Epsom salt trick for a dead battery??
Has any one tried this trick? And did it work for you? If you haven't heard of it there are allot of vids on youtube about it. Basically dissolve some Epsom salts in distilled water and add it ...
Forum Discussion
UPDATE: This morning the battery charger is showing "BAD BATTERY", removed the charger and voltage is 10.5. Check of specific gravity shows five cells 12.5+, the previously dead cell still dead with no reading.. So Epsom Salt will not fix a DEAD battery,My thought being that that dead cell has a broken plate or some type of mechanical anomaly!! After a lengthy read about ES on the internet my feelings are that this may work for a weak battery temporarily, But as a complete fix,,,,, no,, I do understand that this may stop calcification and to some extent clean mild calcification up, but if the battery acid has done damage to the plates then that is irreversible damage and Nothing can fix that!! So now this battery will continue to serve as a door stop and hopefully yield $15 as a core return some day!!
A sulfated, dead battery actually CAN be revived and it will last longer (judging from my own personal experience) than any solution involving epsom salts. I’m not a person typically given over to gimmicky crap. A mechanical engineer by trade, I approach most things in a very pragmatic way… always looking for the b#llsh&t angle. So when a person whose opinion I respect gives me a recommendation on something, I take it seriously. Such was the case with the Top Don battery desulfator. If I’d happened across this in some clickbait ad, I’d have dismissed it as utter BS, but given the recommendation from a respected colleague
I bit the bullet and bought one from eBay. It claims to revive batteries by removing built up sulfates within, then slow charges the battery to full charge. Months later, the battery in my ram died on a very cold morning as fall was giving way to winter. It’s been my experience that any battery being used in the climate of northern Nevada… even the most expensive variants… last a maximum of 5 years, because of very hot summers and cold, icy winters. So when my rams battery died I remembered my purchase of the top don unit and set it up. The person that recommended it told me that it could take days to work properly, but that the results are worth the wait. He was not lying to me.
I let the desulfator do its job for a total of 72 hours before it completed and shut itself off. I hooked the battery back up (the desulfator didn’t want to work with the trucks battery terminals hooked up) and immediately my truck’s instruments all came to life…. The battery was previously so dead that it did not even do this. I turned the key expecting the infamous sound of a solenoid trying to engage, but instead the truck cranked over and started immediately. It did not just crank. It cranked vigorously. It’s been a year and a half since then. My Rams battery is not 7 years old and shows no signs of weakening.
We have a PT Cruiser we keep as a backup car (paid for, low mileage, good on gas, reliable) and the PT…. Notorious for killing the batteries I put into it if the car sits unused… is also running a formerly dead battery that was salvaged by the top don unit. It’s presently working on the battery in my wife’s 300. I have nothing but praise for this unit. It just works. It become my go-to for charging car batteries now, even though I have a battery assist type charger starter unit that I bought from summit racing. Mostly for my classic 70 challenger’s battery, which has also benefitted from the top don.
