recovering AGM batteries anyone have tips ?

[sunpower]

Hi

have some AGM batts  that no long will hold a charge  and saw some youtube videos  about putting distilled water in them and useing a da pimp chargerhttp://screwdecaf.cx/da_pimp.html
  and this can fix most AGM / SLA batts
anyone have any more ideas or has anyone used this charger ??
thanks

[joestue]

i suppose nothing supprises me anymore.

are the cases of your batteries bulging at all, even in the slightest?

[sunpower]

no bulging  or any thing like that they look fine

[Mary B]

Just a desulphator... no clue is it will actually help in your case

[Bruce S]

His charger, while pretty neat, will not help a dead battery. He even shows a heavily sulfated battery being toast. In that video, he shows how to tell.
Best thing to do would be to buy one and give it a try.
His plans are open source so you could even build one if you are so inclined.

[mab]

I've never had much luck recovering batteries - you might get an old car battery to improve to the point where it'll start a good motor, but recovering a battery to a good %age of it's rated capacity? I doubt it.

[Bruce S]

Actually; I have had great luck.
HOWEVER, these were NiCds and I was using a $6,000.00 USD machine to accomplish that task. Most of them in the past went to Norm, and the trip Rich and I went on in 2010.
The others is what powers my DSL and such on a daily basis.
I was also able to recondition AGMs and SLA using the same machine.
BUT!! this unit does not even come close to the sophistication of the other unit.
There have been others who have recovered LA batteries by using distilled water method, of course those batteries are now wet cells too.

[OperaHouse]

If that works, then grandpa knew best.  Not any different than the line operated battery charger that I have from 1920 with a mercury vapor rectifier tube.  Not the usual fast pulse circuit.

[bob g]

this only because i had packed away a set of six 2gca type 6v agm batteries
that were subjected to elevated temperatures and allowed to go to a very low charge state.

i removed the caps which have the checkvalves in them, then i added 6cc's of distilled water using a syringe and a large animal needle that was bent 90 degree's... i did my best to spray the water around over the top of the plates.

then i put them on a 2 amp charge for a day and ran them flat again, did this a couple times and them put them on the charger for a week.

they all finally came back fine, and equalized to within .01 volt between cells.

i never had any luck with smaller cells made for ups systems and the like, however it did seem to work on these larger cells.

the reason it worked might well be because the batteries were in pretty good condition before being subjected to idiotic care, had they been at or near end of life it is unlikely the results would have been the same.

bob g

[mike_belben]

google Peter Demar and read his articles. probably one of the foremost people in the battery restoration business.  with distilled water, catalyst caps and a specific charge regimen he can bring most back to 100% capacity.  on VRLAs the lugs cant be pushed out too far.


armed with info from his articles and reckless abandon for free dead car batteries, i have had about a 7 in 10 success rate restoring 12vdc Lead Acid cells by opening the caps, filling with distilled water to about 3/8" below the tops of the vent slits, then hitting them on 200amp start mode from a sears battery charger.  this is around 15vdc.  i do this till all cells are "boiling" more or less equally, say 2-8 minutes in a vented area to burn off whatever sulfur i can.  then i close them up and leave them on 2amp slow charge for a half day or so.   if the battery isnt badly bulged and hasnt sat discharged for very long, it will almost always come back.  some have come back 2 or 3 times. 

this has saved me hundreds in battery replacement cost to be honest.  i have a bench full of good batteries that i pop a float charger around on every other day whenever i walk by.  they were all throw aways.