Sealed Lead-Acid Battery (recovery)

[arhi]

I thought that most lead acid batteries are recycled in civilised countries.

me too
but "civilised" is tough word ... this (#@%&@_^#*^&#@+#%* country consider itself civilised, there is also a huge fine if they find you throwing the nicd or lead-acid or basically any kind of battery (rechargeable or not) .. still
- thrash can's are full with them
- deponies are filled with them
- before I wanted to try to recover this batteries I was asking around how to dispose of them, and after 2 weeks of asking around I found out that there is one place I can recycle them - 100Km from my place, and 1 week after, the company that sell batteries told me they can take the old ones "for a fee"... (I do not need to say that fee is cca 10% cost of the new batteries, and even if I pay, I do not know if they are going to dispose of them the right way)

so, not to go too much of topic .. I had the same problem while working in few EU countries as well .. especially while operating on Cyprus, we were changing all batteries in all UPS's every year (even they were still working, but that was the policy) ... and there was no proper way of disposing of them ... In Paris, France, in government owned teleport facility they had on the dump site more then 10m3 of dead lead acid battery cells lying on the ground with other "scrap metal" ... UPC teleport in Amsterdam, NL, same thing .. broken elco equipment, batteries, all on the big pile of garbage lying on the ground .. so as I say .. "civilised" that is very very "tough" word. Now again, in UK teleport (cannot remember the name of the town it was long ago) for example, every part of the disassembled equipment had to be categorised and disposed properly, for some parts of the sat uplink chain specialized company had to be called to do the "on site differentiation"... and when you compare that to for e.g. French or Dutch teleport it was crazy .. (do not even want to begin on the Cyprus national teleport, that was a @#@%^%#^&#)$ )

 

[OY2L]

Maybee this Link can be a help Battery Charger 12v SLA

 

[HarveyH42]

I just ordered one of these;

**broken link removed**

They claim that it recover a battery if it will hold at least 11 volt charge, but it might take a week or so. Figure it would be a handy gadget. I've killed so many batteries from non-use, and not keeping up on charging them. I ordered mine from Northern Tools, but could have saved shipping if I went directly to the manufacturer's website first. It's around $50.

I wouldn't expect any miracles, but have two SLAs that won't take a full charge anymore, and only slightly over the cutoff on my solar charge controller. If it works, then I'll have saved some money on new batteries.

 

[mvs sarma]

hi Sarma,
Never tried chopping the top off, just drilling the vents, 'ONCE', its a filthy process and potentially hazardous.

I think the hedge rows of the World are littered with 'dead' SLA's..

Even when the occasional battery did recover after a long slow charge, they never had the original energy capacity.........its more cost effective to replace the battery.

Totally with your concept and this is the very first advise I tried to give. Later part is only of academic interest, as to, whether it is possible to recover a battery....

In fact the op can have additional loads like a CFL light on the UPS.
I do it at my residence on my APC make UPS

 

[arhi]

Totally with your concept and this is the very first advise I tried to give.

Yup, I would never use "faulty" batteries in UPS that powers my servers and desktop, that is my bread & butter .. I replaced the batteries immediately, now just trying to check if I can use the old ones for "something" rather then just throw them away

In fact the op can have additional loads like a CFL light on the UPS. I do it at my residence on my APC make UPS

OP have no idea what is CFL (maybe fluo lamp ?) ... anyhow, I can use this batteries to power up my hoby ... If they charge to more then 7.2V (and I bet they will) they will surely last longer then 6x1.2 nimh AA bat's so - great for testing circuits (heavy for actual usage, but great for testing) ... with 4 of them, I'll put them to some use .. I do not worry about that so even if they became 9V 2Ah (from 12V 9Ah) they will be more then useful

 

[mvs sarma]

Yup, I would never use "faulty" batteries in UPS that powers my servers and desktop, that is my bread & butter .. I replaced the batteries immediately, now just trying to check if I can use the old ones for "something" rather then just throw them away

I was trying to reply Ericgibbs. I saw your post that you got the new batteries and replaced them . In fact you did indicated earlier itself that you would not risk playing with equipment that provides you bread and butter and I remember it.

OP have no idea what is CFL (maybe fluo lamp ?) ... anyhow, I can use this batteries to power up my hoby ... If they charge to more then 7.2V (and I bet they will) they will surely last longer then 6x1.2 nimh AA bat's so - great for testing circuits (heavy for actual usage, but great for testing) ... with 4 of them, I'll put them to some use .. I do not worry about that so even if they became 9V 2Ah (from 12V 9Ah) they will be more then useful

I was talking about glowing a compact florescent lamp(CFL) from the Ac voltage of the UPS under concern.

If it is question of lighting from 12V battery , the best would be white LED lights using a special chip or a PWM based LED lamp driver like PIC16F785 vide application note AN01047 of Microchip