Solar Forklift Battery Maintenance & Desulfating Golf Cart Batteries

I spent some time working on my off grid solar batteries. I have the old solar forklift battery that I am restoring. Then the newer solar forklift battery. And i am desulfating the old golf cart batteries to put them back into service in the solar powered RV.

I removed all the insulation I had around the forklift batteries for the winter months. It is hot out now and they need to cool down, not be kept warm. I hope to build an insulated shed out back for them before the cold sets in again.

The old forklift battery, some of you may remember, I bought as scrap metal. I am hoping to restore two 12 volt battery banks out of a huge 36 volt forklift battery. The battery was resting at about 12.1 volts after not being used for a couple months.

I put a solar panel on it and to help bring up its capacity for now.

I topped off all the forklift battery cells in both battery banks. Both the old and the newer one. What surprised me is that the old forklift battery has lost some water even though it was not connected to anything. I guess it was the hot near 100 degree days we recently had.

The newer forklift battery was also low and I topped it off with distilled water.

In the off grid RV I checked the fluid levels on the solar golf cart batteries. I have the two newer batteries rated at 6 volts and 216 Ah each, connected in series to give me a 12 volt battery bank.

Then I have the four older matching golf cart batteries which are badly sulfated.

None of the golf cart batteries needed any water.

Some of you may remember the old golf cart batteries would not rest at over 12.2 volts no matter what I did with them. I considered them useless for my off grid tiny home and put them into the RV to be desulfated by the Bedini Motor.

The Bedini Motor is a radiant energy battery desulfator. It has been connected to the old golf cart batteries for about two months now undisturbed.

To my amazement the old badly sulfated golf cart batteries were now sitting at 12.89 volts while connected to the Bedini Motor.

I powered it down and let the batteries rest for a while. They were still at 12.8 volts. This is very good.

The next step in restoring sulfated golf cart batteries is to discharge them a bit and then reconnect them to the Bedini Motor. You have to cycle them a few times to bring the sulfated batteries back up to capacity.

So I used the VIAIR air compressor to put a 30 amp drain on the four old golf cart batteries to bring them down to 11.9 volts.

The VIAIR air compressor is a portable air compressor that I am reviewing and putting through the works under unusual conditions to see how well it performs. You can find VIAIR here:
http://www.viaircorp.com/

After discharging the partially restored sulfated batteries a bit I let them rest again for a while.

I then reconnected them to the Bedini Motor and will leave them for a while to recharge and desulfate some more.

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