Can you revive a dead car battery by inverting its polarity?

[@jesseharriott4253]

If your having problems with battery thieves, that is the battery to leave for them to steal lol.

[@volvo09]

Yep, clean it up so it looks new and reverse charge it without labeling it as such...

[@FieroGT3400]

@@volvo09yup, cant have any revised white polarity marks.... ;)

[@Zzus321]

This is BS. Batteries shed lead, then the cells Short out

[@patricklynch9574]

They will steal your old battery in hopes that you buy a new one.

[@GiveAcademy]

Most battery thieves in my neck of the woods aren't planning on using or selling them.. they turn them in to whoever is paying the largest core refund..

[@johnofsometrades405]

I've dealt with a reconditioning shop. They would slowly discharge to zero, reverse charge and actually use a high voltage or amps to boil the acid. Then drain rinse and refill, then slow charge. Recheck and sell as cheap reconditioned. Most of the time many batteries go dead from sulfur buildup. Reversing the charge knocks off the sulfur. I used to have a reconditioning charger that did the same thing. Took about 2 days to complete. Worked very well, even on some AGM's

[@volvo09]

Super cool, I'm going to try this next time I have a junk battery

[@rossbrumby1957]

Smart chargers that rejuvenate batteries dont reverse the polarity. I have one, the worst battery it brought back to good had 0.3 volts and took 7 seperate chargings throughout 2 weeks and it load tests excellent and holds 12.8 volts without loss. Most batteries take 1 charge up to 14 hours to fix though.

[@johnofsometrades405]

@@rossbrumby1957mine actually reversed the polarity. I regret not keeping it, but it would discharge completely, reverse for about half a day, discharge and recharge correctly. I actually bought it many years ago from Sam's Club or Price Club back in the day. The reverse knocks the deposits off the plates. But you have to make sure it runs fully and not interrupted or it could damage the battery. I think that's why they discontinued them. Kinda dangerous

[@makingcookingfixing]

I have a battery that has drained to 6V and my charger does not want to charge it. i jumped another car battery in parallel on it for a few hours, it reads over 12V, I put it back on the charger, and the charger immediately starts flashing that there is something wrong with the battery and will not charge it. What do you suggest? Now the battery is back to 6V

[@davefoord1259]

@@makingcookingfixing the charger wont turn on the charging until it sees enough voltage. This is safety so the clips are not live until connected to a battery the correct way around. Thats why hooking to another battery made it start charging. The fact it went back to 6 volts tells me that battery is stuffed.

[@informationwarlord]

Fully charge it in reverse polarity and leave it outside for the battery thieves. They’ll be “shocked” by what happens when they install it in their car. 😂

[@1marcelfilms]

And thats how you get a battery thrown through your window at 3 am

[@beenheredoneit.4381]

If you can get it back out your car after everything melts.

[@lesjones5684]

Good for your cars computer 😂

[@michaelhansen698]

especially if you place the battery on a land mine

[@kaidwyer]

I imagine they’ll just pawn it off like everything else. I don’t think thieves are stealing to fix their own vehicles most of the time.

[@CreationsVibration]

That starter is impressive

[@Mprikiman]

Knowing the car it's Toyota - DENSO starter. They usually last the lifetime of a properly maintained car. That's 500.000 km for this engine, easily.

[@slocavky]

he tested it on a LADA though... not a toyota. @@Mprikiman

[@fastinradfordable]

Not even a Toyota can easily Handle 500k km in Siberia

[@carloscollomps1552]

Not Toyota, it's a Lada, basically a russian made Fiat 125@@Mprikiman

[@Mprikiman]

@@fastinradfordable True.

[@Frrlas]

Had a battery that was 11 years old and died. changed polarity back and forth twice, and it is stil working fine after 5 more years.

[@MmmHuggles]

Keep that batter and see how many years you can get out of it. 16 years is pretty impressive.

[@qua7771]

Nice. I'll give it a try.

[@josepalacid]

I did it exactly on my dead motorcycle battery, two years ago, and still starting and charging.

[@wills.5762]

man as someone who gets -40 every winter thats fuckin crazy to me. You can spend $500 on a battery and it still wont start your shit in the cold after 5 years. I change my batteries every 2 years typically, but I also buy cheap refurbished batteries.

[@anthonyhettinger9702]

Die hard did this for me once

[@BoondockMercantile]

"Where's that smoke coming from?" Starter: "Where TF you think?!?"

[@BadMax02_VR]

it actually came from the battery terminal

[@demphanbreman5998]

I myself is surprised the starter held up

[@danielchapman9635]

Hi😊

[@by010]

I am suprised that starter didnt give up after this torture lol

[@billybbob18]

I think starters are designed to run for a second. At 3 seconds I start to cringe.

[@iknowyourebrokeauto468]

Someone give the guy that built that starter a raise!!!

[@hottractor1999]

No kidding! I kept wait for the smoke to break out.

[@Randomii666]

The most surprising thing is how the starter motor held up and how the flimsy stock cables didn't melt

[@davelowe1977]

It's only 150A.

[@lazzy2day]

I accidentally hooked up leads wrong on a completely dead battery years ago. It charged up completely but in reverse. I ran it down dead again & recharged it hooked leads correctly. It worked.

[@HobbyOrganist]

I'm not sure it even really makes any difference which way it's charged AS LONG AS- the battery is stone cold dead and therefore impossible to cause a short by connecting the charger backwards to a partially charged battery.

[@SkyNetworkSolutions]

it works sometimes.

[@rossbrumby1957]

Lucky it wasnt half charged- youd have fried your charger like the time i lent my best old school arlec charger to a friend who decided to charge his battery while stoned. Burned out the transformer. Ive since bought a 9 stage smart charger which has polarity protection.

[@MmmHuggles]

I wonder if this is how someone found out about this. One tired day they had a stone cold dead battery and accidentally hooked it up to charge on one of the old style chargers with no safety features and let it charge in reverse overnight. Then next day realized their mistake but got curious.

[@oilybrakes]

​@@rossbrumby1957 But polarity protection is just a bunch of Diodes in parallel or MOSFETs. Anyway, you can add them to any dumb charger too.

[@dom3827]

There is a german saying: "Everyone says it does not work but never tried it. Than there came one who did not know and just did it"

[@robertisaar]

Can you post in native German please? I have a curiosity for it and translating backwards doesn't work well.

[@johnpearson492]

As my coworker likes to say, "It's never not worked before."

[@GraveUypo]

thats a quote by mark twain. "They did not know it was impossible, so they did it"

[@dom3827]

@@GraveUypo it is a saying since ever in germany. It is possible he got it from there. The source from the saying is literarly what it says and has proofen multiple times in human history. Some physicists for example back than thought thing A is not possible but never tried. They relied on theory, which was wrong. They got proofen wrong by someone who did not know it was not possible or, at least, did not want to believe so. Happened countless times in human history. And because it is so relatable, it is a saying since a long time in germany, probably in other parfts of the world, too. Because that actually happened and still happens regularly. We use the saying when we do stuff and others think it will not work or we say it, to encourage others to do their stuff.

[@dom3827]

@@robertisaar "Alle sagten es geht nicht, dann kam einer der es nicht wusste und hat es einfach gemacht"

[@deleteduser3749]

Wow. Lada starters are amazing!!

[@thatguyalex2835]

You know what is even more amazing? That Toyota at 9:00 minute mark has 299,999 km on it (which is nothing for a Toyota), but it would be cool to see that roll over to 300,000 km. That is the distance light travels in a second, well 299,792.458 km to be exact.

[@learjet1246]

@@thatguyalex2835 9th gen Toyota Corolla all stop at 299,999 on the odometer.

[@Burnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr]

​@@thatguyalex2835cool

[@johnfox3845]

@thayguyalex2835 Unfortunately that simply isn't possible. The car in the video, along with many other Toyota products from the era, has an odometer that cannot exceed 299,999km/299,999mi. The actual mileage is likely quite a bit higher.

[@carloscollomps1552]

So that Toyota's kilometerage is 1 light/second @@thatguyalex2835

[@michaelstrafello7346]

We did a similar test when I was in high-school we took 5 sulfated batteries drew them down similar to what you did and hooked a battery charger up backwards momentarily (the charger was one that you could adjust the amperage manually) then trickle charged them @2 amps, 4 out of the 5 performed as they were supposed to, with the correct polarity, it was explained that the reverse polarity removed the Sulphur from the plates

[@Gearheadgotajob]

Now recharge to the correct polarity and retest.

[@JP-zd8hm]

^ this. Does the reversing remove the deposits from the plates maybe?

[@MoonArk]

​@@JP-zd8hmpossible. maybe its like magnet, opposite polarity attracks and same polarity repels.

[@cousinjohncarstuff4568]

Part 2? Drain it back down and see if the polarity can be reversed back to original polarity?

[@wonderlandparty6054]

It can. it requires another 100% discharge.. But this does reduce its Amp hours significantly

[@UberLummox]

@@wonderlandparty6054 Do you know if this reverse polarity deal will work on a battery that's been dead for a few years?

[@ArcEng1ne]

​@UberLummox no it won't work, all the acid in your dead battery has cause sulfation on the lead plates. I was able to get a battery to work that was dried out by just adding new acid.

[@james10739]

​@SomeThingsElectric but to me it seems like the sulfate should be on 1 plate I don't know if it's positive or negative but reversing should change that so it seem like a best method for removing the sulfate

[@james10739]

Switching it back would be ideal because positive and negative terminals are not the same size they are kinda close and you can probably make it work but they are different

[@MrMaxeemum]

This won't be the case for all failed batteries as they can fail in many different ways but hey it's worth a try, even if it only gets you to the next pay check it's worth trying. This channel never fails to answer questions I never asked (but maybe should have)

[@JonDeth]

Because the last cell which is tied to the cathode is typically the cell that's gone bad from corrosion, reversing the polarity and the pulsating D.C. from the alternator can break up the tendrils, and potentially relocate some of that debris into the other cells, so you lower the cathode cell's resistance enough to get it to hold some effective voltage. Cleaning out the old cell with a potent acid and all the cells really, then flushing it, refilling it and lastly, using a pulsating D.C. charger can restore a dead battery completely. *When people hit them with a really hot D.C. such as a welder as some have mentioned, it can burn through some of the high resistance corrosion and get it functional again. With my background in engineering though, if you can't replace the cathode cell but you can effectively clean it out, this is the first and most crucial first step to restoring the battery and it being reliable.* I've seen people use the welders and other high voltage sources of pulsating D.C. to get the battery back in good working order again, but even if it charges to capacitance I think it's highly likely that the corrosion debris is going to return to the cathode cell and before too long, it's going to fail again. A lot of businesses that rebuild batteries are simply replacing cells and, in many cases, the cathode cell will be the only one in dire enough shape to need extensive work whether it's a good cleaning or replacement. I did a motorcycle battery last year and the cathode cell was abysmal, but the rest still in very good shape. The amount of gunk I stripped off and poured out after repeatedly treating it with acid was ridiculous, but afterward, the cell looked to be in very good shape again.

[@eded8045]

lead plates are very thin and plenty DC current will warp and destroy

[@volvo09]

Interesting, thanks

[@Kowyn]

What acid did you use?

[@stoptellingmewhattowrite]

What type of acid? Flushing with distilled water afterwards?

[@FieroGT3400]

@@Kowynjust what i wanted to know!

[@garygermain1446]

I'm impressed not about the battery but about the Starter motor. That starter motor must have heated up to over 200°. Before it quit working.

[@georgestam1710]

How do you know the temperature? 😅 Why not up to 150°?

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Fascinating about the reversing battery polarity! But I find it more impressive that that starter motor didn't fail after all that!

[@CaptainLongbeardTuds]

I have been sitting on 6 dead batteries that I have collected over the years... I even tried reconditioning them. This actually works?!?!?! This is an off grid game changer.

[@Yukanhayt-Mhenow]

Same I have a few.... Might try it some day soon

[@Colt45hatchback]

Sometimes even just connecting your welder to the battery for a short time can fix them sufficiently to get your car to charge it up again, i always try it on old cars i buy that have been sitting for many years. I would say 50% success rate for cars that have been parked less than 10 years, and about 20% success rate for vehicles that have not moved for over 10 years

[@wazza33racer]

now that is actually the coolest battery hack I have ever come across on the internet. Once again, Garage 54 hits it out of the park ))

[@marsrover001]

Didn't expect that to actually work.

[@matsv201]

Lead acid battery are pretty much the only type that have symmetrical positive and negative pole. The only thing that make one pole positive and one negative is the actual charging. So in theory, there is really nothing that is possitive or negative in the chemestry apart from charging it

[@MadScientist267]

​@@matsv201They are physically constructed differently tho. The positive plate is on a "grid" and was originally PbO2, and when the reversed battery is fully charged, this physically weaker PbO2 will be on the negative plate, which doesn't have the means to support it. So it works, but nail a few potholes and speed bumps, its likely to fall apart on the inside with a quickness. Now stationary batteries on the other hand.......

[@matsv201]

@@MadScientist267 Typically there would be a grid on both sides. That is not always the case, but its pretty common. The simple reason is that the grid also help remove the charge from the plate when in use. I guess its possible that some batteries have only a frame to save on money. But it kind of make no sense. Then you need different machines to make positive and negative terminal

[@MadScientist267]

@@matsv201 They are made of different materials when the battery is assembled. Of course there is a different machine to make those plates. They are different because there's no need for a grid on the negative normally, it is metallic lead that converts to sulfate during discharge. The PbO2 in the positive plate does the same, but returns to PbO2 upon charging. The metallic lead (and the sulfate) are strong enough to support themselves, but the PbO2 is "softer" and does not hold its shape without mechanical support.

[@matsv201]

@@MadScientist267 if you would want to use this regardless. You probobly wanted to reverse it back anyway

[@sietze.temporary]

If a battery has gone to dry in only one or two cells you can isolate these cells where the electrodes touch by using turpentine and motor oil two-thirds turpentine and one-third motor oil and then it is isolated and can hold power again but it only works in a static setup if you move it and shake the fluids around it will lose isolation. Another trick this filling up the cells with this instead of destilled water will prevent the short from being a problem it loses voltage though depending on how many cells you have to insulate the plates from. Your trick works because of the way these oxides are moved over the plates with a good battery if the distilled water is not dryer up too much it will probably work for a while. These kinds of tricks are for emergency circumstances only. I would not recommend going on with it for normal circumstances and replacing it normally but if you have to improvise this works very well. Thank you for showing this...

[@nathanbradley4768]

I love the channel and something about this video the translation feels much more fluid and smooth than what I have got used to. its great to see, and your projects are awsome.

[@matsv201]

This can pretty much only be done with lead acid batteries. The reason is that the cells them self is symetrical and its actually chargin them that make them plus or minus. This will not work with pretty much any other battery. In a matter of fact, if you do that with a NiMh or a lithium cell they probobly will explode.

[@twentyrothmans7308]

"if you do that with a NiMh or a lithium cell they probably will explode." That's enough incentive for Garage54 to try it.

[@matsv201]

@@twentyrothmans7308 Well you are not wrong. There is videos of people doing it with Lithium cells (NCA to be exact). but i have not seen it done with NiMh cells.

[@Stealth86651]

I mean, technically an exploding battery is more "alive" than a dead one, so it's still working, just not in a safe manner.

[@wonderlandparty6054]

It wont explode right away.. It will start heating... And if it continued to allowed to heat THEN it CAN explode.. Most of the time it vents its pressure/contents and dies.

[@matsv201]

@@wonderlandparty6054 lets say there is a number of posibility and one of them is a very nasty explosion

[@volvo09]

9:05 ONE MORE KILOMETER!!

[@ChazizMTA]

299999

[@jwalster9412]

Just _a few_ kilometers.

[@neillrogers3604]

I think it might just be maxed out lol

[@learjet1246]

It's already maxed out at 299,999... 9th generation Toyota Corolla odometers all stop at 299,999.

[@Andrew_Fernie]

@@learjet1246What?!? Who decided that is the way is should be?

[@twocvbloke]

A lead-acid battery doesn't mind bieng inverted usually, though the plates may be configured in a manner that means it probably wouldn't last long with the polarity swapped, especially if the plates have eroded through use and are ready to drop off...

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Welp, I got about 5 batts to try this on. And that Lada starter motor is a keeper.

[@realflow100]

You can do this with just a couple sheets of lead in sulfuric acid. sodium sulfate. alum sulfate etc. reversing the polarity just changes which electrode the oxides form on. it is symmetrical. but for modern mass produced lead acid batteries it can degrade the active material rapidly if you do it too much or at too high of currents.

[@Kingsoupturbo]

Awesome! Also, this was news to me, wind chill doesn't affect to temperature applied to a car, if its -30c and windchild of say -45, the car only sees -30.

[@UpInSmoke54]

That why it's call Wind Chill Factor

[@kentworch]

Another awesome experiment. I honestly didn't think it would work as i figured a dead battery is a dead battery and would have to be rebuilt at least. I really thought it was going to be a joke like the perpetual motion video with the self running engine that breaks the laws of physics. Guess everyone can learn something new. Awesome video guys👍👍

[@djcybercorgi]

If you want to know what a strong starter motor is, I had to move my 1980's LeBaron Turbo Chrysler 2 blocks uphill to park it without starting the motor. It would crank over in gear and the starter motor was strong enough to move the car uphill while cranking it for like a minute at a time! I wonder if you can test that with a Lada... how far can you move a Lada in-gear with the motor off just using the starter motor?

[@twentyrothmans7308]

I saw a Lada starter motor reversing up a steep hill in Kiev once. What made things surreal was a Bentley driving past.

[@RustyShakleford1]

Lmfao YES we need a video

[@RustyShakleford1]

​@@twentyrothmans7308lol hahaha

[@RustyShakleford1]

Let's.goo I hope they see this I. I bet a Lada starter could get into 2rd gear and 20mph lol for 5 mins before it blows up

[@djcybercorgi]

That would be a hilarious video! What about multiple starters connected together, I wonder if that's possible...@@RustyShakleford1

[@Felix-tz1tk]

If u keep lead acid battery trickle charge to 15.4v, it should last for 15 years. After 15 years recover battery with pulsation charger and continue using it. Technically pure flooded type lead acid never dies.

[@mytebetme]

Always learning something new on this show!

[@Z174822]

One of the most clever and out of the box videos i have watched on youtube. Respect to russian brains, greetings from Greece.

[@gamelias87]

Starter motor for the win 🎉

[@cen7ury]

What I can't get over is how long you were able to continuously run the starter motor on that Lada without melting the windings....

[@Colt45hatchback]

Low compression helps, my old tractor only has 6:1 compression (well it did in 1949, might be less now) it does not mind being cranked for a long time, where my truck has 22:1 compression, gets hot very quickly

[@cen7ury]

@Colt45hatchback Hard to guess where your tractors compression would be after all these years...on the one hand, carbon buildup on the piston and cylinder head will increase compression over time, but cylinder wall scoring will decrease it...based on your truck's compression ratio, I'm assuming it is a diesel?

[@Colt45hatchback]

@@cen7ury yeah its a non turbo diesel, a 1991 toyota hilux

[@cen7ury]

@Colt45hatchback Oh, neat! I've never seen a hilux diesel, I don't think they made it to the US. I've got a couple diesel trucks myself; a 92 OBS F350 dually with the non turbo 7.3L IDI motor, and a 99 F350 4wd with the 7.3L Powerstroke. The 99 is a beast!

[@Colt45hatchback]

@@cen7ury nice, i am a fan of the 99's styling, we have some here but not many at all, maybe a few thousand total (australia) most of which are dual cab automatic petrol 4wd, i really wanted to get a single cab dually idi with a manual transmission, but the few that are here were either ex mining industry (rusty as hell from the nickel) or just abused and neglected by the tradesman (usually plumber) who owned them from new. There is however plenty of dent side f100 and 150's with either the australian 4.1ltr inline 6 like our falcons had at the time, or 302/351 v8's usually on straight lpg (propane) The hilux is good, its 4wd and the little 2.8 diesel does more than its fair share of work without much trouble, i mostly use it for towing, not something its really made for, but it does pull 2840kg up a long steep hill on a really hot day no problems so long as you dont mind being in the slow lane (with that weight behind it you are flat out in 3rd gear doing 4000rpm (redline is 5200) at 85kmh. Its legally only allowed to tow 1800kg, but its no slower with an extra ton behind it 😅 and handles it well. If you wanted to look up the engine to hear it, its called a 3L engine ( 3rd revision of the L engine) which is a 2.8 litre capacity

[@Marillionado]

I'm unsure if I'm more impressed by the battery revival or the sheer resilience of that poor starter. What a hero. Guys, how about an episode on incrementally raising the Lada's compression ratio?

[@irgant]

20:1

[@jimmieblue6262]

We use to do that 40 + years ago. It will last about 4 to 6 months depending on the battery.

[@jimmybrad156]

sup jimmie

[@tiredironrepair]

8:19 lol the screw trick. A classic.

[@0101-s7v]

The speed of the engine turning over (on the reversed polarity battery) sped up because the oil finally made it to the engine internals.

[@jacobwrona]

You guys never disappoint. Fantastic as always. This is quite possibly the most interesting KZbin channel in existence.

[@culmalachie]

Great! I don't buy everything I see and hear either, but still keep an open mind. Thanks for taking up your time to do that for us: I have a few batteries like that this now - off to find a BIG bulb to drain them quicker and then have a go too. Great project on a wet day!

[@Mook1639B]

Run a couple or three headlight bulbs in series...

[@broo_shs]

We have seen this happen a couple of times, and it would be considered the more common of these rare situations. For all intents and purposes, the battery will be ruined. You could technically charge it up, negatively, and continue to use it, but your plates are designed with the positive plates being lead dioxide, and the negative being composed of a sponge lead, which would now be reversed. Because the reversed battery is no longer formatted correctly, it will only work to a limited degree. The fact of the matter is, a lead acid battery cannot reverse its own polarity without an external stimulus. It is just not possible.

[@jordanciaramitaro6351]

Im not sure you arent heat seizing the starter, not to mention as the windings heat up the resistance goes up thus drawing less current. You can a 170a current spike from the saved battery right as the starter siezes

[@gvii]

The plates are clearly made of Stalinium. That's how they survived. 🙂

[@jagmarc]

According to my rough sums the demostrated battery only delivered about 10 Ahrs. But then a car engine only needs a small fraction of one Amphour to start it.

[@robertmiddleton5663]

so if you fully decharge the old battery then charge it in the normal sort of way does in work

[@aleks_jones]

i love the wrench test across terminals before the multimeter test lmfao

[@allanpatterson7653]

Old trick is to make a charging circuit from 120 VAC current limited by a rectifier and 60 watt 120 volt incandescent light bulb in series. The layer of insulation between the plates now has 165 volt DC pulses pushing little streams of current cleaning them off. If the battery starts conducting the light will glow before that you get intermittant flashes. Put the battery in a box outside covered as it might explode.

[@johnjelinek-g7b]

The plates were obviously sulphated, And I bet the reverse polarity broke loose the sulphation . I remember a guy that accidentally recharged a battery and it held voltage .

[@AZREDFERN]

I would rather have a new reliable vehicle battery, plus they endure physical wear. But for deep cycle, solar, and UPS batteries, this is amazing! You can also use multiple batteries in parallel if you have the space to give new batteries more CCA, or a few old batteries the CCA of a new battery. It also makes jump starting someone else easier.

[@anthonyhettinger9702]

Yes ive dropled them from 3' up fixing temporarily as well as drain, fkush, boil bake soda then add salt water turning into an alkaline battery then recharge and dead ones do come back excellent

[@dr_jaymz]

One of the failure modes of 12v batteries is one or more of the cells is out of sync with the others so its lower than the others. That screws up the cold cranking output of the battery because current has to flow through all cells. So discharging the battery until completely flat for two days will ensure they are all 0.0v. This is probably what restores the battery cranking current. I don't think it will help with sulphation though but boiling the acid can restore it apparently

[@Felix24148]

From what I've seen, it's not so much inverting the polarity, it's making the corrosion on the inner terminals come off. Attach a bad battery to a stick welder to boil it's insides with high power, and it'll boil that corrosion off the insides. I think you also need a certain kind of distilled water to rejuvenate the acid.

[@SkyNetworkSolutions]

i'v tried this already sometimes it works some time it dosen't.Still a great video.

[@Pulverrostmannen]

there's a big chance that battery was sulfated to begin preventing it to take proper charge. the remedy for this is normally several days of low current charge which it got but in reverse. I know this reversing trick works but in general you can just rejuvenate a battery by proper charging methods. But it was fun to see you try this battery hack

[@andersf5464]

The fuel heater needs a battery in good shape, that's why batteries often gets changes for a new one sort of unnecessarily. In colder cimate (Sweden) we are nearly dependent on heaters to get going in the winter.

[@bigal9658]

can you do some tests on battery desulphators?

[@travisr1720]

Our family has a farm in Alberta, we have a battery that was charged backwards in 1999. Still to this day is the best battery on the property.

[@troymomma]

you should do a video on it, does it have a date stamp?

[@Vivian-g1h]

I did see a video of a guy reviving an old dead battery by passing 80 amps though it using an arc welder in a series of thirty-second bursts. Presumably the lead sulphate deposit build-up was totally cleaned off. Then he fully charged the battery normally and it performed like new.

[@Senior_Mustard]

That's amazing, I would never have thought it possible. I'll have to try that with my ride-on mower battery, that's just about had it.

[@DodgeCharger900]

Got to love the Toyota 4A-FE engines. Still starting very good and running like clockwork with 299.999 on the odometer and a repaired battery. 👍

[@lordred7462]

I have one deady battery like that that I brought back to life by baking in with DC welder. Had 5 cycluses of 5 min charging. 1st 25 amps, 2nd, 3rd and 4th 80 amps and 5th 100 amps. Let it cool down, drain with starter crancking engine and slowly charged it back again with 5amps charger. Works almost as new and is used in my garage as test, backup source of 12 volts.

[@MathieuTechMoto]

Try inverting the polarity another time to have original polarity then retest

[@nzalog]

Not sure if the starter getting too hot was the limit of the battery tests or the batteries themselves.

[@Nabraska49]

I was expecting you to say just kidding at the end but it really worked.. I’ve got to try this myself.

[@snoman003]

Wonder if this total result has anything to sulfation? We have had batteries that were all but dead and won't take a charge, hooked them up to a desuflation system for a few days then they seem to take a full charge and work great. Perhaps reversing the polarity + charging them does the same thing. Would be interesting to see the reversed polarity battery, again completely discharged and then properly recharged back to normal polarity and load tested.

[@paolomartini150]

I wonder now about the chemistry of it. I never looked in to this before. Interesting.

[@treeguyable]

The linear ion phase polarity will never allow for a battery whose grid plates have been manufactured for electron flow in a certain direction, in terms of complete percentages as required from design specifications. But, that doesn't mean you can't over come the reversal effects up to a certain percentage, for a certain amount of time.

[@richardthomas1743]

I think that was more of a test for the starter motor!

[@Max_Chooch]

An old timer once told me this. I was skeptical. Never tried it myself. Never heard of anyone else trying it either. Good to know he was spot on.

Starting from the lead sulfate of a dead battery, either polarity is possible because there is nothing particularly fancy about either terminal except which plate becomes dominated by elemental lead (-) and which one is dominated by lead oxide (+). Probably will need to add more water to the battery after charging because the process consumes water. It's probably unsafe (fire or explosive case failure) due to different assumptions around the two phase flow venting of hydrogen.

[@JB-20]

Sometimes the reversing polarity technique is better than force charging. Force charging needs a higher voltage and current to boil the electrolytes. But in the reverse technique, even at a very low voltage and current, the liquid quickly boils.

[@perkins1439]

Starter motors have no ventilation they're meant to run short bursts of time you're killing that poor starter that's one hell of a starter good video

[@SageBlueMusic]

This is the automotive equivalent to wearing your underwear inside out and wearing it twice as long LOL.

[@polishhotdog933]

Just remember brown in back,yellow in front….

[@AIAllar]

I have seen someone reving these through electroicys kind of like when they use this to remove rust. You just use this process to remove the buildup on the tinplates to make them conductive again.

[@jerrysjunk]

you can also use a dc welder to restore the battrys

[@matiasketo5820]

I tried that. But after half year that battery was dead again. Of course I didn't use that at all on that half year. So fixing can work short time, but longer period...? I guess I'm going to try that welder again...

[@conquistador1425]

I once ran out of gas and used the starter to propel it several blocks to the gas station. You are just reversing the aging process by reversing the polarity!!!

[@dole8001]

My guess is electrolysis. The plates in the battery accumulate a kind of tarnish over normal operation hindering the chemical reaction. Then when charged in reverse polarity the plates repelled and the tarnish came off them which resulted in clean plates that promoted better chemical reaction.

[@kevinclear4007]

Now reverse the polarity back to normal.

[@Mprikiman]

not needed. It will be worse than before.

[@Stan-b3v]

I had someone hook the charger up the wrong way around on a set of batteries that were hooked up in series for a twenty four volt system. They went dead afterwards and I had to put jumper cables on them to start the machine but had no idea that someone had inadvertently reversed the polarity. There was some amazing sparks and heat created when you hooked up in the original polarity. I had to do the jump start several times and every time I hooked the cables and got far away quickly as I thought the batteries might explode. It was only after doing it a few times that I came to the conclusion that someone had “ charged them backwards “. I don’t recall how long they stayed in service but I know that they were re-reversed and that made things exiting. 8:59

[@dragan3290]

I love your videos and the expirements are excellent to watch. Nazdravlje iz Australia ❤

[@dustyrusty6840]

I did the start setting on the charger for 20 minutes and waited 15 minutes and did the same for 20 minutes. Brought back a 8 year old battery back and still working .I even did these on mower batteries. There is a lot of ways shown on youtube how to restore batteries.

[@joejane9977]

the current drop if also from the starter getting hot starters are low duty motors i hope the starter lives

[@brettbrannon4775]

Wow almost perfect timing was just 4 minutes late today, normally KZbin notifications are later then this time, anyways great content love this channel🙌🏻😁

[@Z_732]

That starter is a beast fr... thats impressive as well. Good vid guys!

[@kennedy67951]

Awesome, comrade . 😊 just to think, how many batteries I’ve thrown away over the years just to find out while watching your demonstration video make me angry about the corruption in our industries. 😢 Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.😊

[@wastelander89]

My batteries usually die after my alternator starts slowing failing or when i have a ground issues. I usually have other issues with the car that ruins the batteries. I always recommend to fully check the alternator and ground wires b4 buying a new battery .just to be sure its not something else killing the battery

[@ballen1569]

That's crazy! Hell of starter too!

[@shyancole2490]

When battery acid starts boiling and you have the caps on it that's when they explode not every time it boils but it is a high risk for explosion when it starts to boil

[@JJFX-]

If it's able to build up gas wouldn't it eventually just pop off the caps? If you did this around a spark then yeah, I'd imagine igniting a build-up of hydrogen isn't going to be a good day.

[@shyancole2490]

@@JJFX- yeah like when you disconnect battery terminals or jumper cables

[@JJFX-]

@@shyancole2490 Yeah I've heard rare instances of this happening. In open air this should basically never happen but in extreme situations anything is possible. I know many people think grounding to the chassis during a routine jump is to avoid this but in that case the risk should be minimal. I just do it to ensure a solid ground connection.

[@mann_idonotreadreplies]

@cole2490 you must have been connected is wrong.

[@shyancole2490]

@@JJFX- that's funny because on the first car I ever owned in my life it happened I had a 1983 BMW 320i I was 14 years old and had to do a lot of work on it to get it ready for the road when I got my license at 16 the first thing I did was hook up booster cables let them stay on there for only about 45 minutes on a 2 Amp charge as soon as I went to remove them the battery exploded and I was very lucky that I was standing on the driver side of the car because there is a plate that covers two sides of the battery there's a plate on the driver side closest to the fender in between the battery and the fender and one between the battery and the firewall I was lucky I was standing on that side it does happen multiple times a year it's a lot more common than you think just because you haven't seen it does not mean it is rare

[@mwbgaming28]

Leave it somewhere for the porch pirates to find and then watch the show

[@CatboyChemicalSociety]

doing this though will exfoliate the battery and so id call this a last resort fix because this polarity flipping is actually whats used to industrially produce the lead oxide for making the batteries in the 1st place. Where you have a cell consisting of 2 electrodes and a suitable electrolyte where the polarity is flipped every 5 seconds or so to evenly corrode the lead and selectively form PbO and not PbO2.

[@mann_idonotreadreplies]

Cool Google bro

[@CatboyChemicalSociety]

@@mann_idonotreadreplies its not google im an electrochemist

Can you try dimpled piston (and higher compression or AF ratio), I'd love to see that comparison before after

[@bobvitoski3158]

I actually discovered this trick about a year ago with a old dirt bike battery i accidentally hooked up the 50amp charger backwards because both clamps had been replaced and not labled. Worked great and was still working when i sold the bike 7 months later. And yes i warned the new owner about it lol

[@ryanjosef]

good experiment ! however I would encourage safety glasses in the future , no need to take a shower in battery acid if things go weird . :)

[@ALLin-one1]

Fantastic experience 👏

[@pionnm1]

i just tried this with my motorcycle battery.it was so dead that it wouldnt even show a current being drawn when charged. only had it hooked up for a few hoursand now it has enough current to make individual strands glow red hot. Thanks alot for saving me nearly 12000 Pkr!!

[@boastyy]

Tried this 5 years ago with a battery on a Kubota tractor its still going strong.

[@UberLummox]

Will this work on a battery that's been dead for a few years? Almost seems too easy. Thanks for the video!

[@helifynoe9930]

NOTE: When hooking up to someone else's battery to yours, via battery cables, why are you to connect the cable negative to engine ground AWAY from the battery itself as the final hookup step. And the answer is, to make sure no sparks occur near the battery itself. I had a bad battery in which a spark had occurred near the end of charging, a spark within the battery itself, and it exploded. The explosion was a heck of a lot bigger than I could have ever imagined. A good deal of the battery actually vaporized.

[@shanepowers7566]

I hope no one was hurt.