Old Telstra telecom (Oz) batteries cannot be sold

[domwild]

Friends,

Simsmetal is a company in Western Australia, which buys batteries from Telstra. Wanting to buy batteries from them I was told I cannot. I suspect that a lot of those batteries are still OK as they come out of 48VDC exchanges and get changed over regardless of condition, perhaps simply based on age.

Is this the case also in other enlightened countries??

One suspects that they rather send them to China than to let us play with them and perhaps notice, that they still have a lot of life in them and that they could be wasting our money.

Regards,

 

[catweazle]

Same where I live when buying old batteries from a scrap yard. Official policy is 'we can not sell them to the public'. So, I asked the owner: 'how would you feel about me stealing them? If you watch the other way for a few minutes...' He agreed to do that  Afterwards I made a small donation to their tip jar. They were happy to get rid of the batteries and I got quite some serviceable ones (12V, 7Ah gell cells) for next to nothing. Many of those are still in use today,  4 years later.

Worked for me...

[ruddycrazy]

Hiya Dom,

         The only way you can get tel$tra used batteries is by buying them directly off a tel$tra worker. I was lucky to come across 24 2 volt 275 agm's only 3 years old and never off float for $400 for the lot. So it might pay to ask around if any tel$tra workers are filling their pockets selling the batteries on the side.

Cheers Bryan

[wpowokal]

Dominic,

         I have the same problem, unable to buy more from Muja, I 'e' mailed the authorities (have forwarded the 'e' mail to you) and no government department prohibits it here anyway.

I could not be bothered fighting the fools anymore, I will buy new ones, the waste is on their carma. I think its carton rates or nothing.

regards allan

[gizmo]

I worked for Telstra ( called Telecom then ) from 1982 to 1989. The cells you might be talking about were lead acid but had a life expectancy of over 20 years. The case was clear and you could see at least 2 inches between the plates and the bottom of the container, I was told this would allow any lead flakes to settle and build up for many years before they could short out the plates. Back then Telecom would replace the cells every 10 years, so you could expect another 10 years before they started to die.

Unfortunately Telecom had a policy of not allowing the general public to make use of any retired equipment. Never understood it, but hey it was a government department after all. I remember once we had to dump some old rack power supplies, at the local junk yard I had to make sure the bulldozer had squashed the cases before I could leave, it was policy. Stupid really.

Glenn

[spinningmagnets]

There was a story in the news a few years ago about a woman who bought a cup of hot coffee from a McD***lds drive-up window. She apparently didn't have a cup holder (why that is the companies fault I'll never know) and put it between her thighs to drive off. There was a spill, and the woman suffered significant burns to her....um...lets call it her "lap".

Long story...(many details here removed)...the jury awarded her a multi-million dollar settlement.

The recycled lead in those batteries is worth a lot, but to throw away 10 years of battery life is truly sad. I'm sure it has something to do with liability. I would be more than willing to sign a liability waiver, and pay scrap weight price for those batteries, but tort lawyers have established that you can't sign away your rights, so everyone is afraid of being sued. ("You did not adequately inform my client that these batteries contained ACID! and all the possible risks!")

Lazy politicians and bureaucrats could have donated them (or sold at a reduced price) to a college for an "RE awareness" project. The news programs love that particular brand of manure. I'm not holding my breath, waiting for it to change anytime soon...

"The only difference between a dead snake lying in the road, and a dead lawyer lying in the road,...is that there are skid marks before the snake." -Patrick Murray.

[peter altas]

I just bought 12 x Ex-telstra Exide Faure X for a total of 24V 3200Ahr @ 10 hr rate in Melbourne.

Heavy buggers though, 4 tonne worth!  Got a picture if someone can assist with an upload.  New to forum.

Peter