How to Restore Old Batteries – Introduction, Methods and Needs

Batteries can be expensive to replace; thus, it is good to try them whenever you can save an old battery. Many people have old batteries that are not in use because they do not know how to rejuvenate them.

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However, the process of rejuvenating an old battery can be hard when you do not have the necessary tools. It is good to study the condition of your battery before carrying out any procedure. Some batteries might be in very bad conditions that make it hard to restore them.

You need to understand that a battery that has been restored does not 100 percent of its lost capacity. It gains about 70 to 80 percent of its original capacity. It buys you time to get a new battery for replacement. The good thing is that a restored battery can extend its lifespan by about a year.

Therefore, it is wise to study the process of restoring an old battery. I am sure this will help you or your friend in one way or another. All the concepts in this article will be discussed in simple terms that everyone can understand.

How to Restore Old Batteries to Life

Restoring old batteries is a simple process that you can try to know what you need and when you know about batteries. However, you need to adhere to safety regulations before performing any procedure on your battery.

Many people have so many batteries in their garages, and they do not know what to do with them. Most people will advise you to take an old battery for recycling, but I am against that idea. You can still use that battery for a few years before taking it for recycling.

The good thing is that battery reconditioning takes a few hours and it requires less effort. Also, the process doesn’t require any money to start. Different types of batteries are reconditioned through different processes.

The advantages of reconditioning batteries include saving money, reducing environmental pollution and utilizes the available resources. Therefore, if you know anyone with so many old batteries, better advise them to recondition their batteries. You can help them carry out the process to use their batteries to their maximum ability.

Therefore, in our next discussion, we shall look at recondition different types of batteries in our homes. You must pay attention to every detail.

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How do you bring your old battery back to life?

As mentioned earlier, different types of batteries go through different processes during reconditioning. Therefore, we will look at different types of batteries individually.

Reconditioning a Car Battery

A car battery is among the most useful and expensive products in the car. However, you can recondition them and keep moving with them. Reconditioning will restore up to 70 percent of the power of a brand new battery unit. It would help if you had to have distilled water, a syringe, a voltmeter, and a battery charger. You need to go through the following steps:

Before starting the procedure, you need to have protecting clothing, hand gloves and goggles. Perform reconditioning in a well-ventilated room.

Remove the battery from the car by disconnecting the negative terminal followed by the positive terminal. 

Clean the surface of the battery before removing the caps. Most batteries have between 4 and 7 caps, and you must remove all the caps.

Using a syringe, fill the battery with distilled water and recharge it. The battery should charge for at least an hour, and you should not put the caps back during charging. You will notice some bubbles in the battery holes.

If you do not see any bubbles, it is wise to interchange the terminals and wait for two minutes. You will see the bubbles after two minutes. You should then reverse the terminals to their correct positions and recharge the battery for at least thirty minutes.

Also, you can replace the acid inside the battery with new acid mixed with distilled water. You should then recharge the battery for some hours.

Reconditioning a Laptop Battery

A laptop battery can be reconditioned using several methods. However, we shall look at a few effective and easy-to-use methods.

Method 1

Disconnect the battery from the laptop and cover it with a plastic bag.

Place the covered battery in a freezer for at least 12 hours.

Remove it after 12 hours and clean it.

Place it back into your laptop, then recharge it fully.

Method 2

Recharge your laptop battery until it attains full charge, leaving the laptop for 2 to 3 hours.

Leave the laptop idle until the battery is completely discharged and the laptop goes off.

Leave the laptop in the state of complete discharge for at least five hours.

After 5 hours, fully recharge the battery. This method increases battery life, and the laptop will give more accurate battery levels.

Method 3

Plugin your laptop until it attains full charge.

Unplug the charger and leave the laptop to drain the battery to 5 percent.

Plug it in again and ensure that it is fully charged.

Repeat this process several times until your battery is reconditioned.

Reconditioning a NiCad Battery

You need to know that NiCad batteries can be reconditioned too. However, NiCad batteries can get damaged when sulfur crystals reach the terminals and block the battery from charging. The steps towards reconditioning a NiCad battery are:

You need to have a flash camera capacitor which is available in cheap old cameras. You can disassemble one and use its parts.

With the capacitor, add a battery holder and a switch, stick wires to the black cylinder and join them with the battery holder and switch.

Place an alkaline battery to the capacitor and the NiCad battery into the battery holder.

Press the switch and focus on the Led light. Once the light glows, repeat the process. You will hear a sound once the sulfur crystals are destroyed. 

Can you recondition old batteries?

Many types of batteries can be reconditioned, especially rechargeable batteries. You can recondition lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries  (especially laptop batteries), NiCad batteries, hybrid batteries and many others.

However, before doing anything, you need to have all the details on the processes that can be followed. If you do not follow all the procedures strictly, you might end up destroying your battery.