How to Revive a Dead Forklift Battery
From Open Source Ecology
Article
- https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/material-handling-and-rigging/forklift-battery-back-life-303513/
- How do desulfate batteries - [1]
- Hydrometer measures specific gravity of electrolyte - [2]
- Questions - how to knock off sulfate and replace battery acid?
- Specific gravity of bat acid - [3]
- Throw powder down each battery - is this just a base to react with sulfate? [4]
- Use a battery load tester to test if battery is back up
- Looks like a good instructional on Epsom salt method - [5]. Magnesium reacts with the lead sulphate, nonconductive crystals go away. The thing I don't understand - if the battery reaction involves sulfation - when does sulfation become irreversible? Only when too much sulfation happened, ie, you drained the bat too deep, and you can't get to the underlying metal?
- It seems that nobody really understands why sulfation is not fully reversible [6]
- This research paper shows micrograph of crystals. Still, it is not clear that sulfation is well understood. [7] This one, however, shows the concept of shedding - when crystals form, sometimes pieces of lead break off from the spongy lead in the form of crystalized lead. So the lead essentially sheds off the electrode. I would guess we can recover lead sulfate to lead - but - battery will break if the lead is not attached to the electrodes any longer. The electrode material is simply degraded. Ok.
Video Series
- Use epsom salt - mgso4 - [8]. This is great series - [9]. Half cup of epsom salt with water.
- Showed 3 mOhm resistance across 12v bat.
- Instructional on using epsom salt to dissolve sulfate - [10]
Links
