A quick and easy way to help improve the life of second hand forklift batteries when used as storage on a home generation system. Donate: www.paypal.com... Support: / windandsolarelectricity Cheers
For drawing acid out, you can actually use a bucket, a tube, and a shop vac. Get a home Depot bucket with a lid and a hole for a shop vac hose, then you can drill a hole for your tube to go on the other side of the lid. This will create a negative pressure in your bucket and create a vacuum in your tube. This way the acid doesn't get in your shop vac and ruin it, and it's super fast. This is what we do at work when were refurbishing batteries and adjusting the specific gravity to be in spec.
Hi thanks for the comment, this method might be OK for industrial uses but I normally don't remove such high volumes of acid. There is always the problem on remaining SO4 on the plates that will raise the SG after a few steady slow charges, cheers
I can assure anyone watching this that as a very experienced forklift engineer, I or any other engineer I've met (and that's a lot) DO NOT add strong acid mixtures to old batteries to restore performance. I've only ever met ONE customer who used to do it. The sg readings are our best method of determine state of charge and condition. Adding stronger acid does nothing but corrode the positive plates (as the author stated).
Hi, thanks for your view of this subject, From my perspective, lowering the SG to 1280 when fully charged will increase battery life and so will not discharging them below 1150. Cheers
How long will these batteries usually last in terms of age and cycles? Lithium batteries have cycle lifes of thousands, but how many industrial lead lasts? Lead is currently easier to use because its self balancing and supported widely by solar hardware. But lithium shines in cycle life.
Hi, the trick here is to use the battery as a buffer, balancing generation and consumption, that way the batteries are not deep cycled and life is extended by years, cheers
Plastic apron but no gloves. lol Thanks for the info. Very interesting. I wonder if a short duration in ultra strong acid can actually clean up the cell plates? Perhaps it will cause the deposit of debris at the bottom of the cells?
Hi, strong acid will only make things worse, the main thing is transfer all the sulphate from the lead sulphate into the electrolyte and this will increase the acid strength as the process happens. The apron is protect my clothes as it's far too easy to create holes in them, cheers
@@TheInfoworks Oh i see. Most of my clothes already have holes in them. Once sulfate has formed is there any other way of making it disappear again without either gunking up the bottom or coating the plates? Perhaps the only way to revive a cell is to let the sulfate go into solution and tip it all out and then refill with new acid?
Very long slow charging will turn the sulphate back into sulphuric acid in the electrolyte, that's why the acid get stronger when you charge a battery. With large cells we are talking about weeks at low current, cheers
I have a question do you know if it’s possible to use a common lithium battery play one would use for a van? What makes a lithium forklift battery special? Seems like stacking cheaper house, batteries for the team, the same voltage but maybe with less power density? Seems like it’s worth a shot and a whole lot cheaper. That forklift batteries just ballasted to meet the weight?
lead acid deep cycle are heavy due to lead plates, mine are 500 ah and you won't find that in lithium unless they are in parallel. They have a different charging regime but things are developing fast. The weight for a forklift is a benefit otherwise weight has to be added, cheers
Turkey basters are good for drawing out! Just read your book Andy thanks learnt alot, 2v drop testers seem like gold dust to buy! Any contacts for them?
Hi, thanks for buying a copy of the book, I hope it is edition three. I bought my last 2v drop tester from Ebay. You an make your own with nichrome wire made up in parallel to draw 150A and a multimeter. Cheers
@@TheInfoworks Thanks Andy, had a look but can only find Durarite ones at the moment tip for making one appreciated, book was from CAT centre so pretty sure it was third edition
Malcome, these are quite expensive bits of kit so it depends on what is available and what size charger you wish to use. I keep my spare batteries trickle charged through a resistance from my main pack. I did a video about it back in 2013 and the current flow depends on the restance value. Cheers, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--YQvQNAWch4.html
HI, from my epxerience if the batteries are warm to the touch then they are being over charged. In this state they will be gassing freely. I try not to charge at anything more than the 10 hour rate and have good charge control. The stecca controller I show in one of my videos is very good, but I have also used a VLC V20 timer to good effect (see video). Here's a link to my wind and solar playlist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nRvfJgN9Wrg.html. Cheers
This depends on how you look after them, keeping them between 1250 and 1125 will help, then keep the electrolyte at the right level, and try not to cycle them. I have been using my primary pack for 10 years and all is still OK. Here's more info: lowimpactorg.wpengine.com/wind-solar-electricity-3rd-edition/ Cheers, Andy
Hi Andy, I have a 48v forklift battery each cell is close to 2v the lowest is 1.98 the highest is 2.02. After charging I noticed the water was bubbling hard. I left the battery of the charger for 2 days and it is still bubbling? Have you ever seen this before and what does it mean? Internal Short? Cheers
Hi a Batterys cell in service condition should be about 2.0-2.25, a battery cell will never hold a charger of 2.5 volts that is called ramp charge it will level out at 2.2,
Bubbling when at 80% charged or higher is normal. This is called the gassing phase. Hydrogen gas is being produced, so be careful and make sure you have proper ventilation.
HI, in a wind and solar application a float charge is not really applicable. I work on current and specific gravity to check the battery state of charge. In this system the batteries are never "at rest" as they are constantly in either charge or discharge mode. Cheers
HI, I see where your interest is taking this. The batteries are not seen as a separate item, but as part of the system. By using good charge controllers and a UPS inverter the batteries can be kept at an optimum state of charge for most of the year. The PV generation side of a system should in summer be large enough that the charge controllers are working from mid morning every day (except rainy days). With these automatic systems and suitable generation, battery, consumption relationships then I check the batteries for electrolyte levels and SG readings about once a month. I hope this helps, cheers
Hi, nominal volts, specific gravity and drop test. I have 3 videos on this, here's a link to the first you will have to look through "my videos for the others. ru-vid.com?o=U&video_id=oyAvcMyFvlA Cheers, Andy
I’m a forklift truck engineer of 30 years and I/we have never put stronger acid in traction Batterys, And you should never use distilled water it should be de- ironised, And Verdigre ( Corrosion ) is caused by iron vapour coming of the wrong water in the Batterys, But all battery cell terminals should have grease on them to protect them from corrosion,
Hi Andy and Dave, Have recently got a set of 600AHr OPzS that were in good service for only 2 years and were de-commissioned simply because the PO went on grid. Unfortunately the PO removed the acid to make them easier to move:-( . They've sat this way for 2 years. That's how they came to me. The airtight caps are on. Do you recommend anything I could do before I (re)do the commissioning procedure, e.g. add acid and CC charge at C20 till I reach 2.75 VPC/or no more increase in voltage and no rise in SG for 3 hrs after maxing out on the voltage? Is there anything to try and remove any plate corrosion before this procedure (wash w baking soda, EDTA etc. and rinse thoroughly? Really a beautiful set and it be a shame to toss regards, Nick
@@nickbarret9368 Nick, it was common to empty batteries for long term storage. I would add the 1280 acid and give them a long slow charge, maybe at the 40 hour rate for about a week. Monitor the situation. Long slow charge will clean up the plates eventually, load more details is my book, cheers
