Survivalist Skills: Battery Reconditioning - Never need new batteries again!

Okay, so you've got a sweet solar set up. You've got a battery bank. It's powering everything awesome! But, what happens when those batteries go bad? What if you can't get more batteries? Those things don't last forever. You would be without power. Not quite! Battery reconditioning can save your batteries.


Why should you recondition a battery?

While recharging a battery will give you some juice, reconditioning restores the full capacity of the battery! You can do this to almost every kind of battery. Being able to do this would be an amazingly valuable prepper skill. Besides, that you could even recondition extra batteries to sell or barter! Nobody knows how to do this. They just get a new one,

Lead acid batteries are the easiest to recondition, so keep this in mind if you're stock piling. You should also read the manufacturers notes, and familiarize yourself with safety warnings. It's not difficult, but it can be dangerous. You are working with battery acid. So, be careful

The reaction of lead plates immersed in sulfuric acid generates electricity in automotive lead-acid batteries. However, this sulfate reaction also produces, along with electricity, lead sulfate.

When a healthy battery is recharged, this lead sulfate is converted back to lead and sulfuric acid.

But in tired battery, the lead sulfate changes to a crystalline form that coats the battery’s lead plates reducing its capacity. This process is known as sulfation. It is a common occurrence in lead-acid batteries and a major reason for their failure.

The good news is that you can often reverse sulfation utilizing a specialized high-current, pulse that effectively breaks down the crystalline lead sulfate and turns it back into lead and sulfuric acid, thus cleaning the lead plates and restoring charge capacity.

How to benefit from this?

Throw a post on craigslist or check the curb for dead batteries! These are of no use to people who don't know how to save them so they can be had very cheap or even free. You can stock pile them for yourself or sell them for quick cash, even trade for stuff you need.

If you'd like to learn how to do this there's a great guide for it. You'll be able to learn a valuable new prepared-ness skill, make some extra cash, and save your battery banks when they go bad! All you'll need is some household items and a few minutes of time to get a dead battery back on track. It's a great resource. Check it out here.