Spilled Battery Recovery

[Bianchina3]

Hey everyone, tough question here.

I bought a battery last summer, Group 27 deep cycle. I just found out that it tipped over and spilled the electrolyte. Most of the acid is gone. I have no idea of the state of the left over acid, except there is not much left.

I've looked on the web but all I can find is peoples opinion and no hard evidence or real experts that can tell me if I can just replace the acid or the whole thing is trashed.

Does anyone have any direction they can point me?

Thanks.

Ed

[Mars]

You can add acid. It may or may not come back to an acceptable level. Seek a local motorcycle/ATV shop. Most of these batteries still come shipped dry with an acid container. They may have some left over from batteries damaged in shipment or buy it in bulk.

[09grizzly1]

Put distilled water in and charge the battery with a separate charger and check the charge with a battery hydrometer until it is fully charged. When a battery becomes fully discharged, the acid becomes water.

[Bianchina3]

Originally Posted by 09grizzly1

Put distilled water in and charge the battery with a separate charger and check the charge with a battery hydrometer until it is fully charged. When a battery becomes fully discharged, the acid becomes water.

Two answers, I tried that and that's not accurate.

I did add water to the cells and charged for a week and it would "charge" to 13.6 volts as soon at you put any load on the battery it would almost completly discharge. This indicates that there is not enough electrolyte (H2SO4) in the battery for the Pb to react with to produce electrons. To be able to charge there has PbSO4 in the solution. If I spilled the battery, I think all of the PBSO4 is gone.

Ed

[spock123]

Could you do this, find a old battery and dump the fluid into the battery that is empty


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[Canadiancrew]

Why mess with acid with no guarantee. If it was me I would just replace the battery. As stated and I have done this many times that when you get a utility battery for atv's etc. you add your own but you have a known empty battery and adding an known amount of acid. You can them expect consistent results. This is not likely to be the so in your case.

[fonzie]

Get a new battery......

[ScottBrownstein]

The plates will be totally oxidized since they were exposed to air for a considerable time. Your long charge and immediate discharge pretty much confirms it. The battery is toast.

[boondocking]

Dump all the water out that you put in then put in fresh acid and fully charge the battery. It may or may not come back to life.

I bet that is an "old wifes tale" about acid turning to water when fully discharged as stated earlier.

[wana65stang]

Question? what did the battery spill onto? My option is just replace the battery, by the time you run around looking for electrolyte, and paying for it,it'll cost you more than just replacing .

[09grizzly1]

Electrochemistry[edit]

Discharge[edit]


Fully discharged: two identical lead sulfate plates


In the discharged state both the positive and negative plates become lead(II) sulfate (PbSO

4

), and the electrolyte loses much of its dissolved sulfuric acid and becomes primarily water. The discharge process is driven by the conduction of electrons from the negative plate back into the cell at the positive plate in the external circuit.


Old wives tale?

[Bluepill]

Problem is there is no way to know what the state of charge was when the acid spilled. Therefore, the actual chemistry is unknown.

Rule 1. You can't win.

Rule 2. You can't break even either.

Rule 3. Open wallet at battery store.