Price Check!

[FarmerGreen]

What would be a fair price for a GNB Absolyte 1000AH 6v battery. Used, but looks brand new. The guy has several at $975 ea. Is that a good price?

[dapdan]

Hey Farmer,

A few thoughts, start at scrap value for these batteries. Base price is 10c per pound. I would say those batteries you are refering to are the 100A19 rated at 896Ah @ 8hr and 1020Ah @ 20hr. These 3 cells together weight 470lbs yielding a scrap value of $47. Be aware though the because of the 2% cadium content in plates of these cells most local recyclers will not want to touch it with a 10ft pole (so you maybe doing the seller a favour and paying him to boot). If the batteries are less than say 6-7years old their is most likely still alot of life left in them. Don't get me wrong I am a fan of these batteries, I have about 3 sets of them right now and two of them have been running my house flawlessly for the past 2 years. I got them for free though. I have a bank just like the one you are looking at right now. If you can get the code that is dittered or printed in fine print that is on the top of every cell I can date them for you and tell you when they were manufactured. Personally I would not consider paying more than scrap value for them unless the seller can prove that there are no problems with the cell by carrying them through a load test at least a couple of times. I am sure you dont want to end up with a couple of tonnes of batteries that you local recycler would not take from you even if is for free.

Cheers....
Damani

[FarmerGreen]

Actually they are the 100A21. I will check with the seller and see if he can find a serial number. I can't see anything in the pictures. Where would the serial number be?

[dapdan]

Farmer,

Look at the top of the actual cell to the right of the terminals above the + sign you should see some small print. An example of what you might see would go like this " KFC30A100". Good Luck.

Cheers...
Damani

[FarmerGreen]

The only number like that is R0110021 and it is on the label, not on the cell. There is a closeup of the posts on the cell, but I don't see a number. I haven't heard back from the seller yet. Here is a link to the sale w/pictures:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280565520823&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2746wt_903

[dapdan]

Farmer,

I would pass on that, I think the price is to high. I hope you realise that what you are getting is only 3 cells and you would need at least six of them to make 12v or 12 of them to make 24v. $2000 for a 12v 1000Ah used bank and you dont know what the actual capacity is (it would be less for due to aging and previous use). You can get surrette rolls S530 400Ah 6v batteries for $350. That means that you can have a brand new 800Ah bank at 12v for $1400 and you will know where you stand with them and have a longer warranty. Not a good deal imho.

Cheers....
Damani

[dnix71]

Each cell weighs 515 pounds and they have to be clamped and mounted as shown to keep the electrolyte firmly in contact with the plates. 1500 pounds for a 3 cell stack would be a bear to handle.  http://www.enviroharvest.ca/gnb.htm

Those were developed by Sandia Labs just for pv use and are the best of the best. Unless they were abused they should still be good to go, but the weight is a problem for the average person. Even the 600 AH version is 328 pounds a cell.

[dapdan]

nix,

to be more accurate the wieght you are quoting is actually for a 3 cell module. In one module there are three cans to accept three cells so one module is 6v. So the 515lbs is the weight of 3 cells and the can that holds them. Therefore the 1500lbs would be for 9 cells or 3 modules.

Cheers...
Damani

[dnix71]

Yeah, I see that now. The 6v 1000AH module is 515 pounds "unpacked weight."  If you can safely remove each cell they would weigh in about 170 pounds. But I don't think you can safely transport them outside of some case or rack. They need to be compressed like forklift batteries even though these can't leak.

Those are really nice batteries if they are new. But I wonder how they wound up on eBay. Where I work our building backup inverter batteries are the sealed type but they are not replaced until they fail testing and the company that takes care of that recycles the old ones. As bad as the economy is now I can't imagine someone pulling a good rack and selling it on eBay, unless they did it on the sly.

The question to ask the seller is "where did these come from and what are the serial numbers" and if the seller doesn't know or want to tell you then walk away. If you have serial numbers then you can email GNB and ask how old they are.