Testing Batteries for Sulfation

Technology
Testing Batteries for Sulfation

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Makezine_COTM_Batteries-BadgeUber-maker Mikey Sklar demonstrates how to charge, test, and recover a sealed 12V lead-acid battery from the dumpster, using his Power In My Pocket open source kit.

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4 thoughts on “Testing Batteries for Sulfation

  1. Adric Menning says:

    I picked up one of these kits and have been working my way through a pile of 16 SLA batteries that were new, but left uncharged for probably 5-7 years each month a Lead Acid (LA) battery will self discharged about 2% of its charge, and after you loose 50% there is a good chance of severe sulfation! these batteries many are at 0-5v and sofar I have killed one battery by running DA PIMP on it too long and too hard, but i have recovered to atleast Quazi usable condition 2 of them. His kit is good, but as he states, it requires you to be an active part in the charging. and you need to watch his videos and monitor the temperature of the sealed lead acid batteries. I did also successfully charge up my drill which had been crudding out on me with it.

  2. Alex Barclay says:

    I just too a quick look at the schematic and it looks, in a word DANGEROUS! I saw the warnings but warnings don’t necessarily prevent people from getting seriously dead.

    The basic problem is that a capacitive dropper such as this still has connection to the AC power. You will have full line voltage on battery clip of the battery which is an extremely hazardous situation. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve used plenty of capacitive droppers over the years but _never_ with any metallic parts that the user can come into contact with. If the return line gets lifted the whole thing will be at line potential.

    I’d strongly suggest adding an isolating transformer in front of this bad boy and then referencing the 0v to a real ground.

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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