OK Here is the story.
I have not one but two discharged Hawker Odyessy PC925 batteries in my basement not doing anything.
Battery #1 was installed in my bird and worked well until it became loose and banged around. The bolt head punched a hole in the bottom of case and the battery seemed to loose a cell. It was putting out about 10volts and nothing more. I tried to return the battery and hide the damage by using a peice of Dyna mat applied with a Heat gun to cover the entire bottom of the battery. When the seller got it back , the battery "all of a sudden" was able to hold a charge to 12.4volts. It was promptly sent back to me and indeed had a charge of 12.4volts. No refund.
Battery #2 was installed while battery #1 was returned to the seller. Battery #2 worked great for about 6 months until I took my Tbird off the road. In which it slowly became discharged and required a jump to start the bird. I left it hooked up and it continued to discharge until it was down to 3.1volts. I took it out and tried to recharge it with jumper cables and my beater saturn. I left it running for 1/2 hour and the battery woudn't go higher than 6.86volts. After removing the jumper cables and checking with a VM meter, you could see that the voltage would slowly seep back down to 3.1volts over a few days.
Scratching my head and knowing that the warranty was up for both batteries I left them in my basement for about a year.
Battery #1 had about 11.1 volts and Battery #2 had 3.1volts. I bought a
7amp battery charger capable of recharging deeply discharged batteries (it reportedly can recharge a battery from as little as 0.5 volts and de-sulphite the batteries too).
OK I hook the batteries up (In tandem I might add as this charger is capable of recharging more than one battery at a time too) and let them recharge for 2 days.
I come downstairs today I notice they are still charging (the indicator LED on the charger was still orange and not green). So I get curious and I disconnect the charger and test the batteries.
Battery #1 is 13.0volts and is seemingly holding the charge, I left the VM meter hooked up for about 3 minutes and the voltage didn't drop. Battery #1 is cool as a cucumber. Remember this is the battery that sustained physical damage to the case and was covered up with dyna mat on the bottom.
Battery #2 is up to 12.7volts and is boiling hot to the touch. I mean it was so hot that if I tried to pick it up my hands would heat up in about 5 seconds and I would have to put it back down. I had to pick it up with gloves.
I disconnected the charger and reconnected it to only battery #1. The LED was green. Then I reconnectd the charger to only battery #2 and the LED was orange indicating that it still needed to do more charging.
I picked up battery #2 (with the gloves) and when I turned it to it's side, a bunch of water came spilling out. Remind you, there is no physical damage to Battery #2 as I had it properly mounted in my T-bird. The only "abuse" that it faced was deep discharge (still not sure why but that is another topic).
To help everyone understand these batteries better, they are considered Military grade Dry-Cell batteries. I can't remember if they are Gel-Cell or AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) style batteries. But they say "Dry-Cell" on the side. I belive the claim since when I ruptured the case of Battery #1, there was NO LEAKAGE. Yet, Battery #2 had water spilling out of the top of it. Now I thought these batteries were sealed maintenece free.
Well, I got curious again and I noticed that the top label was covering a access panel. I popped it off easily revealing 6 little gray caps. I can see that water/fluid is bubbling/boiling off of one of the caps. They are these little caps that cover these little tubes that are about 1/4" in diameter. I didn't want to take the cap off for fear that boiling hot acid would squirt into
my eyes.
I let battery #2 cool down after an hour and I checked the voltage again. It dropped from 12.7 to 12.5volts. So I am concernd that it is not holding the charge and will drop on down to 3.1volts given a few days or weeks.
I know it is normal for a battery to get warm during a recharging cycle, but boiling hot?
Is there something that I am missing here?
Should I add water back to Battery #2 ?
What if anything can be done?
Is battery #1 salvageable?
Each battery cost me something like $120 plus shipping and the charger was like $75.00.
If anyone is familiar with the "Dyna Batt" line of batteries, these are made by the same parent company but are bigger. I originally had a 15lb PC680 (Dyna-Batt) but it didn't have the CCA's to crank the motor over in -15ºF weater. The PC925 has 390CCA and is definatly up to the task in this climate and they weigh 25lbs. The stock battery weighs 35lbs. Yeah yeah, I know seems like alot of headache and cost for a measly 10lbs savings......tell me about it.
So can anyone suggest anything?????
Thanks all. I was hoping to start the bird up and let it run this weekend.
I have not one but two discharged Hawker Odyessy PC925 batteries in my basement not doing anything.
Battery #1 was installed in my bird and worked well until it became loose and banged around. The bolt head punched a hole in the bottom of case and the battery seemed to loose a cell. It was putting out about 10volts and nothing more. I tried to return the battery and hide the damage by using a peice of Dyna mat applied with a Heat gun to cover the entire bottom of the battery. When the seller got it back , the battery "all of a sudden" was able to hold a charge to 12.4volts. It was promptly sent back to me and indeed had a charge of 12.4volts. No refund.
Battery #2 was installed while battery #1 was returned to the seller. Battery #2 worked great for about 6 months until I took my Tbird off the road. In which it slowly became discharged and required a jump to start the bird. I left it hooked up and it continued to discharge until it was down to 3.1volts. I took it out and tried to recharge it with jumper cables and my beater saturn. I left it running for 1/2 hour and the battery woudn't go higher than 6.86volts. After removing the jumper cables and checking with a VM meter, you could see that the voltage would slowly seep back down to 3.1volts over a few days.
Scratching my head and knowing that the warranty was up for both batteries I left them in my basement for about a year.
Battery #1 had about 11.1 volts and Battery #2 had 3.1volts. I bought a
7amp battery charger capable of recharging deeply discharged batteries (it reportedly can recharge a battery from as little as 0.5 volts and de-sulphite the batteries too).
OK I hook the batteries up (In tandem I might add as this charger is capable of recharging more than one battery at a time too) and let them recharge for 2 days.
I come downstairs today I notice they are still charging (the indicator LED on the charger was still orange and not green). So I get curious and I disconnect the charger and test the batteries.
Battery #1 is 13.0volts and is seemingly holding the charge, I left the VM meter hooked up for about 3 minutes and the voltage didn't drop. Battery #1 is cool as a cucumber. Remember this is the battery that sustained physical damage to the case and was covered up with dyna mat on the bottom.
Battery #2 is up to 12.7volts and is boiling hot to the touch. I mean it was so hot that if I tried to pick it up my hands would heat up in about 5 seconds and I would have to put it back down. I had to pick it up with gloves.
I disconnected the charger and reconnected it to only battery #1. The LED was green. Then I reconnectd the charger to only battery #2 and the LED was orange indicating that it still needed to do more charging.
I picked up battery #2 (with the gloves) and when I turned it to it's side, a bunch of water came spilling out. Remind you, there is no physical damage to Battery #2 as I had it properly mounted in my T-bird. The only "abuse" that it faced was deep discharge (still not sure why but that is another topic).
To help everyone understand these batteries better, they are considered Military grade Dry-Cell batteries. I can't remember if they are Gel-Cell or AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) style batteries. But they say "Dry-Cell" on the side. I belive the claim since when I ruptured the case of Battery #1, there was NO LEAKAGE. Yet, Battery #2 had water spilling out of the top of it. Now I thought these batteries were sealed maintenece free.
Well, I got curious again and I noticed that the top label was covering a access panel. I popped it off easily revealing 6 little gray caps. I can see that water/fluid is bubbling/boiling off of one of the caps. They are these little caps that cover these little tubes that are about 1/4" in diameter. I didn't want to take the cap off for fear that boiling hot acid would squirt into
my eyes.
I let battery #2 cool down after an hour and I checked the voltage again. It dropped from 12.7 to 12.5volts. So I am concernd that it is not holding the charge and will drop on down to 3.1volts given a few days or weeks.
I know it is normal for a battery to get warm during a recharging cycle, but boiling hot?
Is there something that I am missing here?
Should I add water back to Battery #2 ?
What if anything can be done?
Is battery #1 salvageable?
Each battery cost me something like $120 plus shipping and the charger was like $75.00.
If anyone is familiar with the "Dyna Batt" line of batteries, these are made by the same parent company but are bigger. I originally had a 15lb PC680 (Dyna-Batt) but it didn't have the CCA's to crank the motor over in -15ºF weater. The PC925 has 390CCA and is definatly up to the task in this climate and they weigh 25lbs. The stock battery weighs 35lbs. Yeah yeah, I know seems like alot of headache and cost for a measly 10lbs savings......tell me about it.
So can anyone suggest anything?????
Thanks all. I was hoping to start the bird up and let it run this weekend.