used batteries

[thirteen]

Has anyone here used lead calcium batteries for their systems. I have never been around them and I am wondering about there life. There are some for sale a set of 12 C&D KCT-660 A 8hr cap. But they are 25 years old. they were in a controled atmosphere and used as a backup system until the gen kicked in. I tried to get into C$D 's site but I was not successful probably my thumbs got in the way. They are wanting $500.oo for the set of 12 with all the wires and vents. just thinking they might be worth nothing but a headache. I'll try their site again later.

[Flux]

Sounds like they are well past their sell by date. even if you pay scrap value i just think you are causing yourself extra work for little if any reward.

Flux

[dnix71]

Those are telecom batteries. They'll last 25 years if treated properly. You can't cycle those up and down like we do off grid. They can discharge deep and recharge very very slowly to recover.

The calcium is aded to recombine H and O gasses to minimize the need to water them.

I would avoid them because they are at the end of their official service life.

The phone company is a business and money is tight now. They wouldn't be cycling them out unless they were spent.

[DanB]

This is hard to say... be nice if you could test them.  Lots of those showed up here years ago, most of them were bought for scrap and served well for quite a few years then died...  some are over 30 years old though and still running at near full capacity!  They're nice batteries if they're in decent shape and the age (so long as theyve not been used too much) wouldn't intimidate me too much based on what I've seen.

[SteveCH]

I had some in the 80's, bought used from "phone co." though thru a dealer. A number of folks were promoting them back then and the options for batteries were fewer in those days.

I would pass on some this old. I think I paid $400 for mine and we only got about three years out of them. Those  three years were somewhat of a struggle and I gave up. Fortunately, back then our elec. usage was quite modest and they did work to keep us in lights and a Sunfrost fridge, but that's about all.

I had a minor hassle recycling them. They are so large that the places around Denver which normally accept lead batteries, even battery specialists, did not want them. I finally found a place that would, reluctantly. If I remember from back then [iffy] each cell weighed over 300 lb.

I have read stories of people refurbishing them. I would want to get them really, really inexpensively if I were to take on that project.