batteries bulged ends

[beambeam]

Hello;
I bought some batteries consisting of 2 trogen 145, 2 trogen 125, 2 us battery 208ah,3 pow-r-surge 1200 235ah.
All have the ends bulged and 2 of the us batteries read weak on the resistive bat tester. The rest read in the ok range.
All are 6v bats.I paid $70.00 cdn for all of them. Any ideas will be appreciated. I don't know if these can be saved so i want to ask the guys who know.

                                                                                  thanks
                                                                                     jim

[zap]

Bulging sides almost always indicate end of life for batteries.

Best anyone one could do would be to set up a know load and test for ah.

@ 70 cdn you're not out much if you have to scrap them.

[DanG]

Bulging tops, around the terminal posts, is a valid clue the battery has had a long life and soon will meet its maker.

[beambeam]

tHANK YOU GUYS.



                       JIM

[beambeam]

Hello;
Is there any way these might be saved? I only need to use them for a few months.


                                                                                            jim

[ghurd]

Do some basic charge and discharge tests.
A few may still be serviceable, for a while, at a reduced capacity.

Resistive battery testers are more for testing CA of starting batteries, and not so good for testing deep cycle batteries where we worry about amp-hours.
G-

[wpowokal]

I guess you can not see through the casing of your batteries so here are a few pics through a clear case to show what is happening, when the battery ages the positive plate (the black one) bulges, this becomes terminal when it meets up with an adjacent negative plate. One pic shows the split in the plastic case caused by this bulging, I have been repairing my 21 year old batteries as can be seen, OK it puts off the inevitable.

In another pic you can see the bucked positive bus bar (the connection between all positive plates) the lead terminal becomes spongy and ultimately breaks off.

allan

[beambeam]

Thanks guys;
What do you mean by basic charge and discharge? I'm new to this but am willing to learn.




                                                                                        jim

[zap]

You need to do a known amount of discharge to find the amp hour capacity of your batteries.  That's what G- meant by "basic".

As you seem to be perplexed by "basic charge and discharge", I'd suggest you read the following thread and read... especially the links that wooferhound gives.
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,143673.0.html


Here's a simple capacity test using an inverter, light bulb, and electric clock.
To run this test you'll need to wire your batteries up in series for 12v.  Probably best to test in the pairs you already have except one of the 1200 235ah will have to be left out.
http://www.instructables.com/id/AmpHourTest/

[beambeam]

Thanks Zap;
I checked it out. Very good info.



                                            jim