Battery accident!!

[bianchina3]

I bought a battery last summer, Group 27 deep cycle. I just found out that it tipped over and spilled the electrolyte. Most of the acid is gone. I have no idea of the state of the left over acid, except there is not much left.

Can you give me some advice if I can just refill the battery with acid or do I need to replace the whole battery?

Thanks in advance.

Ed

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Boon Docker wrote:
Still doesn't explain how the distilled water brings the acid concentration back up when all the acid was spilled out.

It doesn't, you and I both know that. You have a plastic case with lead and water. And that doesn't make a battery. :B

[westend]

The sulfur is on the plates. The different materials of the plates, the sulfur deposition on the plates, and the water, when fed a small electrical current, form an exothermic chemical reaction, adding sulfur to H2O resulting in H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) and PbO2.

I think you are having a problem with the quantity of the acid being different with the quantity of non-acidic water added back into the battery case, not the basic chemistry. As you can see in the prior link I posted, the electrolyte is not 100% sulfuric acid. It is actually dilute acid.

Further reading at Battery U

[Boon_Docker]

Still doesn't explain how the distilled water brings the acid concentration back up when all the acid was spilled out.

A fully charged battery as a specific gravity of 1.255 and a totally discharged battery has a an S.G. of 1.110. This means that not all the sulfur/acid in the mix is on the plates waiting to be returned to the electrolyte.

So how does distilled water bring the S.G. back up to the strength of the original acid?

Curious minds would like to know.

[westend]

Boon Docker wrote:

westend wrote:
If the battery sat for any length of time tipped over, it is toast. You can try to fill it with distilled water and charge it but there is little chance it will recover.

You got me curious.
How does adding distilled water to a spilled battery replace all the sulfuric acid that was lost?

The Lead Acid battery is made up of plates, lead, and lead oxide (various other elements are used to change density, hardness, porosity, etc.) with a 35% sulfuric acid and 65% water solution. This solution is called electrolyte, which causes a chemical reaction that produce electrons. When you test a battery with a hydrometer, you are measuring the amount of sulfuric acid in the electrolyte. If your reading is low, that means the chemistry that makes electrons is lacking. So where did the sulfur go? It is resting on the battery plates and when you recharge the battery, the sulfur returns to the electrolyte.

Copied and pasted from: Battery Stuff (dot) com

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Desert Captain wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Just replace the acid. They are not shipped wet to the store anyway. Put some new acid in it and you're good to go.

I disagree. Every battery we sold, and that number is in the hundreds/thousands (?), as we were a Trojan dealer, at the Chandlery I worked at in San Diego came with acid in them. Yes, there was a little room to top up and we recommended folks do that after they were installed as placing them in a boat calls for some awkward angles going in.

Had the same experience at Boat US/West marine. Batteries leave the factory with acid .

I agree to try refilling the OP's battery but would be much more concerned with the damage done by the spill. That acid has migrated to all sorts of places never intended for corrosives.

:C

LOL, let me put it this way then. The batteries shipped to the parts stores in "my town", in my county, in my state, in the US are shipped dry. How do I know this? I personally know the guy that fill them with acid and have bought acid from him many times. He is the manager of a Napa parts store in my town, in my county, in my...............

There, now my post is fixed. :B

O, BTW, I have put acid in batteries that have had their acid lost. Works for me. 🙂
(It may not work for anybody else on this forum because they don't live in my town in my county in my.............................:B)

[Boon_Docker]

There is just so much mis-information been given here.

Try this link for the proper info.
http://www.trojanbattery.com/contact-us/

[Boon_Docker]

westend wrote:
If the battery sat for any length of time tipped over, it is toast. You can try to fill it with distilled water and charge it but there is little chance it will recover.

You got me curious.
How does adding distilled water to a spilled battery replace all the sulfuric acid that was lost?

[Desert_Captain]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Just replace the acid. They are not shipped wet to the store anyway. Put some new acid in it and you're good to go.

I disagree. Every battery we sold, and that number is in the hundreds/thousands (?), as we were a Trojan dealer, at the Chandlery I worked at in San Diego came with acid in them. Yes, there was a little room to top up and we recommended folks do that after they were installed as placing them in a boat calls for some awkward angles going in.

Had the same experience at Boat US/West marine. Batteries leave the factory with acid .

I agree to try refilling the OP's battery but would be much more concerned with the damage done by the spill. That acid has migrated to all sorts of places never intended for corrosives.

:C

[nomad_297]

WyoTraveler wrote:
They may be shipped dry but with epa now doubt you can buy separate acid. Doubt store carries it separate. If you found a shipping vendor it would most likely cost more than a new battery.Suspect you may even have to be licensed to buy that acid separate. Buy another battery. Clean up your spilled acid mess with baking soda and water.

You can buy the acid at Home Depot and Lowe's.

Bruce

[Heiny57]

$80 bucks at Walmart and you are done.

[SoundGuy]

bianchina3 wrote:
So what specifically did was filled the battery with distilled water and tried to charge. It would "charge" but would not hold a charge and discharge very quickly. I have left it sitting for a month or so. I think what I will do is empty it and refill with acid and go from there. The worst that can happen is I wasted 20 bucks on some acid?

OR, rather than waste that "20 bucks" on acid you may or may not be able to buy so readily you could (guaranteed) not waste it by putting it into the cost of a new battery that you know will solve your problem. 😉

[westend]

bianchina3 wrote:
So what specifically did was filled the battery with distilled water and tried to charge. It would "charge" but would not hold a charge and discharge very quickly. I have left it sitting for a month or so. I think what I will do is empty it and refill with acid and go from there. The worst that can happen is I wasted 20 bucks on some acid?

Ed

Save your money. If you filled the battery with water and charged it substantially, the water has chemically changed to electrolyte (weak sulfuric acid). Dumping out the electrolyte and replacing it with stronger electrolyte won't make the battery better. It will only exchange less ions from the plates and that means store less electrical power.

FWIW, at one time I managed a fleet of golf carts, each containing 6 X 6V batteries. That is over 300 batteries to maintain. I used acid and distilled water to maintain the electrolyte in these batteries. IOW, I have battery experience.

Good info on batteries here: Battery University

[pianotuna]

Plates exposed to air sulphate within minutes. It may be possible to add electrolyte (enough to cover the plates) and then follow this procedure:

"It may be possible to salvage a battery with hardened sulfate. The battery should be charged from an outside source at 2.6 to 2.7 - volts per cell and a low current rate (approximately 5 Amps for small batteries and 10-Amps for larger ones) until the specific gravity of the electrolyte starts to rise. (This indicates that the sulfate is breaking down.) Be careful not to let the internal temperature of the battery rise above 125° F. If it does, turn the charger off and let the battery cool. Then, continue charging until each cell in the battery is brought up to full charge (nominal 1.265 specific gravity or higher).This time needed to complete this recharge depends on how long the battery has been discharged and how hard the sulfate has become."

If that doesn't work then you might do a last ditch attempt using epsom salts.

No matter what you do, the battery may exhibit lowered over all capacity.

http://support.rollsbattery.com/support/solutions/articles/5964-battery-sulfation

[SoundGuy]

SoundGuy wrote:
I've never seen a battery in recent memory that wasn't shipped wet, charged and ready to be placed on the store shelf.

nomad.297 wrote:
I see them all of the time.

My closest local RV dealer here in Ontario belongs to the Canada wide RV Care dealer network and as such sells RV Care branded deep cycle batteries both in the parts store for over the counter sales and installed on new / used trailer sales. These RV Care branded batteries are Deka designed & supplied by East Penn, and are delivered wet to the dealer with a simple cardboard cover which upon delivery is removed and the battery is either put on display in the parts store for retail sale or is installed by a tech on a trailer, no prep of any kind required.

Many Americans may not be aware but here in Canada we have a huge automotive retail chain called Canadian Tire which is Canada wide and since it's humble beginnings nearly a century ago has become a Canadian retail institution, in fact recognized by any Canadian as part of the Canadian identity, just as is Tim Hortons and the Hudson's Bay Company. A couple of years ago I asked at the CT auto parts counter for the same thing - battery acid - so I could attempt to restore the battery in my wife's Corolla but was told that although available to their techs for service purposes it was a product not sold to the public and I couldn't buy it as all wet cell batteries they sell are sold wet, charged and ready to be installed ... and in fact I did replace the battery itself with a new one from Canadian Tire and indeed it was sold wet so all I did was install it in the car.

To categorically claim that wet cell batteries are delivered to a retail dealer and sold dry is simply not the case at all as there are plenty of cases where the exact opposite is true. If the OP can source battery acid locally then there's not much to be lost by attempting to restore this dead battery's acid level but I wouldn't necessarily count on beng able to readily buy the acid nor of it even working ... buying a new replacement battery will. 😉

[72cougarxr7]

bianchina3 wrote:
So what specifically did was filled the battery with distilled water and tried to charge. It would "charge" but would not hold a charge and discharge very quickly. I have left it sitting for a month or so. I think what I will do is empty it and refill with acid and go from there. The worst that can happen is I wasted 20 bucks on some acid?

Ed

If you lost a substantial amount of acid, and replaced it with distilled water, you have weakened the acid level in the battery and it will not function properly. Topping off with distilled water is only for replacing what has evaporated off, not an actual acid loss.

Battery is likely toast, but you will only know by putting acid in it and charging.