T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Nickel-Iron Battery Questions

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Re: [Electric Boats] Nickel-Iron Battery Questions

They where somewhat common in railroad and telco use. Email these
folks for care and feeding advise: http://www.beutilityfree.com
Outside of the need to keep them watered, they should last forever.
These really should be the batteries that you and I have in our cars
for starting, but about 80 years ago some auto executive decided
everyone could just buy lead-acid batteries ever three years instead
of paying twice as much for the first battery and it lasting the life
of the car. Sigh
Costing us all six times as much in the long run, and polluting the
world with tons and tons of lead! ;-)

These would be my second choice in battery technology for traction
application after LiFePO4. The LiFePO4 win out on weight and upkeep
like lead NiFe need regular watering.
But NiFe win out on longevity, They can be 100% discharged with no
harm! Not many other chemistries can say that!

Good luck with them. How much does each 6v cell weigh?

On Jul 17, 2009, at 6:03 AM, Monte Gisborne wrote:

> Hello Fellow E-Boaters:
>
> I have recently acquired a quantity of Nickel-Iron batteries
> produced by
> Eagle Picher around 1994, originally to be installed in a TVan
> (electric
> vehicle built and sold by Chrysler). They are 200 amp-hour 6-volt
> modules
> and weigh about 55 lbs. with electrolyte and are the same size as a
> standard
> golf cart battery. They appear to have never been used and any
> original
> liquid in the batteries has dissipated into the air as they are
> totally dry
> inside, verified by destructive testing on one module. A simple test
> of
> adding some water to one of the batteries yielded a functioning
> battery,
> although I am not sure if total capacity was restored. They came
> with about
> a liter of Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) flakes to restore the
> electrolyte.
>
> Questions: What is the best method to restore these batteries to full
> capacity? Do I simply add water or do I add a mixture of water and
> dissolved KOH flakes? Should I flush out the batteries first and if
> so, how
> would I do that?
>
> My intention is to restore these batteries to proper health and would
> appreciate any insight that this group may have.
>
> With thanks,
>
> Monte
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

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