alum lead battery conversion from a lead acid battery

t00ls
t00ls Solar Expert Posts: 245 ✭✭✭
this is probably old news , but I picked it up a little late

the discussion of crystal batteries and then a conversion process....heres the video from john bedini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ihOxdKiYmo

for those that dont know who john is, he has been at the lead of alternative energies for quite some time

he doesnt give a lot away, but he does give you a good idea of what hes doing so you can figure the rest out....there is a reson for that...he has had many death threats and nay sayers as to what he  does...but he hasnt payed for electric for a very long time

you can follow the rest of his videos off the youtube channel this one is on

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Here is a thread from 2 years ago about Alum conversion of Lead Acid Batteries:

    http://forum.solar-electric.com/discussion/22500/alum-pb-batteries

    Should be enough information to try it--If you wanted. (assuming you do it safely and don't leave toxic materials behind).

    -Bill

    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Rabbit Ears
    Rabbit Ears Registered Users Posts: 1
    I' m impressed!  However I'll stick to AGM-type batteries for now.
  • boB
    boB Solar Expert Posts: 1,030 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2016 #4
    JB has been pilling the legs of the gullible for many years now.

  • kc8adu
    kc8adu Solar Expert Posts: 50 ✭✭✭
    i hear all the noise about this saving worn out batteries.all nonsense.
    a battery that is worn out has much of its active material lying in the bottom of the jar or tied up with sulphation.
    and the grids are often reduced to mud.i would never waste my time to just create more toxic waste.
    the snake oil salesmen cometh!
  • Deveak_Kaizen
    Deveak_Kaizen Registered Users Posts: 31 ✭✭
    That guy is a known conman. Conned a ton of people in the 80s, even more now.
    Alum is not a fix for batteries, neither is epson salts. The only real benefit of either is decreased resistance of the electrolyte which helps it hold a tad more power. It also heats up the positive plate and ruins it. You might get another year out of them but they will die and die for good. What it does it create and acid starved electrolyte which forces a lot of the sulfation off and slow corrosion down. Low acid batteries like some plante style industrial cells last longer. The weaker acid means slower charges and discharges but the positive plate is slower to corrode. You can get a lot better results with a standard water treatment, flushing the cell out completely, adding pure distilled water, charging it full, equaling and dumping the what is now weak acid water and adding fresh acid. Even in the epson salt or alum cells it still forms acid from the chemical reaction. Its bad for the batteries. Just skip it. If you really want to refresh your flooded cells look up a book on amazon called the battery builders. Author is a massive fruitcake but he knows his stuff.
  • mcgivor
    mcgivor Solar Expert Posts: 3,854 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    That guy is a known conman. Conned a ton of people in the 80s, even more now.
    Alum is not a fix for batteries, neither is epson salts. The only real benefit of either is decreased resistance of the electrolyte which helps it hold a tad more power. It also heats up the positive plate and ruins it. You might get another year out of them but they will die and die for good. What it does it create and acid starved electrolyte which forces a lot of the sulfation off and slow corrosion down. Low acid batteries like some plante style industrial cells last longer. The weaker acid means slower charges and discharges but the positive plate is slower to corrode. You can get a lot better results with a standard water treatment, flushing the cell out completely, adding pure distilled water, charging it full, equaling and dumping the what is now weak acid water and adding fresh acid. Even in the epson salt or alum cells it still forms acid from the chemical reaction. Its bad for the batteries. Just skip it. If you really want to refresh your flooded cells look up a book on amazon called the battery builders. Author is a massive fruitcake but he knows his stuff.


    The water treatment is something I have tried with success on a sulfated cell, it was a little more complicated, following instructions of reducing the SG closer to that of water, rather than dumping all the electrolyte out, but I guess the results would be similar. Have you ever done such a treatment and if so, what SG acid did you replace the water/diluted acid with? I personally evaporated some of the water off 1250 SG then added to equal that of a fully charged cell, was an interesting process which restored an otherwise useless battery. More people should try this technique if a cell is showing signs of sulfation, especially if there is nothing to lose.

    To add to this, was at a battery vendor picking up my new GC batteries, took a little time to stamp the date on the batteries, so a little wait, during this time a pickup rolled in needing a new battery, they promptly fixed  him up with a new one and he was on his way. No sooner had he gone, the old battery was flushed out with water and put on charge, water treatment in its basic form. Asking the owner what they were doing, although I knew, he said 50% of the apparent dead batteries could be restored to somewhat full capacity and sold them to those who couldn't afford a new one, with a 90 day warranty, this is Thailand by the way, I found it interesting how knowledge is universal, in the western world everything is seemingly disposable, so why bother. I have lived most of my life in Canada so understand both perspectives.
    1500W, 6× Schutten 250W Poly panels , Schneider MPPT 60 150 CC, Schneider SW 2524 inverter, 400Ah LFP 24V nominal battery with Battery Bodyguard BMS 
    Second system 1890W  3 × 300W No name brand poly, 3×330 Sunsolar Poly panels, Morningstar TS 60 PWM controller, no name 2000W inverter 400Ah LFP 24V nominal battery with Daly BMS, used for water pumping and day time air conditioning.  
    5Kw Yanmar clone single cylinder air cooled diesel generator for rare emergency charging and welding.