Hawker sealed batteries

[bobanne]

Hi everyone i have just returned from the scrap yard to get rid of some scrap and came home with 2 batteries that i have never seen before. I think that they may be usable in an energy storage system. If any one can some light on these i would appreciate it. Oh they gave them to me and said if there no good bring em back. I have a deal with the scrap yard now that i will call in every couple of days to check the battery stocks. This is the place that i got all of those Trojan 105s the other week, and i am still going throug them!

The batteries are made in england and are called "Hawker Energy sealed battery system" 12 volt 55 amp hours compliant to British Standard 6290, they are very heavy and are bright red in colour.

Food is your medicine your medicine is your wife.

Bob

[Norm]

  If they are not quite up to what they should

be...(even sealed batteries dry out...I think I

read somewhere and can be 'fixed')

            ( :>) Norm.

[georgeodjungle]

any way to see the fluid,like shine a light.

if there's a way in with out messing em up.

like "maitenance free" battery you can put on eye protection & safty stuff and carefully pry the lid off.you know where the filler caps would be.

fill her up and away you go.

did mention to be carful.

the brits even though thay can't wire a car or a boat & most things.

the british standard is like mil spec. over built.

sounds like a nother good score.

[bobanne]

Update on the Hawker sealed batteries, i tested them with the multi meter after charging them all night and batt 1 is sitting on 12.99 volts the other on 13.55 volts. Thanks for the info re opening them up i will try very carefully. I believe a lot of these special purpose and deep cycle batteries at the scrap yards are quite okay, the problem may have been the machines they were powering gave up the ghost.

notice how alot of people when crossing the road dont look both ways twice? kinda reminds me of the big cartels in oil, dont look sideways for an answer too much, you might just find it.  

[jimjjnn]

All the sealed batts I have seen have a plastic cover heat welded to the battery openings. Not to say that there aren't some completely molded but they add the elctrolyte then heat seal them. I have had car batts that were sealed and still lost water. All I did was take a knife on the outside edge and cut the seal and pry the seal up enough so I could add distilled water as the acid at that point is still there tho concentrated. Saved a lot of money for new batts.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Note that sealed AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) batteries depend on letting the pressure rise to promote a reaction at one of the plates that turns the gasses back into water.  (They have a valve to relieve excess pressure from overcharging TOO much - and that's the mechanism for water loss.)

Yes if they dry out you can refill them if you successfully open them.  But you have to reseal them airtight or they end up acting like a flooded cell that's almost out of water - running dry again at the first hint of an overcharge.  And you have to be careful that you don't damage the valve (in a way that would keep it from releiving pressure) when you reseal it or you might end up with a bomb.

If you don't overcharge them into drying out:  the other thing that kills them is when the spongifying of one of the posts (a side-effect of the charge/discharge cycle) makes it expand and rise out of the case.  There are O-rings to allow the post to grow up without breaking the seal.  When the last O-ring is about to unseat it's time to send the battery off to be melted down.

[georgeodjungle]

i was talking to a propeller head about sealed batteries and he said "why couldn't you drill a small hole", in the 6 right places.like refilling an ink cartridge for your printer.then you could check levels,"with something nonmatalic like a bambo skewer" remove or add as needed.then plug it tight!

[RedLance]

Here's a smaller version: http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2005061722582884&item=11-2538&catname=electric