[Milsurplus] Lead Acid Batteries - another possible substitute

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 7 Feb 2005 at 10:06, Peter Gottlieb wrote:

<much good stuff snipped>

> capacity.  I have seen batteries guaranteed for 25 year service life
> and have no doubt they can achieve that but those are larger than you
> want to carry with you in a manpack.

All true.

Pb+H2SO4 batteries are, IMHO, a big pain. The mine cars in 
Butte, Montana used "Edison Cells" which were a nickle-iron-
alkaline storage battery. They were routinely periodically 
cleaned out, electrolyte changed, and then re-used. Many of 
those batteries are/were over 80 years old and working as well 
as the day they were made. They can be reverse-charged 
without damage, and it is practically impossible to overcharge 
them. Also, they can't be frozen and thus damaged.

BUT, they have a much lower power to weight ratio than lead-
acid batteries, and lower voltage per cell. Also, if you try to pull 
too much current from them, they really bitch at you about it.

Given the current state of the art in batteries, we are pretty 
much stuck with the lead-acid battery, for many reasons.

Liquid-electrolyte ni-cads are pretty good though.

Ken W7EKB