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

Friday, July 17, 2009

Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Nickel-Iron Battery Questions

"No manufacturer in there riches dreams would make such a critter (no
repeat customers). The rights were bought by one of the big guys."

That sounds a little too much like Fish Carburetor and Tucker
conspiracy theories. The truth is that the bulk of Eagle-Picher's
contracts are tied to defense and are proprietary and very closely
guarded. E-P built batteries for the lunar rover and other NASA
applications, and numerous types for nuclear subs, Navy general and
missile applications which are only now being declassified. I learned
this in talking to Darryl Goade while putting together the electric
racing program for the utility I worked for.

Darryl was the man who held the U.S. and World electric water speed
record at 46 mph before Lady Arran's team gained class recognition by
UIM and raised it to 50 mph. He was also an Eagle-Picher engineer,
recently retired, who had a job nearly any of us would envy. In
addition to his engineering duties the company supported Darryl
efforts to set a variety records, both on water and land, including
running on the salt at Bonneville.

Darrell, explained a lot about his batteries (the parts that weren't
restricted) including the explanation that his speed was low because
his Nickel-Iron batteries had a very short cycle life so that by the
time he made his speed record run they were pretty used up by testing
and by his partner's 55 mph quarter-mile drag run. He also explained
that nearly every product E-P made was owned and held secret/
proprietary by our government. I'm sure Darryl's still around. He
lived in Shelbyville, MO when I talked to him, I've heard he's in
Eagle Rock now.

John

On Jul 17, 2009, at 6:07 PM, Mark Stafford wrote:

> Monte,
>
> Lucky you! I hear the Nickel-Iron tech is from some of the first
> industrial batteries, and they can last for nearly 100 years. No
> manufacturer in there riches dreams would make such a critter (no
> repeat customers). The rights were bought by one of the big guys.
>
> I don't know the best way to revive them... I'll hunt around. I
> would guess pure water, gentle agitation or internal circulation
> (external pump with small hoses fitting inside the cells), charted
> specific gravity measurements, then additional KOH to the under-
> performing cells after multiple charge/discharge cycles.
>
> Mark Stafford
>
>
>
> --- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Monte Gisborne"
> <emotive@...> 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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