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Forklift battery, back to life?

Mebfab

Diamond
Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Location
Mebane North Carolina USA
I have a 24 volt (model 12-85-13) forklift battery. But been sitting for 6+ years in a warehouse. It was bought new and filled with acid. May have never been run. Any way to bring it back to life? Just try charging it?

I have not done anything to it yet. Customer threw it out and I grabbed it. Figured I could scrap it if nothing else.

Any tips to buying reconditioned battery?
 
Hook it up to a forklift charger with "equalization" function.

If the electrolyte hasn't evaporated, that's a good start.

A good forklift battery shop is most likely a good place to start, also.
 
I have a 24 volt (model 12-85-13) forklift battery. But been sitting for 6+ years in a warehouse. It was bought new and filled with acid. May have never been run. Any way to bring it back to life? Just try charging it?

I have not done anything to it yet. Customer threw it out and I grabbed it. Figured I could scrap it if nothing else.

Any tips to buying reconditioned battery?

If it is a "wet" battery (removable cell caps) first thing is to check electrolyte levels and add water if necessary. Then charge. With a battery that has been sitting that long you need to charge it gently. If the cells aren't equalizing (check with voltmeter) let it rest awhile and try charging again.

If it can't be saved. My advice re. a reconditioned battery is to buy from a dealer with a good reputation. There are a lot of sharks out there.
 
Some junkie showed up on a jobsite where my son was working, carrying a new car battery he wanted to sell. Gave him 3 bucks for it and brought it home. It sat on a shelf in my garage for 5 years. Noticed it one day, took it to the shop, and put it on a slow charger. Used it as the starting battery on a LP forklift, and 3+ years later its still going.

I think Don bought one of those constant current chargers that's used for bringing forklift batteries back to life. I remember him talking about buying one, or considering it, in a thread maybe a couple years ago. Perhaps he can shed more light on doing the Lazarus thing on them.
 
Do not add water unless plates are not covered.

Only add enough to cover plates.

If you have standard battery charger attach it to 12 volt section and let it charge.

Add a second one to do whole battery.

If it does not take a charge you can just leave it alone for a few days and it may wake up and start charging.
 
I think Tony may have been using the term 'standard battery charger' to mean a 12 volt charger. But using the same term to mean an older transformer and rectifier charger is also important. The newer microprocessor controlled chargers will not charge a dead battery. I built one a bunch of years ago from a ferro resonant computer power supply (1960's vintage) and it will charge any 12 volt lead acid battery from completely dead.

Terry
 
Model is more common in electric pallet jacks, not large enough for forklift. Constant current charger will bring it back but even if never used if it was neglected for many years it will have sulfate buildup on plates and never perform nearly as good as new, even when brought back from dead. Speaking of dead, what is voltage now ? If just under 24 now that is way better than say 10 volts now.
 
14.5 volts. What do you think?
Well, that sort of sucks but it could be brought back to perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 it's original run times with constant current charger. An industrial battery shop might do even better than that since they have the equipment to discharge and recharge in heavy duty modes that loosen more sulfates from the plates.
 
Well,, I put on regular charger for about 7 hours. At that point charger said full and measured 25 volts with charger off. But if you apply load it wont do much. Raises mast a foot or two and gives up. Put back on charger and charger dropped to 20% and went back to charging.

Left on another hour and unhooked to go home. The battery dropped to 23.2 volts over the next 2 days. Have not had opportunity to charge further.
 
Well,, I put on regular charger
"regular charger" = ? If not a 3 phase charger meant for the purpose it's hopeless...unless it's a constant current charger, which it isn't. An industrial battery specialist might could bring it back to life enough that your regular changer would work from here on... maybe, maybe not... Also are you sure this regular changer is not one meant for sealed AGM type batteries, as that would be particulary hopeless.
 
"An industrial battery shop might do even better than that since they have the equipment to discharge and recharge in heavy duty modes that loosen more sulfates from the plates."

I second Don's good advice. We abuse a lot of these batteries and when they get truly sad or when we buy a used truck with a terrible battery, we send them off to Crown Battery here. They use a course of repeated heavy charge and discharge to clean up the plates. The bad news is that when enough of that crap falls in the bottom of the case, they'll short out, but we have brought many of them back from the dead when like yours enough to make them useful. They'll make sure your electrolyte is right too. The battery might only have 50% of the original capacity, but we get a few more years out of them that way. So look for an industrial battery company around you and get expert help.

Jeff
 
Borrowed even larger charger. 3 phase in. Weighs 2x what other charger weighs.

Hooked it up. Battery had much more vigorous response. bubbled a lot more. Overflowed electrolite. Smelled rotten eggs.
 
Borrowed even larger charger. 3 phase in. Weighs 2x what other charger weighs.

Hooked it up. Battery had much more vigorous response. bubbled a lot more. Overflowed electrolite. Smelled rotten eggs.
Must have overheated to the point of boiling the acid. With new water is it now better or worse as far as holding voltage ?
 
The worst thing for a battery is to let it sit for long periods uncharged. Sulfate crystals build up on the surface of the active plate materials drastically reducing the active area available for the chemical reaction.

Get it on a current limited charger and let it sit for a few days. You want a current limited charger so you don't heat up the battery. After a day or so check for any shorted cells with a volt meter. Battery is toast if there are shorted cells. If you can get it to take some charge and don't have any shorted cells, get a charger that has a high voltage pulse type desulfater mode. I had some good luck using one on my old F250 diesel batteries. The theory is the pulses knock off the crystals and expose more active material, sounds good anyway. It will not make the battery new but it may bring some life back. Like others have indicated a good industrial battery or fork lift place would have the proper tools. Some say batteries can be flushed and filled with new electrolyte but that in my opinion is chasing a dead horse.

Craig
 








 
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