Battery's

[Anonymous-0]

I bought a tractor that been sittin for 3 years.The 2 batterys were brand new.When the tractor stopped. They both show 12volts.But wont take a charge.Just wonderin if any one had idea's rejuvenateing them

 

[glennster]

i have had some luck with putting a fast charge in them with a high rate of charge for about 20 minutes or so, let em sit a day, then go back with a 2 amp trickle charger for a day or so. sometimes it works, sometimes ya gotta get new batteries.

 

[John T]

Similar to the Glenster, I have put a small load like a lamp to completely discharge them (if not already) and then top off any electrolyte as needed n let a charger stay on them a longggggggggg time at a fairly high amp charge rate (if you have such a charger) as it can take time before they take a charge n they finally drew amps n charged up. It didnt seem to ever work using a small trickle charger, took my big charger at the high charge rate n then finallyyyyyyyyyy came back to life. Of course, they may have be totally shot n wotn ever take a lasting charge also.

John T

 

[John T]

Similar to the Glenster, I have put a small load like a lamp to completely discharge them (if not already) and then top off any electrolyte as needed n let a charger stay on them a longggggggggg time at a fairly high amp charge rate (if you have such a charger) as it can take time before they take a charge n they finally drew amps n charged up. It didnt seem to ever work using a small trickle charger, took my big charger at the high charge rate n then finallyyyyyyyyyy came back to life. Of course, they may have be totally shot n wotn ever take a lasting charge also.

John T

 

[teddy52food]

If you can run them in paralell (pos to pos & neg to neg) in another system they may come back to life. It may take a while. I have an old 78 Ford pickup that has room for another battery on the drivers side and have run many so so batteries that way and brought them back. It seems like marine batteries that have sat all winter with no charge are so weak & don't take a charge will come out ok by doing this.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have had good luck restoring heavily sulphated batteries using a batteryMINDer brand charger/desulphator to dissolve the sulphation.
I have let the desulphator peck away at the layer of sulphation for as much as three weeks, and have had them return to 90% of new capacity.
If coarse this only works on a battery that is in good condition except for being allowed to set discharged for a long time. It is not magic that will fix a worn out battery, but as you say, yours were new when parked.

The little charger/ desulphator is a great tool to maintain a battery that sets unused for months, I have two of these units that I connect to all my seasonal use farm equipment on about a 2 day on,2 months off rotation. It keeps them in top condition.
Battery MINDer

 

[Anonymous-0]

how did you determine the batteries were at 90% of new capacity?

 

[Anonymous-0]

By speed and duration of cranking ability and a using a 500 amp carbon pile load tester. A guesstimate, but I suspect not off by much

 

[Randy-IA]

I just had good luck with two 5 year old batteries in a couple of vehicles I seldom use . Both of them discharged and froze slightly - not solid though . On one ( a regular walmart special top post type ) I took a old very small antifreeze tester and sucked the fluid out of each cell and then squirted it back in as hard as possible a few times to agitate and break up any sulfation . Then put it on ten amps for a few days . Let it rest a couple days then put it on a trickle charge of .035 amps for a couple of weeks . I did the same for the other one except it was a sealed maint. free battery so the agitating of fluids wasn't done . I just started the vehicle that that one was from with it tonight . They both took a couple of days to start taking a charge at ten amps , more amps would be better but watch to make sure you don't boil them dry . I put a load tester on both of them and they both took a thirty second load that had the coils glowing bright red . So at least one is good again and the other is untested other than the load tester . The second battery has a 400 hp chevy engine to start . I'll try that tomorrow and see if it wiil do it . This has worked for me before but the batteries don't last much more than a year after doing this in my experience . Your results may vary . Good luck . ... Randy