Testing a battery...

[Duane Ausherman]

There was some success in the olden days of lead filled tar sealed batteries. The downside was (asI remember) that the crud falls off and collects at the bottom. Some batteries didn't have enough volume to hold the loose stuff. So, it jammed up between the plates. That's all that I remember now.

[Jean]

Don't know about any pills, but some time back JC Whitney used to sell a paste that would "Restore Life" to a funky wet-cell battery. On the scientific side, there is a liquid chemical additive that is reportedly used in the German batteries that DOES proling life. At the moment (drat, anyhow) I have forgotten it's name. It is a constitutant of drinks like Mtn-Dew as a preservative, in minute quanities...in batteries it takes about a teaspoon-full per cell. More for Auto-size batteries.
There's also a pulsing-DC battery charger that you either buy or build that prevents sulphating spoiling the cells...BUT you do have to have space for the residue to fall into the bottom of the case and with the really compact batteries, that can be a problem.
Anybody out there know about the chemical? It is generally called by "a 4-letter alphabet-soup" but it does have a long name...

[Major Softie]

Anybody out there know about the chemical? It is generally called by "a 4-letter alphabet-soup" but it does have a long name...

Tetrasodium EDTA
http://www.alton-moore.net/batteries.html

The article also links to the schematic for building your own de-sulphating charger (note the correction for the error in the capacitor value).

[Jean]

Yep. I found it in my old notebooks from work. EDTA is the stuff.
We used it with some other stuff in '88-'89 to clean our Steam Generators (at the power plant!)
Thank you MS.
I have heard that the de-sulphating charger is not good for certain types of batteries tho...not that I have such a battery. For one thing, they are the very pricy ones, so not on my want-list.