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battery size
By thirteen, Section Mechanical Posted on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 07:20:35 PM MST
large battery

My company gave me until tuesday to try and salvage two very large batteries
we are tearing down an old abandoned substation or prosessing plant that has not been used for about 35 years it is half fallen down but in a back corner in an sealed room were two batteries the one on top had some of the roof fall down and has a broken top houseing and corrosion is about two inches deep plus on the batteries. The bottom one still has some water visable in one of the cells. The top one I cannot get to.
They are an odd size 52 inchs wide about 84 inchs long an estimated 14 inchs deep. They are in a bricked housing with at least 8 inchs of concret for a support floor. There is nothing for a name that can be seen. The top of the top one is soft and you can push it in easily the bottom one is not as soft. I cannot tell what the sides are made of. I am going to try and salvage the bottom one. MAYBE??? the buss bars on the wall are about 1 inchs thick 4 inchs wide and three feet long the posts are about 1 1/2 big four posts to each battery. it looks like there are small posts every 12 inches and some have wire going to the next post but most are gone. I have no idea what the voltage was. The was a sign on the wall that has 48/48 Top.
Tom (guy I work with) asked me if the batteries could have been made there? I do not know. Has anyone ever run accross batteries made in place. If it is made in place it has to weigh about 4 tons. They put a fan in the room to clear out the fumes this morning. No one here has any idea of the age or how they worked.
Any ideas?
This may be a find or blunder.

battery size | 13 comments (13 topical)

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by Volvo farmer on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 01:26:35 PM MST

I would imagine that 35 year old batteries are much more likely to be scrap than useable.

The buss bar sounds interesting though. Somebody told me yesterday that scrap #1 copper is running close to $2/pound, though I haven't confirmed this. Sounds like this building you're tearing down might have lots of copper in it. I'd be more apt to collect copper, sell it and buy new batteries than move 4000 lbs of likely useless lead.

Volvo Farmer

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by thirteen on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 02:31:36 PM MST

there is nothing left in the buildings but this room had two walls collapse over it so noone could get in it. The lead might be worth something I do have free use of a loader and a trailer. I also found out this was a relay piont for the local telephone co. 12 years ago. They took or sold the building they were using that was contected to the ones we are tearing down. I beleive that is where the big propane tank came from about a 5 or 6000 gal propane tank. I am going to call them Monday

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by willib on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 02:51:43 PM MST

they could be lead ,but they might not be lead
in either case if they are not useable as batteries , the recycler will enjoy paying to take them off your hands.
can you take some pix of them?

Carpe Ventum (seize the wind)
[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by thirteen on Sun Feb 11, 2007 at 03:02:51 AM MST

I do not have a setup for pix. I am not sure where to go to try and find out what they are or who made them. a friend said they maybe submarine batteries. I have never seen a sub battery.

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by nick1234 on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 07:29:28 PM MST

what i think you have is the battery room for a old telephone exchange the used 48/98 volt standby batteries 45v talk 98 ring also old alarm centrals for balanced line systems 98v These batteries use to very big

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by thirteen on Sat Feb 10, 2007 at 07:40:27 PM MST

it could very easily read 48/98 I am going to try and break the wall down tomarrow and retrive the bottom battery. I will get a closer look at it once it is out. I am concerned about using a cutting torch on the wall and frame. They put a fan inside because of the fumes. You couldn't be inside very long it would burn your eyes and nose. I have to cut the upper battery box supports out to get to the bottom one. 8 inch I-beams

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by bigdan on Sun Feb 11, 2007 at 01:00:35 AM MST

NO TORCH!! Very flammable gas,Hydrogen, Think "BOOM". I wouldn't want to use much more than a sawzall in that room. Exploding battery,hot flaming acid,pieces of hot flying lead. Yes lots of ventilation and fire hose real close by. I wonder how many Amphours they were, they sound Big. Good Luck& Be Careful

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by TAH on Sun Feb 11, 2007 at 03:25:39 PM MST

If the building is [artially caved in there is practically no way any quantity of hydrogen is trapped. We used to make hydrogen to play with and igniting 10 cubic feet of hydrogen at normal air pressure is a lot less impressive than a good sawdust fireball. It is also very hard to hold hydrogen since it is lighter than air and will eventually pass through a lot of different materials.

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by thirteen on Sun Feb 11, 2007 at 02:58:59 AM MST

have you or anyone else heard of batteries made in place for telephone exchange systems. I am wondering what they could be made of if not lead and what are the sides made of?? They just look massive for an ordered battery. Maybe they are submarine batteries. I'll try and take them out together if I can get the roof off the crane is there and the I-beams are welded together but I do not know if they are welded to the floor. There is 4 to 5 inches of muck on the floor. There is four large bolts going thru the wall of which one is rusted off. I cannot sleep tonight wondering about them and getting them out in one peice. 2.55 am Sunday.

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by thirteen on Mon Feb 12, 2007 at 06:47:20 PM MST

I finally got the batteries out in one piece late this after noon and got them onto a trailer. I used the crane to lift them together. The crane says 14.3 tons total for the batteries and I-beams together. It looks like there is 3 batteries not 2. 2 on the top 1 on the bottom. The top ones have broken plates inside from the roof falling so they are junk. They are 2 separate batteriers. The bottom one is just one large battery with no division in it I can see and it seems intact. It has 2 large posts on each end. The corrosion is deep even after I tried to wash it off some. I put a test meter on the posts and got nothing. I expected that they would be dead but had to try.
I called the telephone company and they know nothing about the tank or the battery. Before I just try and charge it I need to service the whole battery. I will test it and try to find the voltage it is suppose to be and go from there. First I need to get the top battery box off and capture the acid that is still in it. We have a collection piont that you can take stuff like the acid or paint to and for a $10 fee they take care of it.
Could someone tell me if I could possibly use the acid that is left in the top batteries and use it in the bottom one? Or maybe this is not a good idea. There has to be serveral gallons of the stuff. So far into the batteries $110.00 but worth the try.

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by DanG on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 10:37:16 AM MST

the electrolyte could be acid or it could be an alkaline used in many nickel-cadmium batteries - you need to confirm that. If the batteries were acid based, on total discharge the acid will be almost water since electro-chemical reaction has fixed it into the plates, you might not be able to tell it is acid until charging occurs. The Alkaline electrolyte if present will still be very base since it isn't active like acids are. Also - good luck determining which terminals are + and which are - if they are unmarked and someone stole the copper cable so it couldn't be determined by the wire connections...

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by DanG on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 10:57:24 AM MST

AND treat then like they were fished out of a sewage lagoon; practice maximum cleanliness around them, no smoking or eating after handling them & police up any debris or dust they generate immediately - cadmium and/or lead are heavy metals you should not mess with, especially with broken containers etc...

[ Parent ]

Re: battery size (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by DanG on Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 11:00:08 AM MST

PICTURES - please post pictures even if you have to beg someone to come take pixxies with their digital camera and email the photos to you to upload here :)

[ Parent ]

battery size | 13 comments (13 topical)

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