How to restore a battery with baking soda
As the battery life increases, various contaminants appear in the electrolyte, which partially settle on the lead grids. This reduces the capacity and amperage of the battery. If you wash the battery jars with soda solution before replacing the old electrolyte with a new one, the degree of battery recovery will increase noticeably.
Will need
Materials:
- working battery;
- Charger;
- 3 liters of distilled water;
- 1 package of baking soda;
- 3 liters of electrolyte with a density of 1.28.
Tools and accessories: screwdriver, rubber gloves, containers for draining old electrolyte, dry, clean rag, funnel.
The process of restoring a car battery using baking soda
The procedure for flushing a battery is quite simple. We unscrew the caps in the jars and completely drain the old electrolyte into a clean container prepared in advance for this purpose.
We will need this liquid again.
Pour about half a standard package of baking soda into approximately 1 liter of distilled water in a bottle and shake the container thoroughly until the soda is completely dissolved in the water.
Through the filling holes of the cans, using a flashlight, we inspect the condition of the lead plates of the battery and make sure that they are intact, there is no warping and there is no physical contact between them.
Using a funnel, pour an aqueous solution of baking soda into each jar until the liquid completely covers the plates. We immediately notice that a violent reaction begins in the jars between the sodium and the remnants of the old electrolyte.
We withstand the process of interaction between the alkaline and acidic ingredients for 20 minutes. This time is enough for the aqueous soda solution to completely neutralize the remaining electrolyte.
We completely pour the contents of the cans into the second container and make sure that the components that have reacted with each other are highly contaminated.
We pour some of the old electrolyte into the jars to completely neutralize the soda remaining in the jars. Shake the battery case to activate the reaction of the components among themselves and completely drain the partially filled old electrolyte.
Wipe the battery case with a dry, clean cloth.
Fill the jars with new electrolyte with a density of 1.28 to the required level. We wait about 10 minutes, clean the plugs and screw them into the holes of the cans.
We prepare the battery for charging by first measuring the voltage at the terminals using multimeter, which is 12.54 V. We select the slow charging mode at a voltage of 6 V as the most optimal.
Charging will last about a day, but before it it is necessary to unscrew the caps from the cans, since during the charging process gas will be released from the cans.
