Day 847 (Daily Post)
Day 847. It is surprisingly sunny this morning especially considering that the weather forecast says it is supposed to be thunderstorming right now. In fact there is not even a cloud in the sky here at the moment. Relying on solar power as I do I am sure not going to complain about there being only blue skies as far as I can see.
Yesterday I did even more research about desulfating lead acid batteries with epsom salt and although the opinions to be found online vary widely on just how long doing it works...pretty much all the stuff that I read agrees that it will restore most batteries to between sixty and seventy percent of their original capacity.
There is also a lot of varying opinions on whether to add it directly into the cells or to dissolve it first in boiling distilled water and then adding it to the cells. It seems like if the battery has a lot of water loss that adding the distilled water mixture is preferable. I had been thinking about removing some of the electrolyte (battery acid) and mixing the epsom salt with it before adding it back to the cells because my battery does not have much water loss but now I am considering just adding the epsom salt directly to the cells instead. It's hard to decipher out what is best because of all the conflicting opinions but if it works it works and opinions be damned.
Something else that I came across in regards to desulfating lead acid batteries is that after the epsom salt is added that the battery needs to undergo a charging cycle and that using a 'pulse technology' type of charger will speed up the desulfation process and give better results on the overall capacity of the battery afterwards.
One final thing that I discovered is that the epsom salt desulfation treatment can take as long as a month or two to remove the crystallization from the lead plates inside the battery. Which is not all that big of a deal but it is definitely not some 'quick fix'.
All that stuff is kind of running through my mind this morning because I have been heavily considering treating one of my batteries lately with epsom salt and if it is going to be sunny for most of the day (so that I can charge it afterwards) I might just do it but I am kind of dreading undoing all the wiring and then cleaning all the terminals. Sometimes it is the thought of doing little annoying things that gets in the way of accomplishing a larger project but I generally tend to overcome such dread by telling myself to just do it and get it fucking over with and both the dread will be gone and the task will get accomplished.
All that stuff aside I am feeling much better overall after going on a supply run yesterday and stuffing myself with food last night until I was on the verge of a food coma then reading a book until I drifted off to sleep. I had a bunch of bizarre dreams about people I know, my dogs and oddly enough about my solar rig and using it to listen to music. As far as that last bit goes if the sun keeps shining like it is today I might actually play a little music while I do some stuff around the homestead today.
Well I am going to get to doing the unavoidable editing and posting of this and get on with my day whilst luxuriating in the sense of my overall well-being and peace of mind that everything is going to work out just fine. I hope that everyone is doing well (or well enough) and has a nice day/night.
Hello...!!! :D
@jacobpeacock
Quite awhile back I did some research on the "epsom salt desulfation" I didn't follow through with doing it but gave it serious thought.
Hello @annephilbrick! I am still debating about it as well.