batteries

And they have pros and cons, when it comes to, you know, services. We also went from having nickel metal hydride batteries and hybrid packs to mostly lithium ion. And if you guys heard of the new battery that's coming out, it's not lithium anymore, right? 
custodium. Sodium ion, it's much cheaper to produce. Apparently, it's much better for the environment, because we don't have to mine is bad for it. 
Uh, but the, I think the one drawback on it is, they don't have as much range, but I think even that, it possibly didn't fit. So that's what they've been doing to get past. Kind of like the price barrier that a lot of people have run into. 
So today, we're gonna be describing the parts of a battery, understand how a battery converts chemical energy to electrical energy, explain battery capacity ratings, and select the correct battery type and variety for your application. So, when a load is placed between the positive and negative battery terminals, electrons flow. We know that, right? 
What happens if I put a section of wire between the +and battery terminals? Do electrons still flow? Yeah, but what does the wire do? 
It's probably gonna get really hot, right? And could it potentially catch on fire? Yes. 
So if you short a battery... does not end well. That's generally when we get car fires. We have to have a physical load of some sort in the wiring connecting that you wired. 
So voltage or potential can be used up. So the battery is the heart of the electrical system. Without a healthy battery, your system is just not going to work as it should. 
It converts chemical energy back to electrical energy. And it provides the power for all of our accessories, especially with key on, engine off, the battery supplying everything. It supplies the current to the starter. 
It acts as a reservoir when the car is running. It also acts like a capacitor. So if there are any spikes or desperate needs for voltage, it will step in and supply. 
So, the battery's big, big roll. The reason why it really has to be healthy is, it has to supply power to the starters. Once the starter gets the car going, then the battery can kind of take a backseat, because then the alternator steps in and does and provides voltage for the vehicle. 
Starters easily pull 100 amps. easily. And that's a pretty substantial pull. So, the starter draws more than 100 amps, like I said, if battery voltage is low, It's not gonna happen, right? 
We're gonna get stranded. Rapid clicking is generally what we're gonna hear on that solenoid to the start. Battery voltage is not available. 
So if you ever hear rapid clicking, don't keep on turning the key. not gonna happen. The battery's recharged by the charging system by the alternator. And really, when we start the vehicle, that's the alternator's first job. 
It goes to the battery, it says, I got this. did a good job. I'm gonna replenish what you used, and when the alternator is actually running, we go from working with 12 volts to usually around 14, 4. That's optimal. 
That's what we wanna see. But we've been talking about source voltage a lot. And we know that source voltage, especially with the key on engine off, is around 12 volts. 
It's ideally what I want to see from a battery. So, battery basics, when two different metals are immersed in electrolyte solution, a DC voltage is produced. So that's how we produce electricity by chemicals. 
Two dissimilar metals, dumped in an electrolyte bath, produces DC voltage. So, I have about 2.1 volts per plate in an automotive battery, and I have six plates. And they're all wired in series. 
So when you add them all up, each plate, we get a total of about 12.6. First, super healthy battery. These plates are grids with horizontal and vertical bars. 
They are separated from each other. And they're all dumped in an electrolyte mixture. This electrolyte mixture is about, if you had to spitball it, you could say it's about 40% sulfuric acid and about 60% water. somewhere around there. 
This battery electrolyte mixture is strong. If it gets on you, it will burn holes through your clothes, and it will give you pretty bad chemical burns. I used to work with a guy, and he used to burn off warts with that reaction. 
Did it work? Yeah, was it a good idea? Probably not. 
Each battery cell consists of a packet of several positive and negative plates. Now, these positive and negative plates, that's where we get our December belts. So, terminal connections, the top of your battery. 
They're made of blood. Now, is lead super strong? I mean, there's not no. 
It's actually pretty malleable. So we do need to be careful when we're dealing with our top connections. Because they can be broken, they can be marred. 
Some batteries have side terminals. Which brand use side terminals? General Motors. 
Now, thank goodness, they did away with that, but they did use that for a number of years. And they were pretty common to loosen up and have issues. Most cases are constructed of lightly plastic. 
It's not just any kind of plastic either. So it has to be able to hold up to that electrolyte solution. So, uric acid in water. 
How many watts breaking bad? All right, you know why plastic is important? All right, remember, season one with the bathtub incident? 
Oh, good to see. Walter said, you need to get plastic containers that have this marking on them, because they will hold up to acid. All right. 
The plastic consistency, the plastical, plastic, um, pipes that are used in these batteries. Bless you. I can withstand that strong acid. 
Uh, bathtubs can't. So, some cell elements have plastic envelopes that fit around the cell plates. Most battery tops have removable cell caps. 
That's not the case anymore. Most batteries that we deal with are not serviceable at all whatsoever. But if you're dealing with a lead acid battery that is the case, current flows to the battery from the charging system, and we know that. 
So the battery has a direct connection to the fuse box, right? You know what else has a direct connection to the use box? You alternate. 
So. Keyuron engine off, battery supplies everything. Key on engine running, battery is replenished by the alternator, alternator steps in, powers the fused bombs. 
So this case, the battery is consistent of is constructed by polypropylene, so polypropylene, plastic is used to build these cases. Inside, each case, we have six cells for a 12 volt battery. We're working with a 12 bull battery. 
Obviously, we'd be working with 12. Excuse me, a 24 volt batter would be working with 12. Each cell has a +and negative plate. 
Talk about that already. And when they design these cases, they actually have separators built in, so everything can kind of like sit in and lock in as securely as possible. This talks about maintenance for batteries. 
They use a little water during a normal service and maintenance free batteries also are called low water loss batters. Now, a standard lead acid battery, if it is working hard, one of the things that we come and see is they gas. Now, when a battery is working hard, it does produce gas, any takers on what type of gas the battery actually produces. 
I do? Hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is extremely what? 
Like, is extremely flammable. If I have any history buffs in here, they used to build dirgibles and blips, and before they started using, you know, hot air or helium, they would use hydrogen gas. The Hindenburg, had a spark, go up into it. 
It went up horrible, horrible feet. So hydrogen gas is extremely flammable. So that's another reason why we do not have standard lead acid batteries inside of our vehicles. 
If it's flammable, it's probably toxic too, right? So, the older lead acid style battery, since they went particularly gas, that electrolyte solution would evaporate to a point, but the acid itself never evaporated. So you would have to periodically add distilled water to the batteries, to replenish, and recharge the boundaries. 
That's why they made a big deal about maintenance free batteries. They don't essentially have the water evaporate as quickly. All right, so back on these grids. 
So each +and negative plate is consistent on a framework or grid. And these grids are made out of lead. That's money, or calcium, is added to the lead for strength. 
Remember, I said, lead is pretty malleable. So we do need it to hold its shape. Lead must be strengthened for use in automotive battery grids. 
Now, let's think about this. How many potholes, how many rough roads do we deal with? Just a bit. 
So, the battery can potentially get pretty beat up. So we do need to strengthen those lead components. I don't want it starting to crack and fall apart on me. 
So, the plates, let's talk about positive and negative. The positive plates have something called lead dioxide or peroxide in paste form, and that is what is put onto the grid framework. Now, this paste is brown. 
So lead dioxide or peroxide paste is brown and it's useful and positive plates. Lead dioxide reacts with sulfuric acid of the battery. As we knew it was in that bath. 
The negative plates are actually pasted to the grid with something called pure porous lead. It's called sponge lead. So, sponge lead, and peroxide, react with each other in that electrode, electrolyte bath. 
They produce electricity through chemical reaction. So the positive plate probably is what? Brown and go. 
Brown in color. Is it also called peroxide? Is it also lead dioxide? 
Yep. So it's all the above without. You guys have a question? 
you? This one here? No one. 
Yeah. Deposit plate is brown in color, right? Correct. 
Okay. Oh, my, thank you. All right. 
Let her go. And we use sponge lead on the negative plates. You good, Jeremy? 
So what's the big takeaway? Positive uses lead dioxide or peroxide. Fortunately, positive peroxide sinks. 
Negative plates. A little different. They use pure porous lead and it's called sponge lead. 
So, we have to separate the positive and the negative. Because if the positive and the negative touch, we get a short. So, does anybody ever had a bad cell and a battery, or heard somebody saying, Oh, I got a bad cell? 
The moment you get a bad cell, what happens is you lose about two volts off the top of your batter. So you can go from having 12 volts to about 10 volts. And whenever you have a bad cell, it's generally because you've had cells that have shortage. 
So positive and negative plates are installed, alternatively, next to each other, without touching. We need to use those separators to keep them apart. Separators allow room for the reaction of acid with both plate materials, and these separators insulate the place to prevent shorts. 
Separators are porous and have ribs facing positive plate. And they're made from resin coated paper, or it's rubber, fiberglass, or plastic. Many batteries use envelope type separators to encase entire plates. 
So we need to make sure that the plates are safe, but we also need to make sure that they are separated. So batter explosions injure 15,000 people per year. Could that have potentially increased to the amount of batteries that we work with? 
It could have decreased, too. But needless to say, that's a lot of people injured by batter explosions. So, odds are probably not a good idea to smoke near a battery. 
Probably not a good idea to use batteries for catch. Like, when dealing with the batteries, probably a good idea to wear gloves, in case they leak. What about the batteries that are... 
I don't know, Tesla? Like the battery effects, and especially when they're all... at one place, just powered on top of each other, after something happens, where it just explodes. Good question. 
I don't know, radiation. Look, no radiation. Oh, no radiation. 
All right. No rage. Nothing like that. 
Uh, when those electric vehicles, when they catch on fire, the batteries are actually the module packs are actually encased in corn. So they actually run cooling across the packs to help pull heat out of the packs. So they have their own integrated cooling system. 
So they do a pretty good job with that. But those packs do short from time to time. And if a Tesla catches on fire, you can use water to put it out, but you have to use, I think it's like somewhere around 5 times as much water to put them out. 
Oh, I've seen one the other day, and they had it in, like, a 40 yard role walking, and the fire department had to go with water, and they said it was more like, for, like, 2 or 3 days. Yes. They take a really, really, really long time to put out, and they take an insane amount of water. 
Now, fortunately, if whose cars are in accidents, they do have clear spots for 1st responders to be able to essentially kill the packs. So if they are in an accident, they don't have to worry about potentially shorting into the body and the others don't like that. Does it always work? 
No. Do you know how many normal car fires go on? A lot. 
Do we hear about them? No, because it's commonplace. I mean, we are rolling around with a huge tank of extremely flimmable fluid and hardware people, too. 
The reason why we hear more about the Tesla and the EV fires is because it's still new, and they are fairly spectacular when it happens. I'm not in a good way. But are they probably gonna come out with better technology for that stuff? 
Yes. Do I think EVs are gonna go away? I think the cheaper they make them, more people are going to buy them. 
It's just going to be the new one. But do know that when Evie's getting accidents and battery packs are damaged, they are actually much more likely to total them than they are to repair them. Just for safety. 
And those batteries are good, except it's half the price of the vehicle. So batter explosion, about 15,000 a year, fully charged positive plate is a combination of lead and oxygen, lead dioxide, or lead peroxide. Positive and negative plates become alike as the battery discharges. 
So this is a big thing to know. As the battery discharges, these plates become more alike. That's not necessarily good. 
When you recharge the batteries, They resume their previous state. But that can only happen so many times before the batteries and their plates just become too similar and cannot hold the charge that they used to. So during the charging process, we reverse a lot of the damage that was done. from discharging. 
After repeated charging and discharging, the active material on the cell plates do get worn, and they will get to a point where they cannot come back. So battery capacity, the big thing we need to deal with, or know about, is related to the following factors. The surface of the plates, the weight of the active materials on the plates and the strength of the electrolyte solution. 
So if I have a little battery with little plates, not much active material, and not a whole lot of electrolyte, am I gonna produce a lot of potential? No. Do I need a huge battery to start a little Honda Civic? 
No. I don't. So a lot of times with your 4 cylinder vehicles, the reason why we have a Tanya batteries, because that's all we really need. 
How big is your battery on your car, Harrison? Pretty nice. Pre pretty tiny. 
I was gonna say that one, probably real small. Is anybody ever seen a smart car? This batteries are not real big either. 
The new Teslas, they have startup batteries on them still too. And they've actually gone to lithium ion batteries. So there are maybe a little bigger than a drill battery. 
Anybody ever seen like the 60 volt batteries for your weed whackers, electric, you know, grass or something like that? Figured about that. And a lot of these Teslas have actually gone away from 12 old systems to 60 volt systems. 
High voltage, lower amberage. Still be able to get the same amount of work. But the size of the battery and the active material plays a big part. 
So if I have a big V8, I'm probably going to have a pretty bigger battery, right? I need more capacity. I need a lot more work to get done. 
And the trade off is a lot of extra weight. The most common method of raiding automotive batteries is pole cranking, which we've been talking about that since intro class. So we've got cranking amps and we've got cold cranking amps. 
Which ones do we care about? Oh, cool, cool. So cold cranking in. 
So how many amps can be provided at 0 degrees Fahrenheit? One of the other things that we generally want to pay attention to is something called, uh, excuse me, reserve capacity. So reserve capacity is the rating and the number of minutes for which a battery can produce 25 amps and still have voltage of one. 75 volts per cell. 
Does anybody have anything that needs to run a long period of time on just a battery? Oh, like a... motorcycle? Well, motorcycles actually have something called staters, and they do recharge the batteries. 
Look, anybody, any fishers in here? Controller motors? Controller motors run purely off of a battery. 
So every time you bring your fishing boat back home, you're probably gonna take this massive battery, and you're gonna put it on charge. Now, those batteries have a pretty beefy reserve capacity, because they can put out a decent amount of imp for an extended period of time. And overall voltage generally does not creep down much at all. 
That's a good battery, good for reserve. The rating is a measurement of how long a vehicle can be driven in the event of charging system failure. So if my battery... was healthy, had good reserve capacity, if my alternator died, let's say that. 
I can probably still get home. Probably would help if I turned the headlights off and anything that would be pulling from that. But if you have a good reserve capacity, odds are, you're gonna at least get to a repair shop if you're charging system were to crap out. 
So once more, healthy batteries are really important. What if my charging system does die out? Some manufacturers rate batteries in watt hours as well. 
When we're dealing with lithium ion batteries, sodium ion, we're dealing with wad hours as well, or kilowatts. Batteries are designed for specific uses. We've got conventional lead batteries or the original battery designs used for cars, even today. 
Tractors, what have you. Maintenance free batteries are a variant of a conventional battery. A lot of times maintenance free do not have cats on the top. 
Some of them even had little bubbles on them. So they were green and it was a hydrometer. So you could actually see into the actual cell. see if it was in good shape. 
I'm not gonna get of that question. So, battery size is related to its reserve capacity. So am I gonna have a good reserve capacity with a tiny battery? 
Probably not. So I'm probably gonna be using much bigger batteries if I want to have a good reserve. So, cars with larger engines and more accessories require batteries with more plate surface. 
Generally true. I could also upgrade my alternator, which would produce more current and still maintain voltage for what I need. Recombination batteries or sealed batteries, using electrolyte gel, or non porous, non woven gas, perching me glass. 
So, this would be, like, a PGM battery. Absorbing glass matte batteries, do not use free liquid or gel electrolytes, which is another form of battery, which we pretty much see more so now than lead acid. Um, most production vehicles. 
So if you pop the hood, if you think you have a lead acid or an AGM, what is generally the best thing you can do to decipher which one you have? Yep. real complicated. Look for a sticker on it that says AGM. 
That's generally the easiest way to do that. If you have no service caps, if you have a vent tube that's built into the side of the battery as well, these are also signs that you may be working with in AGM battery. If the battery's inside of the vehicle, guess what? 
It's an AGM. They're not gonna put all that acid battery inside of a vehicle. I was wondering, would you happen to have more of these? 
Mostly, or do you just got one? More notebooks. I might have a couple extra ones. 
Okay, so... Are you small, is it inside your vehicle? Okay. 
Uh, I've got two extra things. All right, so, GCI, the Battery Council International. List groups of numbers to initiate, excuse me, to indicate the physical size of batteries. 
Now, everybody that we deal with, and a lot of the batteries that you saw on the bus, on the wall there, when we were placing them, each one is coated. A lot of time, it's by a number, and then we can also have a letter tagged into some of these. So some of the common groups are the 96 group. 
You've got the 36 group, and we've got the 24 group. Now, if you ever have one where it has an F following it or anything like that, what it does is it designates, it designates where the actual posts are on the batteries, whether they're on the left or on the right. Whenever you replace your battery, make sure that your replacement battery has the same ID code as the one that we're replacing. 
Either that or is similar in size and dimension. It's okay to have a battery that has more coal cranking amps than what your original battery was raised for. Your electrical system is only gonna use what it needs to work correctly. 
It's never gonna take any more. My last, my toy car, I still had that, I had to put a new battery in it, because over the summer, it just died out. Do you say it needs to have the same bingo, the same bingo, do you say? 
Not the same Vin code, the same identification or group size. for the battery. So, I went into the store, I needed a 24 F battery, and they didn't have one. I think they had a 36, though, which was fine. 
And what actually worked out well is, since I walked in with my old battery, I was able to check the dimensions of everything, and I ended up getting a 36. For actually the same price, and I had an additional 150 cold cranking up to that one. So it worked out just fine for what I needed. 
Everything bolded in. It was not a big deal. So what's that, what did that give me an advantage on? 
So if I was sitting with a key off doing any kind of test, I had a bit more reserve capacity. That battery, I think, was just maybe a little bit chunkier, but it fit in just one. So whenever we design a battery, they design a battery, the thing is, it must fit in the battery box. 
It must be able to secure, be able to be secured properly, not roll around. Posts must be on the correct side of the battery. You know, how much would it think if you bought a new battery and go to hook up your post and they won't fit? 
They don't lock on like they're supposed to. Battery hold down must fit the battery. Every battery needs to be properly secured underneath the hood. 
I had a car come in one time. It had no insulation underneath of the hood, and there were two big old burn spots. On the bottom of the hood. 
What happened was the battery's not secured, so every time they hit a bump, the battery would come up and bark on the hood. It's a good combination for a carpet cue. So, you'll find that some of my batteries aren't held down either, so it's probably not a good idea to take tight turns in vehicles like that either. 
Battery cannot be so high that it shorts on the hood. So, generally, if you're using the original group size, all where your part numbers are the same, you're not going to have any issues, but if you start modifying stuff or using different batteries, you can run into some major problems there. Now, this is a big thing to remember. 
This is the average battery has a service light of 3 to 5 years. Now, I can tell you with confidence most of the batteries that are in a car that's daily driven, easily lasts about five years. So tomorrow, when we start doing battery tests, everybody needs to start looking at your batteries. 
Hey, how old is my battery? Because usually around that, five year mark, and especially this time of year, especially today, how many people do you think had dead batteries? More than a couple. 
Cold snaps will kill the battery quickly. Especially if it's teeter tottering. Battery's life is determined by the amount of material shed from the surface of the positive plates. 
Now, remember, I said, as batteries discharged, our plates become more and more alike. If they're never properly recharged, what happens is they're never fully restored back to their original state. So, what is that called? 
It's called salvation. So, the effects of solfation are normally reversible when our plates become alike, but you can't hit a point where they just cannot come back. Batteries do not like cold weather. 
The engine becomes a lot harder to crank. How thick does your oil get? It's a bit thicker. 
Batteries not fully charged. Also freeze. So if you have a battery that, let's say, is low on charge, health is not great, it will freeze. 
We're a healthy battery, will not freeze. I used to have opportunity. He said, oh yeah, my grandmother puts her new batteries in the freezer. 
Keeps them fresh. It's interesting. Uh, he said, Oh, you know, you know, there's never any issue with them, which I found kind of interesting. 
I think she kind of low tested those batteries. But if those batteries were no good, they would freeze up solid. But since they had a good charge they never froze. 
So these battery cables that we have to hook on when we service our batteries, could be made out of steel or lead just the same. They need to be large enough to carry their current demand for the vehicle. So, when we were talking about wires, what were the common sizes of our battery cables? 
About 0 gauge, 2 gauge. I think the smallest I want to deal with is about four, but I like 0 gauge and 2 gauge. So these have to be able to go on. 
This one, it says 04 or 6. Um, as far as your common cables. Uh, if I'm dealing with a really tiny battery, do I need a huge cable? 
Probably not. But if I'm working with my, uh, my power stroke or my Cummings, I actually have to have two battery setups on those vehicles. So I got double the cold cranking hams because diesels are even harder to start, even when it's warm. 
These ones have very high compression engines, and when I deal with higher compression, it means I have to physically turn the engine over, um, the process of doing so is even harder, because I'm fighting against the overall compression that the engine makes. So it puts an even bigger strain on the battery. Now, some of these designs are better than others. 
Be really honest. And let's say you have a customer come in, and their clamps are not looking so hot. One of the common issues that we run into is people will overtighten these as well and end up stripping them out. 
So, when you're replacing batteries, it's not a bad idea to recommend, hey, maybe a new battery holddown. Maybe new clamps, especially if they're looking a little iffy. If these are really dirty, too, we're gonna be recommending cleanings on all of our clants and stuff, too. 
So, at this point, why don't we take a little bit of a break? I think some of y'all need to get up and walk around. And maybe I'll turn my temperature down.