Dead battery

[1930]

My Kubota’s only a couple/few years old and already a dead battery, by chance my ranger battery is on it’s last leg, my riding lawnmower battery is kaput and I have a stack of other dead batteries.
This guy

claims that this charger will fix any and all dead and depleted batteries and he has over 6000 comments supporting his statement.
( didn’t read all 6000 but didn’t see anything contradictory)
Charger is over 300 bucks…….. I don’t believe that 6000 viewers of his video has a 300 plus dollar charger so what do you guys think?

 

[deserteagle71]

Scam. No battery charger can "fix" a battery. A battery that is still fairly new can be revived to an extent but not to "new" specs. A battery that is beyond its life span and truly dead cannot be revived. If that were so, somebody would be buying up old batteries and "reviving" them to sell again.

If you have equipment that is not used every day then you need to invest in battery maintainers that will keep the battery topped off and in top condition. I bet I have at least a dozen of them...on both tractors, on my motorcycle, and everything else I don't use daily. Since I started using them my batteries last 2X what they used to.

 

[oosik]

I have a battery maintainer on all my seldom used equipment. Yes - it keeps the batteries topped up and they DO last longer.

What 1930 has found is obviously a scam. And a pretty expensive one at that.

 

[RjCorazza]

They appear to want it to look like a big shop charger, but it's only a 10 amp "dumb" charger. 10x (at least) more expensive than a comparable 10a charger.

 

[CliffordK]

Ok, so a new battery is pretty expensive. If this actually worked, the charger could pay for itself very quickly. Plus there may be an advantage of having a heavy duty "starter" charger.

Not all dead batteries are the same. If there is significant swelling of the battery case, that is a sign that the battery is pretty well toasted.

Sometimes a battery will come back to life for me, sometimes it won't. Frequently if I recover a badly discharged battery, it will work for a while but never be quite up to snuff.

What I haven't done is that 15 minutes on cycling. I usually end up trying a high power, then forgetting it and letting the battery cook... and thus kill it.

Anyway, it isn't the worst thing in the world to try... if one just has ordinary dead batteries, perhaps with one dead cell.

 

[Texasmark]

Scam. No battery charger can "fix" a battery. A battery that is still fairly new can be revived to an extent but not to "new" specs. A battery that is beyond its life span and truly dead cannot be revived. If that were so, somebody would be buying up old batteries and "reviving" them to sell again.

If you have equipment that is not used every day then you need to invest in battery maintainers that will keep the battery topped off and in top condition. I bet I have at least a dozen of them...on both tractors, on my motorcycle, and everything else I don't use daily. Since I started using them my batteries last 2X what they used to.

Hate to disagree with you but I had a co-worker, raised a farm boy, senior EE where I worked and a good friend, that decided that he'd have something to do and make some money.

He went to used car lots and collected old batteries and took them to his shop and drained the fluid, maybe something else unknown to me, installed new H2SO4 and H2O, charged them up and took them back to the used car lots for a price, and more batteries to rejuvenate.

He had a good business going for quite awhile till one day he had a string of batteries tied across 115V city utility power, rectified to DC, all charging simultaneously in a closed shop........yes it happened. Somewhere he disconnected something, generating a spark and the Hydrogen Gas that had filled the room went BOOM. He survived but quit that caper.

Now how long did those rejuvenated batteries last in these used cars, who knows. This is not fiction, a true account of a very talented electrical engineer and his capers.....of which there were many.

 

[DarkBlack]

Like previous stated, it depends on how discharged the battery is, and how long, for any chance of desulfation.
Batteries also fail for internal shorts, and internal wall cracking. No amount of electronic wizardry, and stories will rejuvenate the latter.

 

[ultrarunner]

Everyday walking to school I would walk past a battery rebuilder.

It was a one man shop with a small counter space and a covered open workspace in back like an open carport with plywood lined shelves and charging cables.

I asked how do you rebuild batteries and he showed me.

These were tar sealed so he would open and check the plates for thickness and sulfation.

Many batteries would have a bad cell from sediment accumulating on the case bottom and a simple clean and flush and high rate charge would bring back life.

I’m guessing always charging in an open area with a sea breeze prevented hydrogen from accumulating.

When he passed away the place sat for decades over lead concerns…

Always had a big rubber smock as clothes didn’t last a day!

 

[Jstpssng]

Years ago somebody was selling "renewed batteries" as the OP describes. He claimed that he had a special charger which would clean the plates while charging.
As others have stated above that may work in certain batteries but often there is internal damage.

I haven't heard anything from him in almost 40 years, it seems if it was a viable business many people would be doing it.

 

[rScotty]

It's true that some of the modern "smart chargers" have a "desulfation cycle" that seems to extend the life of a battery. And I've even had some batteries that have sat too long discharged - maybe one in eight - recover from clear flat enough to be worth using in non-essential equipment. But they never do hold more than about a quarter as much depth of charge as they did before.
Still, that's something.
So it may not be a complete scam.
But it's not enough in my book to be worth the $300 price.
After all, any regular low amp trickle charger will do the same or better. With a simple cheap trickle charger your battery will never be completely discharged - sitting discharged is what damages a battery the most.

We have about a fifteen batteries on equipment, a variety of trickle chargers, one good BatteryMinder smart charger... and of course the old fan-cooled heavy amp Snap-o roll-around charger for starting the big diesels if their battery goes completely flat in the winter. That rarely happens now that we trickle charge.

Get a new battery and a trickle charger. Buy any AGM sealed battery and it will save you the price difference over a wet cell just in cables and battery connectors over the life of the battery.
rScotty

 

[seville009]

I have a Noco Genius charger; have used it on many batteries and it has worked great.

Had a truck with wiring issues back around 2018; drained my AGM battery at least three times. Recharged it with the Noco, and the battery is still running strong.

When I replace a battery (auto, generator, equipment, etc), I usually keep the old one as a spare and just hook it to yhe Noco to keep it in shape.

Was well worth the cost.

 

[Williy]

Usually when the battery gets aged the lead plates
crumble and I don't care what you say you will not
be able to recharge when this happens
You see ad's never purchase a new battery. Its only
a matter of time before the plates crumble
I have used the harbor freight small solar panel to
keep my batteries that I don't use very much to keep
fully charged and my batteries usually last almost
twice as long

willy

 

[ultrarunner]

Usually when the battery gets aged the lead plates
crumble and I don't care what you say you will not
be able to recharge when this happens
You see ad's never purchase a new battery. Its only
a matter of time before the plates crumble
I have used the harbor freight small solar panel to
keep my batteries that I don't use very much to keep
fully charged and my batteries usually last almost
twice as long

willy

There was a time when Lifetime battery warranties were a thing...

Was able to ride that train for a very longtime...

 

[WranglerX]

To me and dead battery is a dead battery, IF is does not come back to life in a 12 hour charge from old school 6 amp charger, it really dead....

 

[bmg88201]

Battery maintainers work for me, plus I take my mower battery in the house in the winter and put a maintainer on it. Freezing cold weather will do them in too. I‘m on my 5th year with my mower battery. I think that’s pretty good.

 

[5030]

Actually, the most 'foolproof' way to insure a battery in a seldom used piece of equipment or one that sits over the winter is to make sure it's fully charged before putting the equipment away and then disconnect the NEGATIVE terminal on the battery and let it sit. A fully charged battery is good to 40 below zero (f) and a typical flooded cell starting battery only looses under 10% of it's total charge per month sitting with no parasitic draw on it. All my tractors as well as my diesel pickup truck have battery isolation switches (disconnects) on the NEGATIVE terminals and after sitting all winter not used, all I have to do is open the hood, engage the isolation switches and crank them up. Easy peasy. Having said that, all flooded cell batteries will succumb to sulfation over time. The plates shed lead sulfate which drops into the bottom and eventually shorts the plates. As a rule, I replace all my Group 31 starting batteries every 3-4 years anyway as I consider them a consumable item. Don't matter if I have a battery maintainer on them or not and I keep all my terminals clean and shiny all the time plus I coat the terminals with anti corrosion spray.

 

[5030]

Additionally, I only run Delphi starting batteries or Interstates and I only buy them from a volume dealer, in my case the local Western Star truck dealer because I know they have a huge battery turnover and once a flooded cell jar is wet charged, it's loosing starting power and sulfating sitting on the shelf waiting for someone to buy it. When I worked there before retirement I usually got picked to go get batteries and take the dead ones back to the warehouse and many times I overloaded the company straight truck because dead batteries and good ones are heavy, especially group 31's which is all I run myself. Group 31's with 1100 amp cold crank power.

Batteries and the connections to them as well as major battery to ground connections have to be the most neglected items on any piece of equipment, trucks and cars included but when they won't start, the crying begins. I never have an issue as it's all about proper maintenance, just like changing the fluids and greasing. Something I do and I have no issues, ever.

 

[CliffordK]

Years ago somebody was selling "renewed batteries" as the OP describes. He claimed that he had a special charger which would clean the plates while charging.
As others have stated above that may work in certain batteries but often there is internal damage.

I haven't heard anything from him in almost 40 years, it seems if it was a viable business many people would be doing it.

Reminds me of a movie scene from many years ago. Backwoods full service gas station pops the hood of the customer's car. Pops open the battery covers and adds a touch of baking soda. Bubbles everywhere. Thank goodness they caught the bad battery in time. Sells the customer a new battery. Then takes the old batteries into the back and scrubs them down, charges, and puts them up for sale as new.

Unfortunately I don't remember the movie. Perhaps a Clint Eastwood movie.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

If you're going to replace your batteries every 3-4 years, then what does it matter what one you buy. Put the cheapest wally world garbage battery in it and it'll likely last 3 years. Crowing about how great some battery is, and then changing it out anyway in "3-4 years"...

And 40 below zero will flat out kill a brand new, "fully charged" p.o.s. Interstate wet cell battery. Been there, done that, probably still have the receipt somewhere. Hell, 30 below killed mine. And that was the very first time our temps dropped to -30F that winter, and it was the first winter with my new tractor. This is all real world ambient temperatures, not fake "wind chill" b.s. .

Ridiculous.

The Optima in my wife's 4runner finally gave up this year, after 13 years in service. Only the last 3 years has it been in a heated garage at night. The Optima in my tractor has been in service since December of '17, so 6 1/2 years, so far. It's never seen the inside of a heated garage in winter (and only twice ever, both times while getting scheduled service). The Optima in my truck is only 2 (?) years old now. The Interstate AGM I tried in it didn't make 5 years.

None of these batteries are ever plugged in to a tender, a charger, or any heat source like a battery blanket, etc. And only the wife's car sees the inside of a heated garage (now). My truck sits outside all year, and my tractor sits in an unheated shed all year.

 

[Hay Dude]

The used Challenger MT655E I just bought has a factory roof top solar panel that “allegedly” trickle charges the batteries while it’s outside in the sun. Really smart, but you’re supposed to store tractors inside, so when you aren’t using it, it’s kind of useless.