Odd battery behavior in Hyster elect. Pallet jack

Got the 8000 lb. cap. used Hyster a year ago and used it Less than an hour a month, but charged battery at least monthly and filled cells with dist wtr as req. The rainbow-type voltage indicator was always yellow, that being the next-to-lowest voltage reading. Last week we began using it daily for say 1/2 hr. On a project. The meter went to red (bad, read “dead) but truck still ran fine. Then yesterday after charging it again the meter went to green for first time ever, and stayed there even when we ran the truck a hundred yards to see if the green light was a fluke. Still green! Wonder what happened to wake the battery up, I never knew big wet cell batteries did that.

Cannonmn said:

Got the 8000 lb. cap. used Hyster a year ago and used it Less than an hour a month, but charged battery at least monthly and filled cells with dist wtr as req. The rainbow-type voltage indicator was always yellow, that being the next-to-lowest voltage reading. Last week we began using it daily for say 1/2 hr. On a project. The meter went to red (bad, read “dead) but truck still ran fine. Then yesterday after charging it again the meter went to green for first time ever, and stayed there even when we ran the truck a hundred yards to see if the green light was a fluke. Still green! Wonder what happened to wake the battery up, I never knew big wet cell batteries did that.

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Time was, folks very commonly "rebuilt" them, even in automotive sizes and price ranges, 6V era especially.

Debris shed from plates can accumulate and short the plates, especially in built-to-tighter spaces "automotive type". Industrial cells generally have deeper "sump" area.

Plates can buckle, shed material. Internal tie-bars to or at terminals can fault. Lots of things can go sub-optimal, and some of it can be influenced to partially correct.

Get yerself some reading material, then a hygrometer and at least a small amount of battery acid if you have accessible cells, wish to adjust so as to get the longest and most reliable life out of it.

Double and more the stock warranty is common.

FL batteries can be WELL worth that extra effort.

So, too, a better Voltmeter, perhaps? Or at least "vet" the one you have?

Thx for info. I bought a battery hydrometer, looking at sulf acid deals online, do I get battery electrolyte which is already diluted, or concentrated H2SO4, and an eyedropper?

What is FL battery, one from Florida? Not joking, I really have no idea.

I would guess that you either rattled something to make a better connection through increased use, or you have not actually been charging it adequately in the past

or magic

battery has memory and if you discharge to near zero it often will then charge more
.
some battery chargers after charging many days it will read only 60% charge. unplug and the plug back in and charge 30 seconds to a minute then shutoff. often then it will read 100% charged.......... why it do that i dont know but i learned that trick decades ok and it usually works

gustafson said:

I would guess that you either rattled something to make a better connection through increased use, or you have not actually been charging it adequately in the past

or magic

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Thanks, come to think of it, I couldn’t get into a loaded pallet that I needed to move about a foot so I backed the Hyster off a foot and rammed the side of the loaded pallet many times until it was where I needed it. So there was certainly some unusual motion/g forces that day.

Cannonmn said:

Thx for info. I bought a battery hydrometer, looking at sulf acid deals online, do I get battery electrolyte which is already diluted, or concentrated H2SO4, and an eyedropper?

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Both. Cheap enough for what you have involved. Use the premix when you can do. Slightly safer, much less hassle. But one cannot "always".

I'm ass u ming you stood AT LEAST JR HS chem lab if not HS or Collitch? If not, go and git educated; gloved, aproned, and full face shielded. This stuff can EASILY take yer eyes or scar you and badly so. Household vinegar it is not.

Mate of mine et holes in the carpet plus steel floorpan of two different vehicles before he twigged to safer methods of transport, and he DID have the courses!

What is FL battery, one from Florida? Not joking, I really have no idea.

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"FL battery" is Fork Lift (truck) battery.

I'm not joking, either.

Thx, got premixed and on finding all charged cells reading under 1.200 after temp. Adjustment, divided the 850 ml. Among all 12 cells. Since that will make only a tiny increase in SG, guess I’ll need to drip in some concentrated sulfuric to get SG in correct range. There’s too little room to keep adding the mix.

Cannonmn said:

Thx, got premixed and on finding all charged cells reading under 1.200 after temp. Adjustment, divided the 850 ml. Among all 12 cells. Since that will make only a tiny increase in SG, guess I’ll need to drip in some concentrated sulfuric to get SG in correct range. There’s too little room to keep adding the mix.

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Well. the reason one needs the acid-resistant gear and the face shield is that "back in the day", the electrolye was EXTRACTED, brought to spec externally, then put back in. This is serious work, not casual.

Yup, them good ‘ole days are gone. We had to close our 17-person Battery Maintenance Department a couple of years ago, now there’s just me, a battery-lifting beam, one hydrometer, a funnel, and an eye dropper.

Cannonmn said:

Yup, them good ‘ole days are gone. We had to close our 17-person Battery Maintenance Department a couple of years ago, now there’s just me, a battery-lifting beam, one hydrometer, a funnel, and an eye dropper.

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You are missing the legacy "syringe" to suck electrolyte out as well as introduce it for exchange and balancing?

"https://www.autozone.com/test-scan-and-specialty-tools/battery-acid-filler"

Time was, Telco's had all sort of "stuff" and trained staff. we could rebuild our own batteries on-site, had ongoing regular maintenance programs. You'd have had to be a Diesel-Electric submarine (life and death critical) or a B-26 bomber maintenance guru (crucial electric prop-pitch issues), to have had any more intense an interest.

One visit to the data centre we had our racks in, Hong Kong, mebbe ten years ago, a new partition had gone up. Other side of it? Row after row of basic commodity mass-market Marine/RV batteries. "Disposables" IOW.

Wasn't long before one of the FM staff executed an UPS cutover BACKWARDS, dropping 3 servers - all well past 900-day uptime - out of any chance at reaching record status (7+ years for BSD Unix..).

Hong Kong' major banks, finance houses, IS/IT, and Government agencies were a great DEAL more pissed-off than we small potato operators though!

New China News Agency - who manage to put a server on every backbone they can ID, *anywhere*, prolly though it was a deliberate Honkers PLOT!



It's a nuisance messing with all this. Clearly no longer worth it on inexpensive auto/truck/marine/RV sizes.

I'd still class it worthwhile on the battery you are dealing with though.

A NEW one costs how much again?

Thx, yeah may get one of those, but with the battery being a couple feet tall, and it looks like I only have access to top few inches over the sight plate, how d’ya take suction on acid below? Guess the syringe must fit thru those lil’ holes in the plate?

Cannonmn said:

Thx, yeah may get one of those, but with the battery being a couple feet tall, and it looks like I only have access to top few inches over the sight plate, how d’ya take suction on acid below? Guess the syringe must fit thru those lil’ holes in the plate?

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Nah. Even if equipped with an extension tube and right-angle adapter, all it can reasonably reach is the shallow flood above the tops.

But that's all one usually needs.

The REST of the electrolyte should be only SLIGHTLY off the SG mark anyway.

Up to you how much hassle it all justifies, after all.

Last time I looked, given I used to LIVE there, no part of Springfield was actually operating Diesel-Electric submarines, so your application is not at quite the same level of extreme priority!

I did some online research (yeah, belatedly) on flooded wet-cell batteries, specifically adding electrolyte or acid to the cells. Strangely, of many discussions and tutorials I read, there were no “knowledgeable-sounding” people recommending adding anything except distilled water. One reason is “stratification” where a battery has low SG fluid at the top, and higher SG fluid at the bottom. Since I can’t measure the fluid on the bottom, I think all I’m going to do is rock the vehicle with forklift to stir the fluid, and maybe repeat that weekly. I’ll also keep the two little battery maintainers connected to each bank of 6 cells when the truck isn’t in use. My reading revealed that the electrochemistry in these batteries is a lot more complex than I realized, and well-intended simplistic fixes may worsen the situation. I’m going to basically leave well-enough alone, as long as it works, that’s good enough for the aging battery.

Look up sulfation, spelling.?..

As you learned there is a lot of magic in the flooded battery but it basically is a sponge.

The plates "breathe chemicals" meaning for them to charge and discharge the plates need to be able to react with the fluid.

The plate surface acts like a sponge and what happens is the pores get clogged as a result of breakdown of the chemicals.

If they are left charged they self discharge and if left long enough the chemical reaction magic stops.

The battery becomes an open circuit.

Placing a higher voltage sometimes will allow some current.

Once some current flows things start happening.

If you are lucky some of the pores open up.

More charge and discharge activity sometimes break loose the crud and the battery wakes up a bit.

High charge voltage will equalize the cells but watch the water.

Do NOT exceed 0.1 % capacity for long term float charging.

Lawnmower float chargers work well for this.

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