Epsom salt trick for a dead battery??

[jake2250]

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 to your battery, Battery will now hold a charge and be good to go!!

Well,,,,,,,,, I tried it a few days ago on an interstate group 27 12volt battery that has a bad cell,,,Initial voltage was 10.5, I added Epsom salt solution and shook it up,,,, voltage 10.0,,,,,,,,,Has been on a charger at 2 amp charge for three days now,, voltage is cumming up somewhat,, 11.9 this morning.. Kinda skeptical at this point.. It's still charging so I dont want to end my test..

But I am interested to see if any one else has done this and did it work for you?? And if it did, how far back to normal did the battery come back??

[stallsmith]

Successfully used it on boat batteries many times.  May be most effective with older battery models, expanding their life by a few months until a replacement is on hand. Modern batteries already include additives that reduce sulfation and corrosion. 

[Dav_Daddy]

The Epsom Salt battery electrolyte trick CAN work IF the reason your battery isn't charging or holding charge is because of a buildup of Lead Sulfate on the plates.

What you are doing is changing your battery from a lead acid battery to a lead alkaline battery.  The Epsom salts solution reacts with the acidic lead sulfate on the plates and removes it allowing your battery to function again.

A more simple way of putting it is when you dump the acid out of your battery if there is a bunch of grey stuff that comes out your screwed one of the plates is toast and it will never work again.  If the removed acid is mostly clear then you have a candidate for this procedure.

[Passin__Through]

Gdetrailer wrote:

jake2250 wrote:
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 to your battery, Battery will now hold a charge and be good to go!!

Well,,,,,,,,, I tried it a few days ago on an interstate group 27 12volt battery that has a bad cell,,,Initial voltage was 10.5, I added Epsom salt solution and shook it up,,,, voltage 10.0,,,,,,,,,Has been on a charger at 2 amp charge for three days now,, voltage is cumming up somewhat,, 11.9 this morning.. Kinda skeptical at this point.. It's still charging so I dont want to end my test..

But I am interested to see if any one else has done this and did it work for you?? And if it did, how far back to normal did the battery come back??

You basically have a time bomb and if it decides to explode it will THROW HIGHLY CAUSTIC ACID over a great distance not to mention plastic and lead. I would hate to hear that you ended up with severe burns or even died from it...

BOLDFACE added.

Just a semantic note: Acid isn't caustic, it is acidic. An alkaline is caustic. They are at the opposite ends of the pH scale. But they are both corrosive.

[jake2250]

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!!

[Perrius_Maximus]

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. 

[MrWizard]

IIRC...ACid as in Sulfuric in the battery is a 'SALT'

Alkalies neutralize acid, adding another Salt will not neutralize

Epson Salts are Magnesium sulfate, which 'maybe' add sulfate back to the 'electrolyte' aka ACID .... Maybe ??

[C_Schomer]

I thought salts were high Ph. Sodium chloride, potassium chloride etc. Seems like it would neutralize or partially neutralize the acid. I'm no chemist but it sounds like a major crock to me! Craig

[Gdetrailer]

jake2250 wrote:
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 to your battery, Battery will now hold a charge and be good to go!!

Well,,,,,,,,, I tried it a few days ago on an interstate group 27 12volt battery that has a bad cell,,,Initial voltage was 10.5, I added Epsom salt solution and shook it up,,,, voltage 10.0,,,,,,,,,Has been on a charger at 2 amp charge for three days now,, voltage is cumming up somewhat,, 11.9 this morning.. Kinda skeptical at this point.. It's still charging so I dont want to end my test..

But I am interested to see if any one else has done this and did it work for you?? And if it did, how far back to normal did the battery come back??

Epsom salts is nothing more than another MYTH.

If nothing else the salts are going to create MORE internal shorts..

Honestly unless you have a death wish you better rethink messing around with dead or dying batteries.

Bad batteries have a habit of misbehaving in nasty ways and putting anything other than DISTILLED WATER is a great recipe for disaster.

I would highly recommend discontinuing any more charging, place the battery OUTSIDE AWAY FROM ANYTHING OF VALUE and don't bother it for a GOOD length of time (DAYS or even a few weeks).

You basically have a time bomb and if it decides to explode it will THROW HIGHLY CAUSTIC ACID over a great distance not to mention plastic and lead. I would hate to hear that you ended up with severe burns or even died from it...

From now on, please take your bad battery to the store and use it for the core charge on a new one...

[travelzoo]

I remember years ago as a teenager and always seeming to have a bad battery but couldn't afford a new one using the Epsom salt seemed to help.. Our recipe was 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt per cell, pouring in direct. A lot of times where we had a battery that would not hold a charge all night and after treating it we could continue to use the battery several weeks to several months. So I think in a way it will help some batteries but not others. If your going to have to purchase a new battery what do you have to lose. It just may not be to dependable.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

A flooded battery reacts similar to a human when given a large dose of "The Salts"

[wa8yxm]

Keep us posted.

I have tried it once.. Results were less than clear.

[Kpackpackkelley]

I guess the answer would be when you take the charger off does it hold voltage with load.

[Turbo_Diesel_Du]

I would think that a dead/damaged cell would remain dead/damaged. No free lunches. JMHO