Battery observations under energiser charging

[James Milner]

Hi everyone,
I thought as I am seeing some odd charging profiles whilst trying to recover used lead acid batteries that it may be of use to discuss observed phenomenon so that we may identify battery issues or inappropriate charging techniques at the earliest opportunity. After all there is no point to having a great energiser, because it is!, but waste it on poor uneducated application of these devices that can result in damaged batteries or we waste days on useless batteries.

As an example I had one battery short while charging and fried all my neons, and 1/2 my diodes. Fortunately the transistors were ok!
Had I realised that the wild swinging of voltage before was a precursor to failure, I wouldn't have persevered with the charge.
I am yet to disassemble to definitively identify the issue.

Whilst I wait to save enough for two new quality batteries to do my COP testing I'm attempting to recover some other used batteries.

First example is a lead acid that is charging with the superpole energiser (4 transistors) and is boiling and gets to about 14v with a slow climb. After connection is terminated the battery slowly falls away to about 10.5v. It is regular LA and bubbles vigorously while charging.

Second is a 7Ah 12v gel cell. That even though fairly new sems to not get above 12.5v and bubbles audibly as soon as it is placed on the energiser.

Is boiling batteries with energisers unhelpful and damaging!

When using regular chargers I would only boil cells until all were equalised.

Your experiences, advice please!

[Faraday88]

Hi James,
Your describtions on the Boiling ('Cold Boiling' actually) occuring during the Charging on the energiser is in fact a good indication of the Radiant Energy infusion process.
do you mean to say that you had one cell in the battery short? i'm not clear on that.
rgds,
Faraday88.

[James Milner]

Faraday,
I suspect a short of one or multiple cells is what happened.
I got fluctuations in voltage to begin with. It would slowly climb up about .25 to .5 of a volt then collapse back down in one step and then slowly climb again. I went away for a few hours and came back to find that the superpole had stopped. Three of the neons cracked and non functional and the last remaining one blackened. The 22 ohm branch resistor burned through and 2 out of four diodes leading from the collector short circuit, one ok and the other with an altered voltage drop. I assume from high current exposure.
The battery now sits at about 6 volts, so i am assuming at least 2-3 shorted cells.
I am grateful that the transistors seem to be ok and once i had disassembled all components they still measured a stable Hfe of 48.

Regards boiling how much is too much?

Thanks
James

[Faraday88]

Hi James,
There is no measure of how much is to much for now. so long as you are NOT over driving your Battries, a rough estimate is do not charge beyond 12 x2 = 24 V INPUT BATTERY VOLTAGE.
Rgds,
Faraday88.

[Fraulein]

Hello! Last night I ''upgraded'' my 5 filars (1 trigger + 4 transistors) 150 feet of 18 gauge litzed. I am using a 18 inches bicycle wheel. I have been running my SG with only 6 ceramic magnets because that is all the magnets I had. I do not have a tachometer to measure the speed of the wheel but judging by how many time a painted spot on the hub I could see, I would estimate at no less than 3 revolutions per seconds and no more than 6. But this was enough to get some interesting work with my used batteries.

I brought back to life 3 used and good for the garbage motorcycle and lawn mower batteries. The batteries would get to above 13.4 volts after a few hours on the SG following their discharge on the load (12 volts tail light bulb) to around 9 volts.

So last night I added 12 more magnets to my wheel for a total of 18 magnets. I figured the output would be 3 times the earlier one. However when I started it, my goodness gracious! The wheel speed just increased tremendously. I would estimate the speed to be no less than 10 revolutions per second. The painted spot is almost only a blur and the wheel is now doing a noise sounding like the propeller of an electric fan at high speed.

So I plug in my used dead, now alive, ''zombie" battery. I depleted it to around 9.5 volt than connected it on the SG. After only 5 minutes on the device it read above 14.5 volts and climbing at a rate of 0.01 volt every few seconds. 10 minutes later, I noticed liquid dripping on the floor. My zombie battery was boiling and overflowing. So I stopped the SG and now I have some cleaning up to do.

The battery was still cold to the touch. Maybe when I reconnect it, I will remove the collector plug on the battery to observe the bubbling in the cells. I am happy to notice this is a good sign of my SG working like it is supposed to do. I would like to know if it is OK to let it bubble away as long as like Faraday88 says not above 12X2=24 V?

[Tom C]

Hello! Last night I ''upgraded'' my 5 filars (1 trigger + 4 transistors) 150 feet of 18 gauge litzed. I am using a 18 inches bicycle wheel. I have been running my SG with only 6 ceramic magnets because that is all the magnets I had. I do not have a tachometer to measure the speed of the wheel but judging by how many time a painted spot on the hub I could see, I would estimate at no less than 3 revolutions per seconds and no more than 6. But this was enough to get some interesting work with my used batteries.

I brought back to life 3 used and good for the garbage motorcycle and lawn mower batteries. The batteries would get to above 13.4 volts after a few hours on the SG following their discharge on the load (12 volts tail light bulb) to around 9 volts.

So last night I added 12 more magnets to my wheel for a total of 18 magnets. I figured the output would be 3 times the earlier one. However when I started it, my goodness gracious! The wheel speed just increased tremendously. I would estimate the speed to be no less than 10 revolutions per second. The painted spot is almost only a blur and the wheel is now doing a noise sounding like the propeller of an electric fan at high speed.

So I plug in my used dead, now alive, ''zombie" battery. I depleted it to around 9.5 volt than connected it on the SG. After only 5 minutes on the device it read above 14.5 volts and climbing at a rate of 0.01 volt every few seconds. 10 minutes later, I noticed liquid dripping on the floor. My zombie battery was boiling and overflowing. So I stopped the SG and now I have some cleaning up to do.

The battery was still cold to the touch. Maybe when I reconnect it, I will remove the collector plug on the battery to observe the bubbling in the cells. I am happy to notice this is a good sign of my SG working like it is supposed to do. I would like to know if it is OK to let it bubble away as long as like Faraday88 says not above 12X2=24 V?

if your voltage is climbing that fast, your battery has NO capacity, all you will be doing is making oxygen and hydrogen, and wasting energy. if you are looking to restore the battery, charge and discharge it a few times, if the capacity is going up, you will see it take longer and longer to charge up. otherwise it is just a doorstop, use your Sg to charge good batteries.

Tom C

[Fraulein]

if your voltage is climbing that fast, your battery has NO capacity, all you will be doing is making oxygen and hydrogen, and wasting energy. if you are looking to restore the battery, charge and discharge it a few times, if the capacity is going up, you will see it take longer and longer to charge up. otherwise it is just a doorstop, use your Sg to charge good batteries.

Tom C

Hello! Thank you Tom C. You are right. The battery who did all that bubbling is my latest battery in the ''Zombie Voodoo'' making mode. It is a battery which as been sitting in my shed for at least 6 years because it did not kept its charge. The cells were half empty but still moist so I added hot distilled water mixed with Epson salt until saturation. Something I saw on Youtube, so I figure '' What do I have to lose?'' Anyhow this battery is in the beginning of its training exercise cycle. Flexing its muscles by charging and discharging it. It is a slow process but it is working. At the beginning it died after 5 seconds on the load. Now it is up to 10 minutes and getting stronger.

I am currently charging another of my Zombie pack. One I have been working on for a few weeks. This one also was dead after 5 seconds on the load at the beginning. But now with a regiment of muscle flexing, it takes it about 1 hour on the load before the voltage drop at 12.00 volts. This battery have been on my ''new'' SG for more than 1 hour now and it is only now starting to read 13.00 volts.

Maybe you can help me with this other battery I have. It is a big marine deep cycle battery. It never been used but have been let unused for years and now it stubbornly refuses to keep a charge. It remains at 6.07 volts. When I put it on a regular charger, after a while it gets warm and when you disconnect the charger, the voltage plummet down to 6.07 volts within an hour. I let it on my ''old'' SG for 2 days in a row. The voltage went up to about 10 volts then went back to 6.07 volts. However the battery remained cool all the time it was on the SG. I will try my ''new'' SG and if this does not work, I will give it another try when I will have built a 10 coilers.

Any ideas?

[Prinsloo]

Hi Guys, @ James Milner

Don't under estimate the importance of a 1 or 2 dollar fuse on your primary battery to the SSG, it will save you big dollars, so use it.

Theunis

[Tom C]

Hello! Thank you Tom C. You are right. The battery who did all that bubbling is my latest battery in the ''Zombie Voodoo'' making mode. It is a battery which as been sitting in my shed for at least 6 years because it did not kept its charge. The cells were half empty but still moist so I added hot distilled water mixed with Epson salt until saturation. Something I saw on Youtube, so I figure '' What do I have to lose?'' Anyhow this battery is in the beginning of its training exercise cycle. Flexing its muscles by charging and discharging it. It is a slow process but it is working. At the beginning it died after 5 seconds on the load. Now it is up to 10 minutes and getting stronger.

I am currently charging another of my Zombie pack. One I have been working on for a few weeks. This one also was dead after 5 seconds on the load at the beginning. But now with a regiment of muscle flexing, it takes it about 1 hour on the load before the voltage drop at 12.00 volts. This battery have been on my ''new'' SG for more than 1 hour now and it is only now starting to read 13.00 volts.

Maybe you can help me with this other battery I have. It is a big marine deep cycle battery. It never been used but have been let unused for years and now it stubbornly refuses to keep a charge. It remains at 6.07 volts. When I put it on a regular charger, after a while it gets warm and when you disconnect the charger, the voltage plummet down to 6.07 volts within an hour. I let it on my ''old'' SG for 2 days in a row. The voltage went up to about 10 volts then went back to 6.07 volts. However the battery remained cool all the time it was on the SG. I will try my ''new'' SG and if this does not work, I will give it another try when I will have built a 10 coilers.

Any ideas?

its internally shorted, since its a marine battery its not a door stop its a boat anchor

Tom C

[James Milner]

Theunis,
I think your recommendation really important. I have on occasion been known to connect the terminals in reverse after doing an all night shift. A fuse worth a dollar versus all new components, particularly matched components.
Great suggestion.
James

[Fraulein]

its internally shorted, since its a marine battery its not a door stop its a boat anchor

Tom C

Hello! Yep! I also starting to get that ''sinking'' feeling about this marine battery.