LEAD ACID BATTERY REPAIR

ALWAYS WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND GLOVES WHEN

WORKING WITH BATTERY ACIDS!

Materials (per battery):

1. Magnesium Sulfate (EPSOM SALT), ten heaping tablespoons

2. Distilled Water, one quart. MUST BE DISTILLED, not tap water.

Note: Distilled water is usually sold in gallon containers, but only one quart
per battery is required.

These materials are available from most any drug store.

Procedure:

Note: This procedure works best if battery charge is depleted. ie; it works
best on a dead battery, not a charged battery.
1. Drain battery enough to be able to add one quart of fluid. Draining
battery to where the internal plates are just exposed would be a sufficient
amount. If you drain too much, you can always top off with the distilled
water. If you would rather not go to the trouble of removing battery from
vehicle, most auto parts stores have a battery filler tool that looks like this:

It works by compressing the bulb, inserting in the battery fill hole, and
releasing the bulb. Battery fluid can then be placed in discard container.
This is a lot easier than disconnecting and removing battery.

2. Heat the distilled water to about 150 degrees (very hot but not boiling).
The temperature doesn't need to be exact.

3. Mix 10 heaping table spoons full of Epsom Salt into the water and stir
until it is dissolved. It should take less than 1 minute to dissolve. It is very
important to dissolve Epsom salt entirely.

4. Pour solution into your battery where you would normally add water to
maintain the acid levels. DO NOT attempt to put Epsom Salt directly into
your battery because it will not dissolve in the battery acid.

5. Replace caps and agitate battery to the extent possible. It is difficult to

thoroughly mix the Epsom salt solution throughout battery because of the
battery plates and baffles. Probably the best mixing method is to simply
drive the vehicle (if the battery works at all).

6. Charge over night.

7. It is also important to ensure battery terminals and cable connections are

clean, free of corrosion, and shiny. Battery protector spray is available at
most auto parts stores, and will keep battery connections clean and
corrosion free longer. Battery connections should be kept tight;
recommend checking for loose connections quarterly.
8. Battery performance should be better after one day. However, the full
extent of how well the battery responds to this treatment can best be
judged after ten days. Epsom salts will continue working to remove built up
sulfates from the battery plates. Some batteries will improve as much as
they are going to in the first day, but typically batteries continue to improve
over the next week to ten days. It depends on battery age and level of
sulfate build up.

Maintenance Free Batteries

Most lead acid batteries have removable caps to maintain the acid levels
easily, but maintenance free (sometimes called low maintenance) batteries
necessitate slightly more effort to recondition. A maintenance free battery
has the top sealed closed to avoid evaporation, but this feature needs a
few extra minutes to recondition. To recondition maintenance free
batteries, you will have to look for the "shadow" marks on the top plastic
that will indicate the holes into the cells. Drill 1/2 inch holes in the plastic to
obtain access to the cells, remove one quart of battery acid, then pour in
the distilled water and epsom salt solution. When complete, these holes
can be plugged with plastic hole caps that can be found at most hardware
stores. This procedure works most of the time but not all the time. It
depends on how bad the cells are decayed. This process can also only be
done 2 to 3 times before the cells are worn out.