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newbie noob noob mistake #473 - f'd up battery

N

newrider2

New member
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Location
la honda
Moto(s)
82 suzuki gl450
So in my continuing effort to never actually ride my motorcycle, just make plans, leave work early, put all the crap on, and then swear a lot when the thing won't start/run due to something stupid I did, I must say I'm on a roll.

I left my battery hooked up to a trickle charger for a few weeks and boiled it dry. If (a big if, I know) it works once I add water and recharge it, have I still fundamentally damaged the battery? I'm hoping to do some camping trips this spring and it's worth the 80 bucks for a new battery if that means more reliability/peace of mind. It is often a bitch to start (only when the weather's nice though, give it a solid rainstorm it'll start like a champ) so I'll need it to be able to crank for a while.
 
Water isn't likely to be enough if you boiled off the electrolyte.

Worth trying, since distilled is so cheap, but don't be surprised if the battery is way down on capacity and unusable.
 
Thanks for the input. Chalk another 80 bucks up to experience...

Stay tuned for my next trick!
 
I recently went to start up the monster after putting it on the maintainer the night before, wouldn't start... WTF? suddenly weakdead battery? poked around and finally looked at the trickle and found that it had somehow got set to 6v instead of 12. Switched back to 12v and couple hours later bike was starting happy again.
I had a truck battery get boiled off by a tiny 7 watt solar trickle charger over the course of a year. Now I have a charge maintainer for it. http://www.amazon.com/Sunsei-SE-CC10000-Solar-Charge-Controller/dp/B000CPHXUI
 
Get rid of the damn charger and go buy a battery tender. The $59 *(Pro model) will save you a couple more $75+ batteries.
 
Marlowe said:
Water isn't likely to be enough if you boiled off the electrolyte.

Worth trying, since distilled is so cheap, but don't be surprised if the battery is way down on capacity and unusable.
Click to expand...
Hmm. The sulfuric acid, whether liquid or powder, should still be in the battery. The water will "boil" off (it's actually splitting into hydrogen and oxygen and escaping out the vent nipple).

It's been years since I dealt with high mole sulfuric acid and don't remember if it's add acid to water, or water to acid. Since the electrolyte had a charge the entire time, you shouldn't have sulfur on the lead plates, so the battery *might* hold a charge.

Oh, and get yourself a Battery Tender. http://www.batterytender.com/battery-tender-junior-12v-at-0-75a.html
 
hayabusafiend said:
Hmm. The sulfuric acid, whether liquid or powder, should still be in the battery. The water will "boil" off (it's actually splitting into hydrogen and oxygen and escaping out the vent nipple).

It's been years since I dealt with high mole sulfuric acid and don't remember if it's add acid to water, or water to acid. Since the electrolyte had a charge the entire time, you shouldn't have sulfur on the lead plates, so the battery *might* hold a charge.

Oh, and get yourself a Battery Tender. http://www.batterytender.com/battery-tender-junior-12v-at-0-75a.html
Click to expand...

Half right, half wrong.

I'm with you through the first part, at least after it's charged. (It should only be producing hydrogen while charging, and I assume you're expecting electrolysis of the water beyond that point.)

BTW, it's acid to water, not water to acid -- the latter is the one that produces the not so fun exothermic reaction. That said, you don't have much of a choice with an existing wet cell.

As far as the battery still holding a charge...I don't think so. Once it's overcharged, and the electrolyte level goes down, I expect its internal resistance to increase a lot, to the point where the trickle charger isn't going to be able to overcome it, and at that point I expect the interior cells to sulfate, especially in the concentrated h2so4.

If it truly worked the way you suggest, there'd be no real penalty for overcharging, yet it can be difficult to recover automotive wet cells that have been overcharged successfully. Large wet cells used in communications applications and diesel-electric locomotives seem to recover most of the time, but I've never known anyone to have very consistent luck with automotive starting batteries and their thin plates. Sometimes you can save it, usually you can't. Even when you save it it's down on capacity and not to be trusted.
 
Marlowe said:
Half right, half wrong.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info! I almost never encounter overcharged/cooked batteries and was going off my chemistry recollections.

Worst case his battery won't hold a charge due to sulfation over time. Best case it does. The hard part is safely adding water to a high acid concentration battery. It's probably safest just to set the battery aside and buy a brand new one.
 
Cycle Gear hooked me up!

When I bought the now-ruined battery a few months ago I paid extra for one with a lifetime warranty but didn't think that covered harming the battery through negligence. I was wrong, and walked out with a free battery (and some nice A* gloves I bought with the $90 I was planning on spending anyway).

So my bike will now turn over but still won't start, but I guess that's another thread...
 
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