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
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.
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.