Sulphated Battery Pictures?

[big john]

I'm putting together an inspection procedure for our operators to follow when doing basic plant checks. One of the things they must visually check is the condition of the battery plant and I'd like them to be able to recognize a sulfated cell.

Do any of you gurus have any pictures of sulfated flooded-cell batteries? I spent a long time on Google and couldn't find a really good picture that these guys could use as a reference. I found many pictures of plates once they've been removed from the jar, but that's not very useful for a guy looking at a working battery.

Thanks.

-John

 

[eric9822]

Not exactly what you are looking for but here are some ugly battery pics.

Treeing is bridging the plates
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/Tisabooks/Battery5.jpg

Bulging tops of jars
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/Tisabooks/Battery6.jpg

Positive plates growing into sediment causing tops of jar to bulge.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/Tisabooks/Battery3.jpg

Bulging top of jar.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/Tisabooks/Battery2.jpg

Corroded terminals
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb126/Tisabooks/Battery1.jpg

Before anyone asks, they were all replaced once the situation was discovered.

 

[big john]

Thanks for the posts! I've never seen the tops pushed up by sediment before. How long did that take to happen? And how come nobody adding water ever noticed? I'm wondering if that would be a good thing to add to the list of things to check for.

Also, with the treeing, did that show up as reduced cell voltage?

-John

 

[S'mise]

what type of batteries?

 

[big john]

what type of batteries?

180Ah 6.6V flooded lead-calcium batteries in clear jars.

They look similar to the ones Eric posted.

-John

 

[eric9822]

I wish I had more information but unfortunately I don't. The batteries were originally installed in 1990 and these pics were taken in 2005, I have no idea if these were the originals. The maintenance was being done by a contracted company and apparently the service reports had indicated that replacements were needed for some time; the reports were ignored. The situation did not come to the attention of engineering until the condition of the batteries were as depicted in the pictures.