Thursday, December 18, 2008

What Is Battery Sulfation?

By Allen Strong

If you have ever encountered a problem in your car when the battery just seemed to be unable to jump start your car? This happens most commonly in the winter and in the morning. After several trials, you finally get the car to start and then the next morning it behaves like it again. If your car battery was brand new or wasn't used for a long time, this might seem weird. Actually, you have just experienced battery sulfation.

Inside a battery, voltage and capacitance is generated between metallic plates and a liquid solution where the plates are suspended. In most common lead acid batteries, the lead reacts with the sulfuric acid found in the electrolyte solution and forms lead sulfate. This reaction is called sulfation.

This could happen to any battery. Those who are most prone to this kind of chemical reaction are those batteries who have been left unused for a long time like in storage rooms or just being displayed and not bought in a store.

Usually it's fairly easy to tell if your battery has gone sulfated on you. First it struggles to start your car, showing no voltage and capacitance at all, and generating hardly any current. This happens every morning.

The lead sulfate that has formed from the lead and the sulfuric acid is a kind of precipitate which slowly covers the metallic plates in crust. A precipitate is a kind of rust, which instead of eating away the metal it has formed on, just covers it entirely.

Luckily, there are devices in the market that can reverse this chemical reaction. It "shakes" away the lead sulfate compound off of the plates and you'l find your batteries performing like before. You should ask your local mechanic about battery desulfators and don't suffer anymore from dead batteries. - 16069

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