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First EDTA test
By whatsnext, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 06:26:50 PM MST
somewhat less than scientific

I finally got tired of waiting for the bubbling to completely stop and went ahead and put the Smart Charger on the EDTAed trolling battery. I'm letting the Schumacher tell me the battery is charged as I do not know yet how EDTA effects scecific gravity. For the baseline test I charged the bat, waited a couple of hours, and then discharged it with two 55watt 12V bulbs while measuring the voltage.
Before EDTA time to 11V while under load 1hr 55min (three tests)
After EDTA time to 11V while under load 3hr 10min (two tests so far)
The EDTA has been in the bat for four days now and it's still bubbling a bit while the bat sits there at room temp. The three things I noticed right away:

The lead visable from the fill hole is almost shiny.
The battery bubbles much less while charging.
The brain in my 'Shumacher Smart Charger' now 'thinks' that the bat will take 30 amps so it auto switches into that mode while charging.
My forklift battery guy just got a couple of pallets of 'dead' Trojan golf cart batteries. I'm going to sort through them to try to find non-shorted ones for another test. If the behaivior of thr trolling battery changes I'll let everyone know.
John...........

First EDTA test | 6 comments (6 topical)

Re: First EDTA test (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by AD on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 06:03:26 PM MST

Where did you get EDTA, how much did it cost, and how much do you use to recondition batteries? I have some trojan L-16's I want to restore.

Re: First EDTA test (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by whatsnext on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 06:19:02 PM MST

AD, I bought mine from Trailhead Supply. $30 for two pounds delivered. If you want to try it go here:
http://www.webspawner.com/users/edta/
All I know about these folks is that I sent them $30 and got two one pound bottles of white powder in the mail.
I used one teaspoon per cell disolved into 1.5oz of distilled, warm water to replace the 1.5oz of battery acid I removed from each cell.
I really have no idea what this stuff is doing or if there are any long term problems with it's use. Plus I'm a ME not a CE so I really don't care.
John.........

[ Parent ]

Re: First EDTA test (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Nando on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 07:20:05 PM MST

Whatnext:

Use HOT WATER instead of warm water and you may start charging from the beginning, not need to wait for the bubbling to stop, charging will assist the EDTA to process and clean the plates sooner.

Make sure the electrolyte level is well up.

Charge the battery to equalizing voltages and let the equalizing charge to drop (it will take a much longer time to happen -- depedning on the EDTA processes).

Not needt to set a high charging current, set it not more than C20 rate for low edta and charging processes.

I used to leave them charging in equalizing mode for about 2 to 3 days after reaching equalizing voltage.

Good luck -- yes you will save many batteries and Trailheas sells good EDTA.

Also, if you have a DESULFATOR PULSER connect it from the moment you did the EDTA process.

Regards

Nando

Regards

Nando

Re: First EDTA test (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by Volvo farmer on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 07:08:38 AM MST

I'd like to know how you are doing those load tests. Do you have to sit around and watch the voltmeter for 4 hours? I've got some L16s I want to load test but haven't figured out an automated way to monitor voltage and time. And I'm not all that interested in watching voltmeters for hours at a time.

Volvo Farmer

Re: First EDTA test (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by whatsnext on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 07:26:38 AM MST

Staring at the voltmeter would get a bit boring so I just check it every half hour or so. For the first test I had to kind of sit around but for subsequent tests I had a good idea when I neened to pay attention. The voltage drop before edta was pretty linear. After edta the voltage dropped pretty quickly and then stiffened up when the voltage reached about 12V. I was worried, at first, that I had harmed the battery but then the voltage just sat there. One thing for sure, two 55watt halogen bulbs really light up a room.
John..........

[ Parent ]

Re: First EDTA test (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by whatsnext on Mon Feb 14, 2005 at 11:41:27 AM MST

VF, If you had a small inverter, an electric clock, and a load I guess you could come up with some sort of automated test as long as the inverter had an auto shut off at some predetermined voltage. Who knows how consistant or meaningful they would be though. I'm very curious to know whether adding edta to a new battery would allow deaper discharges without sulfate formation. That alone would make it very useful stuff.
John...........

[ Parent ]

First EDTA test | 6 comments (6 topical)

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