lead-acid battery questions

[magneticanomaly]

Setting up my solar power system.

Have many used batteries I plan to hook up.

1.   Some are Exide 100AHr 6V, ten years old, have held charge for a year, look very clean (clear Lexan cases). BUT some of he positive(?)(black) straps are CRACKED.  Dealer says they are NG.  Maybe.  Has anyone ever opened such cases and welded the straps? Looks possible.

2.   Also have 8 1680 AHr 2V cells (will need 4 more for my 24V system).  Dry-charged, never filled, 10 years old. Also look perfect.  Dealer sez they MAY work briefly, but are basically NG..Says shelf-life of dry-charged bats is only 2 yr. If so, why bother with dry-cahrged at all?

Has anyone relevant experience? It will cost me 7 gal of acid just to test each one, so I want an idea if they ARE junk ahead of time, if possible.

3.  Has anyone experience with pulse-chargers, factory or home-made?

Thanks a lot!

John Leyzorek

West Virginia

[bob g]

no idea of the value of the cracked strap units, but the dry charged ones

are interesting

usually they are sealed to keep air out, if so they might be ok

rolls/surrette figures 5 years shelf life on a dry charge, and the tech guy told me

that they should be ok even up to 10 years but may suffer some loss of capacity.

i would expect that "if" they are sealed they could be filled with electolyte

and put on a charger for a few hours and cycled maybe 20 or 30 times to 30-40 percent depth of charge and they will likely come up to decent shape.

but you are short enough for a 24 volt system, and i would not put new batteries in the string with these older units uneven charging will likely result with loss to the new batteries the result. probably not a good idea.

useing 6 of them in a 12 volt system, with the other two in rotation might be an interesting use for them.

as for pulse chargers, i wouldnt waste my time or money with one myself.

i don't see anything one can do that a careful charging can't do without pulse.

i know there are those that swear by them, but until i see a double blind independant test that supports their claims i look at them as snake oil.

bob g

[zeusmorg]

 If you already have these batteries, it would be worthwhile to attempt a repair. A lot of modern batteries aren't really set up for being able to do any repairs to, it mainly depends on how the tops are sealed.

 Battery repairs were quite common years ago. As to how to access them, I'd have to actually see how they tops were constructed.

 One thing, attempting a repair won't lower their salvage value any.

[richsuka]

they could be filled with electolyte

are you saying that electolyte can be added to a battery?

If so how is this done and where can I get some electolyte?

Rich