Reviving a battery

[AlanH]

Hi all,

Thought it might come in handy. I recently bought an old Beetle with a 6V electrical system. The Beetle stood for 20 years and the battery was dry.
I removed it and started looking for a new battery. While searching I came across some youtube videos where they revive batteries and I thought I'd give it a try since I have absolutely nothing to loose.
So took the old battery and measured voltage, 0.19V in essence dead.
Took 250g of Epsom Salts ( Engelse Sout) and mixed it into 1l of distilled water and made sure it was diluted.
Filled up the battery and waited a while (5minutes) measured again but no change. Took my charger and set it to Power supply on 12Volt. Boosted the battery for about a minute and tried to change over to charge. It worked and the battery was busy charging.
After a day I measured the voltage and it was 6V. I removed the charger and installed it in the Beetle. Tested all lights and all worked, I accidentally switched over too far and the solenoid for the started clicked but did not turn the motor. I was happy already. Removed battery and charged again. This time I gave it time to charge. The smart charger has 8/9 stages and was on stage 3 (bulk charging) it remained there for 4 days and today when I went to look at the status it was complete and full.
I could not believe it and installed the battery. After about the 5th try with some quick start the Beetle jumped to life. The started motor did quite some work and the battery did not die on me.
I was over the moon and just had to share this. No w remember, it has just done it now but I'm not sure how long the battery will last, time will tell.

[Tony Z]

Good info. Keep us posted on how long it lasts.

[calooker]

It will not hold the charge. I did this may years ago as money was..... non existent. I tried it on at least 2 occasions with 2 different batteries.