Can You Revive a Dead Battery Using a Welder

In this video I'll go over the procedure of reviving a dead battery using a welder, I'll also go over what is lead sulfate crystals, how does it form inside a battery, how does sulfuric acid and lead plates in the battery interact, why you should use distilled water, how to hook up a welder to a battery if you are going to try to revive it, how to use a load tester and much more.

Here are links to products which were used in this video:




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Due to factors beyond the control of Ratchets and Wrenches, it cannot guarantee against unauthorized modifications of this information, or improper use of this information. Ratchets and Wrenches assumes no liability for any property or personal damage that may arise from doing a repair on your vehicle after watching any of my repair video's. Due to factors beyond the control of Ratchets and Wrenches, no information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Again Any injury, damage or loss that may result from improper use of tools, equipment, or the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user and not Ratchets and Wrenches.

[DrSteve-fuwx]

Great video, by the way. I rebuild batteries as a 2nd (semi-lucrative income), so I just have a couple of suggestions that you can do to improve your success rate. 1st (do a simple prebuild {pour out and filter original acid}, then using Baking Soda. You can use Tap {HOT} + Baking Soda mixed well and pour into each of the battery cells. This will remove almost all Sulfur buildup off Lead plates. After 15 minutes, pour out baking soda mix and rinse out the cells thoroughly. 2nd - Take filtered original acid, refill battery. Get Lead Acid Refill Bottle (at Advance Auto Parts) and top off battery level. To truly rebuild a battery to perfect, you need an Impulse Charger (fairly inexpensive). If not, then you can do the welder, but an older battery charger (the "Roll-a-round" style, which Harbor Freight still sells), will do the trick quite nicely! In 8 years of rebuilds, totaling almost 200 batteries, I've only had 5 fails. Hope this helps!

[joeh]

The testing was great, will i ever do this probably not. But, what you have explained and showed as to how the batteries work are greatly appreciated. I have worked on mowers for people which had low charging systems and now i can actually explain why their charging systems need to be up to par.

[speedpedals]

My dad talked about rejuvenating a dead battery and I never believed it until he did it several times at my gas station. He would take a dead battery and place it on charge and get it nice and warm. Then he would turn it over and allow the electrolyte to drain out. Next step, he would flush each cell several times which would help removed deposits on the bottom of the battery and help clean the plates. When it was flowing clean, per say, he would drain it and refill with new sulfuric acid and place the battery on charge. We never needed to purchase a battery for the purpose of giving a hot shot on a road call as we always had a reclaimed battery. The recharge was done with an old associated battery charger that was seen around may garages in the 60's and 70's. I wish I still owned it as it was kinda bullet proof and just kept on recharging batteries. I believe it was a light green case and it had a set of rubber wheels and a handle plus a hinged lid over the controls.

[OctavMandru]

A few comments from my experience and chemistry I learned in school:
The acidity of the electrolyte changes during charging and discharging. The water evaporates but the acid remains so its concentration also varies due to evaporation. Because of the excessive concentration, Sulphur crystals precipitate on plates. So the electrolyte concentration between cells can vary widely, especially on unused batteries.

So, a good restauration (presuming the plates are not bent beyond hope) would require:
-Emptying the battery in a safe container.
-cleaning the cells from precipitation as good as possible with distilled water and a basic solution (baking soda).
-charging (more like boiling) a battery with distilled water for a couple of times, water will dissolve all the remaining crystals. Or better said, crystals will dissolve in water due to difference in concentration and heat. Check the acidity of the distilled water, it should increase.
-Safely discard the resulting solution, it is basically a mild sulphuric acid now.
-replace back the electrolyte with correct concentration to the recommended level. I would probably use new electrolyte if I wasn't a cheapskate.

For maintenance:
-top up to recommended level with distilled water in order to rebalance the concentration equilibrium. Toping up with electrolyte will cause the Sulphur crystals to precipitate.
-Keep the battery connected to a smart charger, one that can provide trickle charging



I have a 10yo battery that I restored back to 90% rated CCA.

[tundrajt]

I actually just did something like this not too long ago. I bought a used Escort and the battery was flat dead on it. Took it out and put the charger on it and it would only put out about 400 CCAs. Hit the jump start on it and cranked amps up to 30 for 10 minutes three times and charged it for a night after. The next morning, CCAs jumped to 725 and now, the Escort has no problem starting!

[cmxjbup]

Detailed and scientific explanations. Useful and useful content. Thank you

[Daniel-lksy]

I usually do 20 amp punch for a 15-minute procession. Let it sit for half an hour after each session, and I have restored 3 batteries so far!

[nickfss]

I did 225 amps for 10 min then 1 hour rest. Did this for 5 cycles, brought the battery right back to life. Been using the battery for the past 6 months no issues. I think you need more amps and a little more time. i think 100 amps for 10 -15 minutes for 5 cycles would work good. You then need to trickle charge the battery at like 2 amps for like 16 hrs.

[tiredhub]

Perfect video, i've never seen such a perfect explanation in any other video about batteries

[TopiasSalakka]

There are some chargers that actually have a desulfation mode, my old boss borrowed me his CTEK and it had a reconditioning mode that hits the battery at 15.8V and 1.5A to break those sulfate crystals.

[DIYDaveT]

Experiments were smartly done. Thanks for this info.

[ihiitpw]

Works really well with my 1100ah off-grid battery.If you desulfate with an overcharge your electrolyte levels should come back to right around normal if it did bring the battery back. sulfate turns back into acid your level should come backup and you shouldn't need acid. The plates on car batteries aren't thick enough. The desulfating is typically used on traction batteries built much more robust.

[James-dtky]

I remember in high school auto shop a battery exploded. Dude took the lead off the battery while the charger was still turned on. That battery flew up and hit the 2nd floor ceiling.

[virgilkirschner]

Great video. Going to give it a try with a couple old batteries I've had laying around. Thank you for making the video content brief and to the point. Keep on charging.😊

[simonlinser]

You also can do things like gently tap the battery with a rubber mallet to try and break up some of those deposits. Also seen a guy gently rolling his battery down a grass slope, but gently. All these things are supposed to basically use physical movement to try and break up the sulfate... but obviously be careful because you don't want to break up the lead plates, they're made out of thin wires and are actually a grid not a continuous plate... and they're forms of lead that are very brittle and fall apart.

[davidmiller]

One way I have found to (maybe) get a stubborn battery to take a charge that a smart charger refuses to help is to hook up a fully charged battery in parallel with the problem battery for 10 to 30 minutes. Sometimes that's enough to get over the hump where your smart charger will take over and finish the job.

Works for lithium Ion batteries too, but your connection time is measured in SECONDS not minutes.

[howietorock]

about time someone did a welder test on batteries, i always wanted to know

[sarahheeter]

Great video. Very informative and easy to follow. Thank you😊

[MeDicen_Rocha]

I learned from VGG that you gotta put your used batteries on boil for a few hours and that usually brings them around. Otherwise you gotta dispose of them safely by throwing them into the ocean for the electric eels.

[fred.nestler]

VERY INFORMATIVE! THANKS!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.