Battery info needed

Post anything about batteries here. Lead acid, rechargeable, whatever.
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JimW
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 2:41 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Battery info needed

Post by JimW » Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:51 pm

I admit that I've learned more about batteries from watching Troy's video's than I have learned in the last 60 years. But, I still need some info.
I have a 4DLT battery that I replaced on my tractor. This is one big, heavy battery! It has been sitting in an place where it was not getting rain and such on it, but it was still exposed to sub freezing temps and high summer temps for nearly a year. I checked the electrolyte levels and they were fine, but the voltage was down to about 2 volts. I put a bulk automotive charger on it for about 8 hours an it showed 12 volts (12 plus a few tenths - don't remember exactly) just after removing the charger. Next morning, about 12 hours later, it was reading around 7 volts. So, I reconnected the charger and repeated for a few days. The voltage was always 12 volts just after removing the charger but dropped to between 6 and 9 volts overnight.
Now the questions-
Is what I am reading after removing the charger just the surface charge?
Is this battery just possibly severly sulfated?
Would hooking my 45 watt solar panels with a PWM charge controller help this battery or would it be better to hook up a bettery desulfator?
I have ordered a small desulfator from ebay (haven't gotten it yet), would this small desulfator do the job?
Would it cause any problems hooking the desulfator up when charging with the PWM controller?
Or would it be better to just take the battery and sell it as scrap??
Thanks for any help you can give!!

DrBill
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 7:28 pm

Re: Battery info needed

Post by DrBill » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:14 pm

Sounds to me that your battery is cooked.
Tell me, did you check the specific gravity yet?
Try the desulfator, if it does not work then a new battery is called for.
Also, you might want to keep the new battery on a solar maintainer maybe a single Harbor Freight panel.
I use a 20 watt panel on my deep cycle marine battery with no charge controller.
The panel I have has diodes connected to the output terminals to prevent battery from discharging back through the panel.

Hope this helps some...

JimW
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 2:41 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Battery info needed

Post by JimW » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:32 pm

Thank you DrBill,
The battery may be toast, but I think I'll try the desulfator. Can't waste more than time. If it doesn't work I'll take it to Wally World and use as exchange for a lawn mower battery! :D Actually, I would probably take it to the junk metal place, I'm not sure what they are paying for lead-acid batteries but at 80+ lbs it should bring more than as an exchange core on another battery. I already have a new one on the tractor, but maybe I need to put a solar panel on it since the tractor sometimes sits for a month or more between uses.

DrBill
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 7:28 pm

Re: Battery info needed

Post by DrBill » Mon Feb 23, 2015 3:34 pm

Tractor sitting a month or more not running is big part of the problem.
Good'O' on the solar maintainer.

mr bugsier5
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2013 12:36 pm
Location: Brielle , west coast of holland(europe)

Re: Battery info needed

Post by mr bugsier5 » Mon Feb 23, 2015 3:49 pm

al the figures you mentioned tell me your battery is toast, cant tell it nicer, it shorted out in more then one cel.
dont be afraid to ask!, a stupid question does not exist!
forgive me my bad English!, as long as you know what i mean it,s fine for me!
(you thry dutch, wont be easy to! HA HA!)

JimW
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2015 2:41 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Battery info needed

Post by JimW » Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:59 pm

That's kinda what I was afraid of. I was hoping I could restore it, but some things are beyond help. Oh well, on to the next thing! :D
Thanks for your help!

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