Imhotep's Lab Interactive FAQ

franzink said

how do you measure the AMPHOurs for the batteries? how do you measure it for A, AA, 9V, Lead Acid Types etc

Seriously can you make money by accepting Motorcycle and Car Lead Acid Type Batteries from owners which will abandon them after 1 year? This is the normal life span for batteries

I need to ask you a question, i normally change my car battery 12v every year on my HONDA and do the Battery Supplier actually recycle them and make them brand new? or?

Maybe i can offer my services charging all their dead batteries?

Measuring amp hours can be done easily. just measure the amp drain and how long it takes to discharge the battery. I have posted some figures on this on the site, let me know if you don't understand and i will try to explain.

I have raised a little money by recovering some batteries. the problem is people always over discharge car and motorcycle batteries by cranking the engine until the battery is dead. this causes buckling, cracking and even melting of the plates inside the battery. when this happens there is not much you can do. I live in the third world where recovering batteries would be not only useful but a good business.

If a battery is a little weak then you can usually do a good job of bringing it back.

Reputable batteries dealers do recycle batteries, they are melted down and used to produce new batteries.

Batteries all have a limited life.

The Questions you have are the basics that everyone wants to know.

can I have your permission to post them on the site?

franzink said

my question is that how do you know when to stop charging a AACarbon battery after charging it for 5 times? if the voltage doesnt go up anymore or?

how do you know how long you need to charge the 1.5V A battery on the bedini imhotep machine? when will you stop after 1 hour? you stop charging when it reaches 1.6V? or? how do you measure the batterys? Current?

will the 1.5v battery explode if you leave it overnight?

How do you know when to stop charging a AACarbon battery? That is a very good question.

There are lots of things that effect charge rates, such as the condition of the battery, the fan you used for the charger, how well you have it set up etc etc. The truth is we cannot give a time. I can only tell you about my experience.

I ALWAYS CHARGE 4 BATTERIES IN PARALLEL.

I charge the batters until the voltage will no longer rise. Typically the voltage rises fast to about 1.55v and then slowly over the next 6 to 12 hours. Some cells will go to higher voltages than others, some will have more capacity than others. When there has been no rise in voltage for 4 hours or a noticeable rise in temperature I stop charging. I have tried charging for 36 hours with no gain in capacity.

If you see any sign of the battery swelling or leaking, it is ready to explode.

I have never caused a Zinc Carbon to explode but I have caused li ion to explode. I don't like to leave these types of batteries charging over night although I have done it. maybe others on the forum will have more experience than me with this.

I don't charge many zinc carbon batteries but i do charge a lot of Nicad and nickle metal hydride batteries and have been able to recover some that would not charge conventionally. I use my camera to measure how many well they charge. that is how many pictures can I take.

franzink said

yes please post it on the site. how do you market this recycling battery business? you visit the battery manufacturer and tell them that you want their sulphated batteries? and how much do you charge them after recovering the dead batteries?

can you really recover 100% capacity on near dead battery? how long is the charging time for car lead acid? motorcycle battery? how much can you charge them? you visit them or put an ad on newspaper?

how do you collect the dead batteries and how to sell back? if the battery is recovered will it be same specs AMPHour rating? how to check the amp hour?

A 100% dead battery will probably not recover. The people that complain about having a battery that is week or will not hold a charge have the batteries that can usually be recovered. Also if a battery has been let to go flat over many months will usually recover.

How well do they recover? well it depends upon the condition of the old battery. Some recover and perform as good as new, some recover but at reduced capacity but are still serviceable and some are just too far gone to bring back.

How long does it take? A long time. You need to cycle the battery several times to bring it back as much as you can, maybe 8 or ten times. At a C20 charge and discharge rate (see the earlier posts) that is 40 hours per cycle. No-one is happy to wait weeks to get there battery back so you have to have a stock of recovered batteries to exchange.

This is a little off topic but I will answer anyway. I know a few motor mechanics and once they knew about what I could do the word got around. A car battery here costs about two to three weeks wage for an average worker. I do not advertise but recover batteries as a service to a few garages. I do not charge much because this is a poor country and I only try to fund my research. The mechanics offer what they think it is worth. What is important to me is to learn what I can about batteries and how to recover them. I have a cheap Cold Cranking Amp meter and use that to give the mechanics an idea of the condition of the battery. When the word gets out people will be looking for you to help them.

To make the charging of larger batteries possible see how-to-increase-the-output-of-a-bedini-fan-t51.html

Cold cranking amps is a good guide to how well the battery will perform when on a vehicle but does not give you the full picture of reserve capacity

see Battery FAQs