luck getting truly dead lead acid batteries of any type to take a charge. Sometimes if you hit them with a higher voltage they'll charge a bit, but they never last long.

There's no harm in trying, and it might actually work. The problem is that you really don't know how far in the elecrolyte gel is. If you can actually get the water to it, you're all set. In the Gates Cyclon cells I took apart, there was a similar cap, but going down that hole only got me half way to the active part of the cell.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

-----------------------------------------------

Here's some interesting plans for a battery desulfator:

and