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Help with lead acid battery please

I bought a used forklift and the battery, even though only a couple years old, was almost dead from sitting too long without being charged. I got the lift to my shop and put a charger on it overnight. All seemed well, the engine starts fast and all that. So a few days later the propane ran out and the engine died. I got the propane tank filled that day and installed it the next day, When I tried to start the lift I realized I had left the ignition on overnight and the battery was dead. Again. So I put the charger on again and even with the switch in the 3 amp position the battery was drawing almost 15 amps. So a cell must have shorted out. Probably from sulfation. I watched the charger carefully and the current dropped to 3 amps after about 15 minutes so I figured the short must be gone. I left the charger on the 3 amp setting overnight. The next morning the battery was still drawing 3 amps. I then switched the charger to the 12 amp setting and let the battery charge until the amperage draw was down to about 6 amps. I then switched the charger back to the 3 amp setting and after about 6 hours the draw is down to about 1 amp. I left the battery on the charger overnight again and it is still drawing only about 1 amp. All the cells bubble slightly while charging at the higher current setting so I think they must all be charging. I have checked the fluid level in all the cells and none are low. In fact, they are all about the same level. After cranking the engine for about

60 seconds total in three tries the voltage of the battery is still 12.57 volts and during cranking didn't drop below 12 volts. The battery is the typical industrial type, long and narrow, not almost square like a car battery. After this long winded description I want to know how long should I keep charging the battery at the 1 amp level in order to remove as much sulfation as possible. Thanks, Eric
Reply to
etpm
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I'm not sure long-term charging removes sulfation. Possibly cyclical charge-discharge cycles does. If you could crank for 60 seconds and the battery was still showing 12.57 V, I think you are done (other than recharging it from that test.)

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

On Friday, July 1, 2016 at 1:41:30 PM UTC-4, snipped-for-privacy@whidbey.com wrote: I want

It would be useful to know the rating of the battery, but if that is an ind ustrial battery and used regularly, you should be able to keep it charging at 1A almost indefinitely - operative word being "almost". I suggest you ge t a modern charger that has an automatic switch-over mode to trickle and le ave that connected pretty much all of the time.

And, if you are having hard time starting this beast, and it has an old-fas hioned distributor with points, by leaving the ignition on all night, you h ave fried them - and they will need to be replaced. Only speculating.

If you do have points, while you are in there, do the condenser as well. An d check the coil. Again, if it is of that vintage technology.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Reply to
pfjw

uneeda closed cell unit

read thru here

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Reply to
avagadro7

AFAIK, to stand any chance of de-sulphating, without getting inside, is to try asymetric/biaced ac charging, using ac with more positive component than negative, so 50/60Hz charge/discharge cycling, can't remember current required per Ah

Reply to
N_Cook

Thanks for the reply Jon. I think I'll try a few charge/discharge cycles. Eric

Reply to
etpm

When you checked the battery voltage was it under a load ? Most of the time even a weak battery will come up to voltage without a load on it.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

The forklift starts right away. The 60 seconds of cranking I did was with the fuel shut off. I was trying to see if the battery voltage would drop below 12 volts. Eric

Reply to
etpm

I have no idea how I would make the sort charger like you describe. It looks like I have done all I can do with my capabilities so I'll just have to see how well the battery holds a charge for several days. Cheers, Eric

Reply to
etpm

During cranking the voltage dropped to 12.1 volts. I expected it might drop down to around 11.5 volts, which would be in the normal range, or even lower. At this time I'm pretty sure the battery has lost some significant amount of operating life but I'm also thinking that what shorted one cell was a small amount of sulfation and that it is apparently gone now. The next time I'm by an auto parts store or hardware store I'm gonna buy a hydrometer to see if the specific gravity of any particular cell is way low. Eric

Reply to
etpm

Yeah but if you use significant current on either AC or FC the battery heats up and may explode.

Reply to
jurb6006

I have no idea how I would make the sort charger like you describe. It looks like I have done all I can do with my capabilities so I'll just have to see how well the battery holds a charge for several days. Cheers, Eric

***

Lots on this subject on YouTube. If you are going to throw it away anyway - have a look at some of the videos... Larry

Reply to
Larry

Didn't the OP say he cranked for 60 secs and the voltage stayed at 12v ?? If that can be done I would still consider the battery as OK.

Reply to
Rheilly Phoull

I think that you have a fine battery for forklift starting, just use it and watch the water level.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7994

That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Since the batteries are so spendy I was hoping there was more I could do to extend the life of the battery wityh what I have on hand. And not damage it any more than it is. Eric

Reply to
etpm

Measure battery voltage with forklift idling and see if it actually being charged by the alternator.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7994

On Sun, 3 Jul 2016 14:06:04 +0800, Rheilly Phoull wrote as underneath :

+1 on that view - also the up thread talk of de-sulphating chargers is in the snake-oil catagory! I tested a commercial de-sulphating charger for 6 weeks and it made absolutely no difference in CC Capacity for a normally aged 8 Year old battery which had not been abused in any way but was losing CCC ! Testing condition was 100 Amp discharge @ 10 Seconds, voltage drop. C+
Reply to
Charlie+

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- all you want to know about lead acid (and other) batteries!

They sell a very good charger as well...

John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

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