Is it Possible to Revive a Dead Battery with Epsom Salt - See For Yourself

I watched your video, as well as, several others and then finally decided to "take the plunge". I bought and restored a 38 year old bass boat. It had a deep cycle battery in it for the trolling motor. I really don't know how old the battery is but it was completely dead. Charging it overnight did almost nothing for it. I followed your instructions and then brought it up to over 12 volts after an overnight charge. (Then I got sidelined for almost 3 months following knee infection and surgery. The battery just sat for that time period.) I put it on the charger for a few hours last week then took my boat out to the river. The battery performed without any problems. I was on the water for several hours. Price to repair; less than $10. Price for a new battery; over $90. Thanks my man. You saved me a bunch!

This battery reconditioning program exceeded my presumptions. It worked on any drill battery, several AA and AAA batteries batery.repair and any camera battery. The steps are simple and the act itself is exciting to do. No matter what type of battery you`ve got, it is sure to function again!

I was informed that you have to drain and recharge the battery at least 5 times. Each time you drain and charge it it will hold a little more amperage, but yes it absolutely can be done. I am currently in the process of reviving a 75 amp hour deep cycle marine battery that my father used to use for his trolling motor. After just 1 charge/discharge cycle it is holding steady at 9.5 volts. I know that it doesn't seem like a big deal, but after just sitting in a shed for almost 10 years and not registering at all on my multimeter a week ago it is monumental in this case.

Great effort without people like you to act out the experiments we as a people would have no idea where to begin....thank you for your time on this....

Some of the videos I watched where folks did this they put the used acid back in using a turkey type baster so as not to dump the metals that fell out of the solution to the bottom of their bucket. They only used the Epsom salts to clean out the inside, rinsed, and put the acid back in and it worked for them. I think they claimed this cleaned the sulfated plates inside to allow the acid to make better contact with them.

I really love this channel. Well done for actually showing the progress with a CCA gauge instead of just battery voltage! I just wish we could have seen the results of simply trying to charge the battery before going through this process. I have a feeling that this battery was in pretty good shape to begin with and only needed a full charge to start working properly.

Tried & true...thanks for showing the amperage. Good solid review!

It's a lead-acid battery, not a lead-epsom salt battery. After getting battery charged with the epsom salt you need to drain all the epsom salt solution out, wash out good with water, then top off with battery acid. This last part was omitted in the video!

This method might a actually restore a battery under some circumstances, but as a general rule, the most common reasons for battery failure would not be helped here. I used to work in an automotive battery manufacturing plant. While there I met a man who had actually tried to start a business which identified junk batteries that could be reconditioned for resale. (Junk batteries are the used batteries that shops take in from consumers, which are usually sent to a lead smelter to recover the lead.) The business failed, because only a small percentage of batteries could be reconditioned, and even the ones that could be reconditioned frequently failed again within too short a time to make them worth paying money for. And he tried this back when our roads in the US were generally in much better condition. Roads? Yeah, one of the most vulnerable parts lead acid batteries is the inter-cell connections. On a typical 12 volt automotive battery there are five inter-cell connections. If just one of these connections becomes damaged, the battery will fail. A battery that bounces around a lot on bad roads is much more likely to have this type of problem. Since most batteries these days are assembled via automation which requires higher molten lead temperatures, the lead takes on a crystalline structure which is more easily broken over time. If your battery is what we used to call an 'oddball' battery -- a battery type that is kind of rare -- then it's more likely that that battery was made by the hand method, which produces much better inter-cell connections. Road vibration can also cause the separator material between the plates in the battery to get worn causing shorts. The hallmark of a cheaply made battery is cheap paper-like separator material. Really high quality industrial batteries encase cells in envelopes of high quality separator material, but since this tends to make each cell a lot bigger, you rarely see this on automotive batteries. Most of the time manufacturers put better quality separator material in the batteries with longer warranties. In summary, automotive batteries simply are not engineered to last indefinitely, and in the greater scheme of things, they are not all that expensive to replace when needed. Sure, if you've got the time and inclination, you might put off the inevitable for a time, but even though batteries don't have moving parts, they eventually just wear out. Personally, a know a whole lot more about batteries from both the chemical, engineering and manufacturing standpoint, but when my battery starts to go bad, I just replace it. If it's still under warranty, fine. If not, I know that it was never engineered to work indefinitely.

lol....i like this review whether it was a failure or not ,this guy demonstration was cool and honest with some humor as well

One of the problems with "quick fixes" like this for batteries is that people often just measure the voltage once, not the capacity over time with a load. Holding 12.6v is useless if that drops quickly under load. Your current test goes some way to explore this.

This is the perfect guide to a proper test. I'm using an old battery to run a laptop on a power inverter and this video shows exactly how to make something from my old car battery!

This is a good video. Just like a chemist doing an experiment. You show the methods and the results. The comments point out all the other issues. The tube is cool. You can learn a lot, what works, what doesn't, why it works, why it doesn't, how to do it better, basic chemistry, electricity, how to use a load tester, etc. Whoever watches these how to videos should always read the comments for max learning and potential dangers. I have a q. When you sand the terminal, does this release lead? Are they made of lead?

I have to take your word about the process and chemistry, but I see you achieved something that is useful and odds are there are a number of people out here that will try some form of this and save $$ while actually recycling!!! I believe the battery voltage might have been higher in the end, if the last charge was much higher, at least 10A. Battery charger designs vary widely, but when using trickle charge or 2A charge, the simplest chargers don't tend to raise the voltage of the charged battery as high as a 10A charge or more will. There are numerous variables that can cause lower voltage, but if you haven't tried higher charge settings, your not being realistic about expectations. It is a energy storage device and you will not be getting more out of it than you put into it. For me, I consider the basic numbers in involved (IE: 2 amps X 24hrs = 48 amps ---> into the battery ) what percentage of your batteries advertised capacity in amps is this? If my battery was say a 500 amp and less than approximately 11V (start voltage level), with the 2A charge for 24 hours, the battery has only received <10% of it's storage capacity. Then 10A X 24 = 240A..

Very interesting and well explained. Just a thought, i think if you would have rinse the baking soda a little bit more tus would have been perfectly back to almost new. A little residue of baking soda would neutralize some of the new fluid. Just my two cents. Great video

My dad always said never set a battery on the ground or concrete always set it on wood, plastic, or rubber ! The ground or concrete,rock ,stone draw the battery down and if let set on too long will permanently ruin it at least that’s what he always said I noticed working on cars every body always said the same thing . Jusr wondered if any one else knows about this ?

I operated in the nickel plating department where I work and the one key ingredient for conductivity in the plating tank is sulfuric acid. Not enough acid results in poor transfer of nickel to the part being plated. To much acid creates a crapy finish. In this case the epsom salt is a cleaning agent and needs to be dumped out and the battery filled with sulfuric acid to a specific gravity. This can be checked with a battery hydrometer. If your careful you could filter the old battery acid. If you choose not to reuse the old battery acid I would recommend to neutralize it with baking soda.

Your video got over 800 comments, you are doing something right. Very informative. Some of the comments missed your point. You asked a question and then answered it. period. Thanks.

I live in an area with wilderness and potentially bumpy dirt roads. Went with a gel cell heavy duty - very satisfied.

After adding Epsom salt you need to do an equalizing charge for at lease three days or more depinding how bad the sulfation is this will remove the sulfation giving you more plate surface area and adding cranking amps then it is wise to remove all the liquid and put the proper mix of sulfuric acid and water distilled water. I'm not 100% sure if removing the liquid and adding the proper mix of sulfuric acid and water will help in the long run but I do know that adding Epsom salt does remove sulfation but requires a lot of overcharging I'm in the process of fixing a battery now if you would like to see a video on that they will like it would be my first good video