Question:
Restore electrolyte in spilled lead-acid battery?
vv987vv987vv
2009-06-18 12:54:04 UTC
I have acquired a few deep-cycle flooded lead-acid batteries with spilled electrolyte, the batteries are very new and other than the spill well maintained. I do know they were above 90% state of charge when the spill happen, possibly fully charged. My question is how do I refill them with electrolyte, what do I have to do to make sure the balance of sulfuric acid and water is correct?
Three answers:
mark t
2009-06-18 15:06:46 UTC
Nothing to worry about. Any good auto supply should have electrolyte solution to fill them. No need to worry about specific gravity. Did they spill all the acid? If it was just a little you can fill with distilled water.
jtexas
2009-06-18 13:27:13 UTC
Get yourself a hydrometer, it's a device that measures "specific gravity". You can get a cheap one for few bucks, but a good quality hydrometer shouldn't be more than $15 -- for your purposes I think you'd want one of high quality.



Ideally, the solution was well mixed (not stratified) when the batteries spilled, and you'll just need to match the specific gravity of whatever electrolyte is still in there. Get some battery acid with a specific gravity of 1.300, and mix it in a container with distilled or deionized or demineralized water until the specific gravity matches what's in the battery now. Specific gravity in all cells needs to be equal or as close as you can get.



If you can't get a good measurement, or aren't comfortable with the numbers you get, the battery manufacturer can probably tell you the recommended value for a fully charged cell.



Wet cell deepcycle motive batteries with solid lead positive plates are typically 1.267 to 1.284; if they have tubular positive plates, typical values are 1.300 to 1.310



Not sure where you'll find the acid -- I'd probably try an Interstate Battery store.



You probably know about handling that acid -- you can't be too careful -- it eats right through blue jeans (don't ask me how I know), and does it burn?
anonymous
2009-06-18 13:42:08 UTC
Depends.. if it was FRESH water you can probably just top them off with battery acid.. but if they were flooded with SALT WATER.. they are now just good anchors for a small dinghy.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...