[AT] Batteries charged backwards.

szabelski at wildblue.net szabelski at wildblue.net
Wed Mar 11 07:05:28 PDT 2020


Charging a battery, or batteries, in your garage is not really an issue. You’ve got a large room with only one or two batteries off gassing. Your garage is not an air tight environment, unless you’ve done extra work making it one. In an industrial setting, there may be dozens of batteries in a small enclosed room. What is a concern is the amount of hydrogen per cubic foot of air space. That will determine how explosive an environment is created. If you are in an enclosed area you need to provide some type of air movement to vent outside of the room. In a garage you can just open a window or raise the garage door a little if you have any concerns.


When we used to charge batteries for the M1 we would place two or three sets (6 batteries per set) on pallets on the shop floor for charging. They would sit there for a day while we did whatever needed to be done on the tank. Never was an issue because of the extremely large size of our shop area, and the fact that two or three bay doors were always open due to the fact that Abrams, Strykers, and other military vehicles and prototypes were always going in or out. In the summer there was also a multitude of large fans running to circulate air.

Carl



----- Original Message -----
From: James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com>
To: szabelski at wildblue.net, Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:52:47 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Batteries charged backwards.

How do you handle hydrogen that is given off?

Battery charging on an industrial scale can require hydrogen gas detection.

https://na.bhs1.com/battery-room-ventilation-code-requirements/
________________________________
From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> on behalf of szabelski at wildblue.net <szabelski at wildblue.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 9:00 AM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] Batteries charged backwards.

Cecil,

I agree with completely discharging the batteries and then putting the batteries in parallel one at a time with a good 12V battery. The batteries will try to equalize when in parallel.  When you drain the battery, take the load off and let the battery sit for a while, then put the load back on and drain some more.

You should use a battery charger that has a trickle charge feature. This puts a full charge into the battery at first, then drops down to a small charge to top the battery off. You may have to do this several times and should leave the charger on for at least one full day. Don’t rush the job.

You can also check that each cell is good by taking a reading between each cell. A bad cell will indicate a lower charge then the others. Do this with every recharge attempt and note if you’re making any progress.

Don’t know if you’ve ever gone on-line to look for videos on bringing dead batteries back to life, but their are some that show how to drain a battery, rinse it out, then refill and recharge. They appear to work out quite well, but I can’t swear by them since I’ve never done anything like this myself.

Good luck!

Carl
----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Martin <tmartin at xtra.co.nz>
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:24:36 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: [AT] Batteries charged backwards.

Hi Cecil
I  consulted a very good friend on the other-side of the isle.
Tony is auto-electrician, of vast car, truck & tractor experience.
He says you MUST discharge the batteries, separately with a bulb.
They need to completely discharged. No measurable voltage.
Then one battery at a time needs to be placed in parallel with another
fully charged 12v battery, they then need to be connected to a 12v
charger...

Tom

> On 12 February 2020 at 15:31 Cecil Bearden <crbearden at copper.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I had 2 group 31 batteries out of the tractor that were completely
> > dead.  I hooked them up in series and connected my 24Vcharger to them
> > as It was handy and I wanted to charge both.  After a couple of days I
> > checked them and found that I had hooked the charger backwards.  I
> > hooked a couple of incandescent headlights to drain the battery, but
> > after 3 days they won't light up the headlights, but they still have a
> > lot of spark when shorted with cables..  A guy at my battery shop said
> > I should hook up a 6volt light to them and use that to run them
> > down....  At $100/ea, I need to try to save these...
> > Cecil
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