Rebuilding batteries.

As many of us know, car batteries can go bad because (among other reasons) a layer of sulphate can precipitate out of the acid and coat the lead plates, reducing their effectiveness. Recharging the battery will not help much since the battery cannot produce sufficient cranking power to start a car.

I have come across a company that can "rebuild' such dead batteries by removing the old acid, adding a chemical to remove the sulphate, and refilling it with new acid.

Or maybe they add a chemical to the existing acid......not sure.

Any thoughts on the effectiveness of this process, and any idea on the chemical that's added? (I have killed enought batteries over the years I would like to give this a shot on my own)

(BTW, I thought rebuilding batteries used to mean disassembling them and physically handling/repairing the plates etc......)

Read one time that putting a dead, sulphated battery on a low, 2 amp charge for 48-72 hours would "de-sulphate" the plates. It does revive a weak battery, but they still dont last very long, at least it seems that way.

Years ago big equipment and marine batteries were often rebuilt. The tops were cut off, the guts were removed and replaced. These were extreme duty application batteries, very expensive to buy when new. Bigger truck shops used to have an exchange service for them.

For today's car batteries, they're not worth the effort to attempt to revive a sick one. Plates that are sulphated often have a warp as well, which can lead to a short condition.

Bob

That's basically what they do with old batteries anyway, but its a bit more in depth. With old batteries they reclaim the lead and the acid (if the acid is any good) and recycle it into a new case. Of course that involves cleaning and melting the lead into new plates, but you're basically talking about the same thing, just not as thourogh