this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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fixing

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Celebrating/talking about repairing stuff, the right to repair stuff, and the intersection of tech and solarpunk ideals.

What does it mean to use what we have, including technology, to try to build a better, more environmentally just world?

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I have recently accidentally come into possession of a bunch of old lead acid batteries, ranging from a few months to several years without charging or maintenance. I could just get rid of them, but I would like to recondition and reuse them as additional power storage for my solar array, if possible. I have been looking at desulfator chargers online and I am planning on getting one and hooking it up to the batteries and just seeing what happens.

Does anyone have any experience reconditioning old lead acid batteries? Are there pitfalls I should be aware of? Since they are of unknown condition, am I better off scrapping them and buying new?

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[–] violentfart@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A “battery tender” or similar can sometimes help batteries that aren’t too far gone. And check water levels like the other comment mentioned.

I'll read up on those. I want to have a trickle charger attached to my main power anyway for the known-good batteries in my array to keep them from discharging too far in low production times, so if they hold a charge they'll probably live on one permanently