Forget the battery facts, try them!

[nothing to lose]

Sometimes we need to forgot what the basic rules of batteies are and just do them. What we know to be true and what we know should be junk, sometimes just ain't so! Just try them and see what happens.

I had a car quit running about 15-16 months ago, FEB 2006. Battery was ran dead trying to start it.

The car sat all winter with dead battery, we had weather in the teens at times and near 0F some also. When I dragged the car over to work on it a few months ago (about JAN), the battery was 0V. Would not take a charge from solar panels, jump starting, and charger would not do anything either. I did not fix the car, just let it sit longer with a 0V battery.

Awhile back I took the battery out of the car. I connected a solar panel to it direct and just let it sit for weeks I geuss. I saw the volts came up. I pulse charged it for a few days, normal charged, pulsed more. Never tried loading the battery, just figured it was trash but was playing with it anyway. Was going to use it for a core when buying another one later.

WELL, it sat on the ground for WEEKS no charging or nothing. I needed to start a truck that had no battery in it and saw that one sitting nearby. I figure well its something to connect jumpers to anyway right. So I stuck it in the truck. For the heck of it I checked the volts, was up around 12.5V but I figured it would just drop and do nothing  under a load, but I hit the key on the truck anyway. Almost scared me when the truck cranked!

That battery cranked the truck for at least 15 minutes! No charging, no jumping, just the battery that should have been trash!

First the truck had been sitting awhile, so I figured the carb was dry and was cranking to get gas from the tank to the carb. I was not getting gas, so I put some gas in the truck, cranked allot more. Still not getting gas. Well you know how some Ford trucks are hard to put gas in, this one was sitting tilted to the filler side, so the gas was even with the filler tube top, still no gas in tank though. I moved truck level, put in more gas, cranked allot more. Truck finally started and running great. But it took at least 15 minutes of actaull cranking to get it started.

All that cranking came from a battery all the known facts say should have been trashed!

Stored dead over a year. Held dead by the cars junk that draws power like clock etc..

 Should have froze at least once durring winter, maybe several times. It was well over 3 years old anyway. Car batteries should not be ran too low but this one was 0V for year. Was a cheap Wal-mart battery to begin with, an EVERSTART 3 year battery.

At 0V should have be majorly sulphated. Etc.. Etc...

It's still starting the truck now for several days and taking a charge like a new one would.

[elvin1949]

NTL

 I have been suprised that way before.

Don't know why but sometimes ?.

later

Elvin

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Check it again in a couple weeks to see if it self-discharges by a significant amount overnight.  If not you've dodged the bullet.  B-)

[Nothing40]

I had a similar situation with a 6AH SLA I got in a bunch of SLA batts.. It appeared dead at first,wouldn't take a charge,etc etc..I cracked the caps open and added some water,and tried charging it again..nada. So it sat for about a year?,until I was gonna toss it out..but when I stuck the DMM on it again it had voltage! I did a quick-n-dirty load-test (with a 55W halogen bulb) and it seems fine -been working well ever since! shrug  Who knows..I guess we've pleased the battery gods in some way. ;-)

[SparWeb]

Just a wild theory:

Some batteries die when one of their plates warp (too hot) and touch.  They may even weld together.  The short circuit causes all the other cells to run current through the short until they're all dead.  Zero volts situation.

After sitting for a while in the cold, ice forms and expands.  It finishes off the warped plate, which disintegrates.  The short is now gone, and the other cells, though weakened, can keep their charges again, without discharging any more through the bad one.

Good? Bad?  Ridiculous?  Do I win a prize?  :^)

[ghurd]

Dude!

I have a better story than that!

Deep cycle, 85AH, 8(?) years old, behind the barn for 2 (4?) years. Junk when he put it there.

PV system was used for rotating batteries. All the batteries were charged, so he put that old one on the PVs.

Guess what?  It worked.  I have no idea of the AH.  

It worked for 2~3 more years that I know of, then he died.  The man, not the battery.  Newports and Camels.

Last I heard, the battery was still "OK".

G-

NTL- SG-4, 50W PV, 'solar powered wheel chair'...  she'll get the pics up soon?

 

[smidy]

when car batts are on I like to tell you what happen to me 2 day ago, Wife came home stopped the car and went inside to get something and get out to the car like 2 mins later, the car is stone dead, run like a dream 3 minutes earlier....ok take my car and I will fix it for you, I told her. Opened the hood and start looking...well the earth cabels did not look too well so I replaced them with "new" ones and tested to start, nothing just a little tack tack tack from the starter. So I put a charger on it over night because I thought it would have charging problems of the earth-problem, next morning I disconnected the charger and jumped in to try to start...it sounded nice......then CABAAAM the battery exploded thank good I did not close the hood before cranking, hole top blew of, batteries are not so simple sometime :-)

[nothing to lose]

Did I mention this truck has a BIG 460 Engine?

Well, battery still works! Drove truck around the dirt roads checking it out.

I have a minor problem with brake peddle not releasing, broke spring or sticky. At first I thought the front brakes were locking up and not releasing then I noticed the peddle stays down once I step on it. I fix that and ready to run it I think.

Anyway, battery is working like a new one still. It sat for a bit and held the charge fine. Taking a charge fine also.

All the normal facts say I should have murdered this one, but yet it still lives on, so far!

[willib]

got a camera ?

i would like to see a pic of that batt

[smidy]

pictures for willib

and with the parts I found

enjoy :-)

[willib]

OMG !!

what do ya think caused that?

ok let me rephrase that , how did a spark get inside the battery?

scary...

[smidy]

well I think the spark came from the led connection that have cracks in it, if you look carefully in the first picture you see cracks in the cell at the right side. I do not think there was any sparks around the battery since I had been cleaning and tighten all battery connections and replaced the earth-cabels with fresh ones, and with the hood wide open on a pretty windy day it should not been any gases around the engine...

[snowcrow]

Damm!!!, that battery look like it went Chernobyl!!!! It looks like some arcing took place between plates in a couple of low cells. Its been known to happen under sudden heavy loads and the right conditions!!

[smidy]

well the cells was not low before the BANG, the corners have cracks in them therfore the lack of fluid in the outer cells...

[nothing to lose]

Well just an update. That battery that should have been shot is still working like new.

I let the car sit a few weeks, even with the car drawing a little juice for stuff like digital clock and all the battery stayed charged and started the car right up.

I also used it in a hard to start truck, cranked forever till it pumped gas from the tank to the carb and finally started.

On another note though, I am getting a free replacement for a 2year battery. It's been shot for about 2 months now at least but I just didn't take it back yet. I have till Sept. and there is no known reason that this one died! It was treated normal. Since I get a brand new free battery I am not trying to revive this one, just exchange it.

[dinges]

NTL,

One should be careful proclaiming a battery to be 'good' when it does start a car. How much of its original capacity does it still retain, that's what really matters.

Last year I had to replace the battery of the car as I could only start once; it didn't have the juice anymore to do two starts in a row. It was a 12V 55 Ah battery.

After I replaced the battery I decided to measure the capacity of the old, dead one. Turned out it could light a H4 headlight for 55 minutes. That means a capacity of about 4 Ah was left in the battery. Yet it could still start the car.

But a battery that retains 4 Ah of its original 55 Ah capacity (7 %) looks very dead to me.

Would be very interesting if you could make a similar measurement: load the battery with a car headlight (H4) and measure how long it takes for the voltage to drop to 11.0 V; Multiply the number of hours by 4 and you have the capacity in Ah. Curious as to how much of its original capacity your battery retains.

Regards,

[nothing to lose]

 I've got allot going and allot of problems, that's why I am not here much like I was. Right now it's just it works or it don't type stuff for me.

With the batteries though, it went from 0 volts sitting to spinning a hard to crank 460 truck engine for a LONG time. I would say that one is good. I have batteries that should be good and are in normal use that will not start that truck once it has run 1 hour and got hot. Half the time whe3n you have to pump gas from the tank all the way to the engine with the old type pumps and carbs even a good battery dies before you get started, this one still does it!

On a side note, you SHOULD argue with Wal-mart if they try to charge you for a replacement battery durring the FREE 2 year replacement time period!

 I had one totally shot, 9V sitting, would not take much charge, dropped back to 7-9V sitting 2 days. They tried to charge me $15 to replace it because they do not carry the exact same stock number now. I politely argued the point it's not my fault they don't have that exact battery and I should get a free replacement of something since it was still in the 2 year FREE period!

 All the batteries but one of the 2 year type is the same price, took awhile but I got a battery with 90amps more cranking power FREE! I think that one had a shorted cell!

 I could not revive that one, but since it was still in a free replacement period I figured why bother anyway, just get a new one! I did not try very hard with that one.