Anyone ever tried this or is it pure folly? This is just one of the videos on YouTube that shows the same process.
never tried Epsom salts but back in the day, topping up the battery with sulphuric acid was routine maintenance on lead acid batterires. Had a bottle of distilled water as well....you pour the acid in and test the specific gravity with a hydrometer, top up with water to achieve the correct SG...this was when batteries were done in cells and lead was cheap.... Epsom Salts are magnesium sulphate....so they are alkaline....I can only assume that they work to remove lead sulphate deposits from the plates....but I'm no chemist.
I only ask as I have a dead cell in my leisure battery and £5 for Epsom Salts is a lot cheaper than a new one. I may just give it a go anyway.
Trouble with most batteries when they sulfate up, is the sulfate drops to the bottom of the cell,then builds up until it shorts out the bottom of the plates. This is the reason most batteries dont slowly die, as they would if the plates were sulfated, but appear to go on and on then abruptly fail. (and you've got nothing! I have heard of draining the electrolite, and refilling with clean, sometimes rejuvinates the battery a while. I'm sure I have seen adverts for products to rejuvinate old batteries, years ago. Tony
^^ whs. The life expectancy of a battery is determined by the space below the plates - the sulphate is insoluble and builds up when a battery is left absolutely flat giving low capacity but relatively normal voltages, and porous lead drops off when you charge fast (which is the short circuit). There are electronic gadgets that apply bursts of high voltage AC to the battery, the idea being to blow off the sulphate by making little gas bubbles which expand rapidly, but they cost a similar amount to a new battery. The real answer is to fit batteries which are 2x the capacity you will ever use, then they only ever get discharged 50% and then they will last years. Run them flat once or twice and you lose years of life expectancy. At least you can try the Epsom Salts or Bat-Aids on wet cells. Nothing more depressing than coming back to a gel battery that you have let go flat for a week. It will never come back and will go straight to venting stinky gas if you try to charge it. The best way to rejuvenate an old lead acid battery is to recycle it and buy a new one....
For the curious Epsom salts were added last night and the battery was left on charge - no toxic gas cloud this morning and battery is still in one piece, will test tonight.
I am sure it will give some life back to your battery but long term its unlikely to live long, use it as a leisure battery or something low in use and buy yourself a new one! Yuasa are great, I have fallen out with Bosch now - not the company they once were!
So an alkaline compound is added to dilute sulphuric acid, dependent on the concentration the electrolyte is then either completely or partialy neutralized. What puzzles me is how the cell can be revived after this treatment without being drained and fresh electrolyte added. Since draining in this case would mean up ending, the sludge in the bottom gets plastered over the plates .
You're not wrong. I've tried topping up batteries with Senokot in the past...that doesn't work either...
Thought they might run... In the distant past I've changed the electrolyte on submarine battery cells by draining and refilling but then they had a drain plugs fitted.
Update: Turns out it was a steaming pile - leisure battery is still flat after a 5 day charge. On the plus side we will be having a mineral bath in the morning.
