the point I was trying to make is, you need to be really good at what you're doing to do so without harm, so what is the chances of it happening.
Besides, should SLA batts. drain sufficiently, you chuck'em away, no questions asked.
So how would someone purposefully drain it to such a state that it can be reverse charged. I don't understand.
SLA is normally only trickle charged in any case to prolong lifespan.
the point I was trying to make is, you need to be really good at what you're doing to do so without harm, so what is the chances of it happening.
Besides, should SLA batts. drain sufficiently, you chuck'em away, no questions asked.
So how would someone purposefully drain it to such a state that it can be reverse charged. I don't understand.
SLA is normally only trickle charged in any case to prolong lifespan.
Sorry my spelling there should have given the whole thing away.
When you get old sometimes, you cannot remember things and basically become senile, an illness called Alzheimer's disease.
Well now, if you're a bit younger, and cannot remember things from time to time, we jokingly say that you have alzheimers light.
Probably only a South African thing.
The intention is not to make fun of the real disease as it's very serious, but forgetfulness can be bloody irritating.
As I recall it: We had a combine (grain harvester) with a generator (dynamo to Nigel) that had gone bad. The generator was replaced. As part of the process you need to hook the generator to a battery to polarize it. If you polarize it backward the + and - connections become reversed. The battery was dead when the generator was replace, the backward polarized generator charged it backward. The battery charged but not enough to work well. I think it went dead each night. Could have some of this wrong as it was 40 or so years ago.
Just checking the remaining voltage of a SLA battery... it was showing reversed polarity!
OMG - was it a mistake @ the manufacturing? Or just a reversed marking (mistake)?
Now I see from the posts here that it happens and it works
Question: should it be kept like that forever... or is it better to to put it back to normal (2nd life )?
The 12 volt battery in my 1960 Studebaker was drained over time due to the glove box light being on. When I tried to charge it, connecting the red charger wire to the positive post and the black charger wire to the negative post the charger inidicated "reverse polarity". I tried another charger without the reverse polarity protection and got a lot of sparks. After reversing the charger connections the battery charged in the reverse polarity mode. I am allowing the battery to discharge again and hope that the polarity will go back to the original. If it does not, is there any way of forcing the battery to change back to the correct polarities?
Sure, run it stone dead and then connect the charger the right way. Just make sure you repolarize the old generator so you don't fry the regulator when you start it up.