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DennisThornton

Battery restoration? Sulfation? Snake oil?

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Stepney

Erm .. its never really been scientific honestly. About a tablespoon to 8oz of water or so. I just kind of throw it in there, get the water boiling and stir till it mixes well. Dont dump the battery. Just add a bit to recover the plates. Some say it marginally works, some say its a work of magic, and some say it doesnt work at all .. personally I've had more luck than not. 

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Stepney
1 minute ago, JoeM said:

My former neighbor works for NAPA part time and he tells me most of the batteries they replace with new are still good.....people just don't trust them and want new ones anyway. :scratchead:

Not me, when I buy a new one the old one is BER!

Oh when I say scrap I mean I pull them out of all the dead mowers that have been derelict in bone yards for a long time. 

I'm cheap to the point I carry a rope for the first cold start of the day and just use the starter for the rest of the job thereafter.. just too stubborn when batteries cost as much as some of my machines. 

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DennisThornton
5 minutes ago, Stepney said:

Oh when I say scrap I mean I pull them out of all the dead mowers that have been derelict in bone yards for a long time. 

I'm cheap to the point I carry a rope for the first cold start of the day and just use the starter for the rest of the job thereafter.. just too stubborn when batteries cost as much as some of my machines. 

I've bought several garden tractors for $100 to $200 and a new battery could be 25% to 50% of that cost!  So yep!  I'm frugal and would just as soon not buy a new battery if not needed.  I buy old tractors because I know how to fix them and If I can do the same with old batteries without being ridiculous, then why not!

 

Thanks for your input!

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JoeM
25 minutes ago, Stepney said:

I'm cheap to the point

That got me beat! 

:handgestures-thumbup:

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ebinmaine
58 minutes ago, JoeM said:

That got me beat! 

:handgestures-thumbup:

That boy got a talent for tripping over hydro tractors priced around dirt cheap too. I looked off and on for a hydro for over a year.  Nope.  Spenser couldn't drive a 1/4 mile without seeing one. 

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Handy Don
1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

tripping over hydro tractors

The CL for Hartford has a 520-H not running for $325. Swept axle and plow. No mower. Not dirt cheap, but hmmm.

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ebinmaine
7 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

The CL for Hartford has a 520-H not running for $325. Swept axle and plow. No mower. Not dirt cheap, but hmmm.

Front axle is worth that...

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Handy Don
15 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

The CL for Hartford has a 520-H not running for $325. Swept axle and plow. No mower. Not dirt cheap, but hmmm.

Whoever gets it, let us know about it please.

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Tractorhead
6 hours ago, JoeM said:

My former neighbor works for NAPA part time and he tells me most of the batteries they replace with new are still good.....people just don't trust them and want new ones anyway. :scratchead:

Not me, when I buy a new one the old one is BER!

 

    :text-yeahthat:Also my experience

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rmaynard

I know this thread has died, but like the battery in my Tacoma, I thought that I would resurrect it.

 

I parked my truck over a week ago and have not started it since. When I went to start it Monday, the battery barely turned it over fast enough to start it, but it did. So I drove into town for a haircut. That normally would have been enough to charge it sufficiently for a restart a half hour later, but when I came out, the battery was dead.

 

I always carry one of these with me.

NOCO.jpg.a0043b42e76316074f517e5d537b8ba4.jpg

 

and after giving myself a hotshot, I drove home and put my new Chinese battery charger on it.

 

charger.jpg.9bdb6033a364c0993b217a4dfd35c321.jpg

 

This little guy only cost me $34.00 delivered, and I've only ever used it to charge a tractor battery last summer. So I hooked it up at around 1:00 pm, and by 8:00 pm it was not taking a charge. So I left it on all night. The readout on the charger said that the battery needed service. So I removed the battery, grabbed the wife's car and took it to my local auto parts store for them to test. The verdict was, "yup, you got a dead battery", and they proceeded to offer me a new one for $190.00. I did not buy it.

 

I took the old battery home and hooked it up again to my little Chinese friend, this time setting it to the repair mode as shown below.

 

charger1.jpg.81dd550626f610641170e0f5dbbf8ed3.jpg

 

Well, what to my joy and surprise did I see this morning, but a fully charged battery.

 

It's all magic to me, but whatever that Fully Intelligent Pulse Repair mode is, it worked, and saved me $190.00

 

 

Edited by rmaynard
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DennisThornton
 
rmaynard

That looks just like mine. I'll let you know how the battery "repair" holds up, but so far so good. 

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DennisThornton

Please do.  I have one in my cart.  Some say it's nonsense, some it won't fix all batteries, some that it might take days and others that it saved them LOTs of $$$.  If this saves one lawn mower battery it's paid for!

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Maxwell-8

i just top the battery of with destilled water, hook it up on the 6 amp charger for 2 days and pray

Edited by Maxwell-8

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DennisThornton
5 hours ago, Maxwell-8 said:

i just top the battery of with destilled water, hook it up on the 6 amp charger for 2 days and pray

If low on acid/water then that will often work.  Certainly worth a try.

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Maxwell-8
1 minute ago, DennisThornton said:

If low on acid/water then that will often work.  Certainly worth a try.

If you are early and the plates aren't misshaped yet

Edited by Maxwell-8

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Handy Don
21 hours ago, rmaynard said:

It's all magic to me, but whatever that Fully Intelligent Pulse Repair mode is, it worked, and saved me $

My son lent me his "intelligent charger" and it has extended the life a battery we were about to write off. An older, basic charger had charged it to the right voltage, but the newer charger seemed to give it more capacity to crank. I'm sure a lot depends on the state/condition of the battery to start with and we sure weren't scientific with our methodology!

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