Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie

KeithWHare
KeithWHare Solar Expert Posts: 140 ✭✭✭
My contact in Haiti just sent me an e-mail that says:
E&E are here with a battery "water" solution that has sulfuric acid in it that they want to put in the batteries. It's called Optima and says on the bottle "Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie". They say they have put this in the batteries before.


So, how quickly is this going to screw up the twelve two-year-old Trojan T105s, and what are the symptoms likely to be?

I suppose that answer really depends on how much sulfuric acid (and other crap) this solution really contains.

And no, I don't have a baseline of the specific gravities for these batteries.

Keith

Comments

  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie

    It depends on what your trying to do. Obviously you can buy sulfuric acid and mix your own electrolyte from a concentrate. You can also buy a Magic Rejuvenator of some type with EDTA or some other compound it. What are you trying to do ?? A battery once put in service only needs distilled water added to them, if they trying to add electrolyte because they are low on water...... do not do it !!!
  • KeithWHare
    KeithWHare Solar Expert Posts: 140 ✭✭✭
    Re: Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie
    It depends on what your trying to do. Obviously you can buy sulfuric acid and mix your own electrolyte from a concentrate. You can also buy a Magic Rejuvenator of some type with EDTA or some other compound it. What are you trying to do ?? A battery once put in service only needs distilled water added to them, if they trying to add electrolyte because they are low on water...... do not do it !!!

    This is partially translation difficulties, and partially trying to go against locally accepted practices. My instructions two years ago (in English) were "only distilled water". Apparently, the onsite supply of distilled water ran out and someone got what they always use...

    It is not clear whether this stuff has been previously used on these batteries, whether my contact stopped the first attempt.
  • Blackcherry04
    Blackcherry04 Solar Expert Posts: 2,490 ✭✭✭
    Re: Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie

    I would think that there would be away to get as good as water as you can. The first choice is distilled water.... void of dissolved solids and impurities. The second would be RO/DI filtered water ( Reverse Osmosis / Deionized ). a Third could be from Air Conditioner condensate that is properly filtered to remove the air borne impurities. I know people that use straight Tap water and have no issues if the TDS is low enough.

    A test would be to take a cup of the water and boil it dry in a pot and see what residue is left after it boils dry. If the pot is clean and there is no lime or other junk , it's probably not do as much damage as letting them run dry.

    A Zero water pitcher might give water that would be good enough. you have to test it.
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie

    that sounds like a premade electrolyte mixture. this will add too much acid to the batteries unless somehow you lost that too which i doubt. aside from the chemical action of charging creating a higher acid mixture, the water content of the battery winds up going airborne some leaving behind a bit of a stronger acid mixture. it is the reason we add only the water because 99.9% of what is lost is only water. to put back more electrolyte will slightly starve it of some of the water it has lost. it may also throw off specific gravity readings giving a different state of the charge than it actually is.

    the zero water filter is excellent as i have one. i don't have fla batteries to put it into, but i use it in a cpap humidifier. i have bought distilled water and measured the particles with a tds meter at 2ppm so don't assume store bought distilled will be better than with the zero water that i measured to be 0. realistically it is just lower than 1 which i deem to be very good, but if you can distill water without it being further contaminated then that is what is best to use.
  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    Re: Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie

    Basic translation: concentrated electrolyte solution for batteries. Id est: sulphuric acid.

    Why we add distilled water to batteries: because in the charging process electrolysis separates the water portion of the solution into hydrogen and oxygen gas which escapes into the air. The sulphur portion remains behind, usually adhered to the plates (soft and hard sulphation). We add the distilled water to replace the missing liquid and hopefully return both the volume and concentration of electrolyte to normal.

    What will happen if you add more sulphuric acid to a battery that doesn't need it: the specific gravity will go up and the battery will become "hotter"; able to produce and consume more power than originally spec'd for, at the expense of lifespan.

    Putting "ordinary" water into a battery will alter the chemical make-up of the electrolyte solution. Depending on what is in it, it may neutralize the acid partially or it may just cause dilution and pollution. Adding more acid is not likely to solve any of these problems except possibly the neutralization one. Then again, if the water used has a high pH then this too will get you nowhere.

    Or in simple terms, once you wreck a battery it's practically impossible to fix it.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Electrolyte solution acide Concentrate pour batterie

    I understand that a some battery distributors will set the specific gravity a bit on the "low side" to help improve overall battery life in tropical areas. So--I would guess that adding some sort of electrolyte back into the battery bank (instead of "pure" water), then it might knock time off of battery life (10-20% if "some" acid is added???? pure guess--10% would not be noticeable for a "typical user", and 50% life loss would attract a lot of attention).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset