Cell Cleaning

[numberonekiwi]

I have just finished rebuilding my cells from 1 mm spacing to 1.6 mm spacing as well as using 6 mm OD 4 MM ID orings as the last build I had some shorted plates

I am now in the process of having 2 cells  ( with 6 N plates ) in a very very weak solution and drawing about 1.5 amps with minimal production as expected but after 12 hours or so there is a large build up of brown stuff in the bottom ( rust coloured )so I am assuming this is the impuritys from the SS and after a few days this should stop happening ( I am hoping )

I am currently using normal tap water but have to add a few flakes of KOH or I get unmeasurable current flow @ 14VDC

After this happens I will put Max elctrolyte into some normal tap water ( for now ) and see what happens

I have said before my plates are about 105 mm X 135 mm ( 4" x 5.5" approx ) but Still have not determined the amps needed to fully drive each cell power supply is rated to 25 Amps but can pull slightly more before going into protection so I may need to eventually connect it to a car battery with the engine running and amp meter to 100 Amps jumper leads etc.

[Bob]

NumberOneKiwi:
 What I did was leave the cell connected to the charger over night for a few days in a row
and run low amps...(aprox 5 amps) I too was useing tap water but found that to be a big mistake!.... it seams I got more goo from the tap water than I did my plates!
after Switching to distilled/Deminerilized water ($1.29 a gallon at Walmart)
the goo vurtually stopped... after a day or so cooking with that water and small amount of KOH I flushed it real good with high pressure (garden hose) and then rinced with Distilled /deminerilized water and set it up again...
I then used 10 amps and got more goo out of the cell.... this went on for about 2 days
so total run time includeing tap water time was about 5 to 6 days stright...
it then stopped produceing goo.... I could then run it at my 10 amps (max I had on the test bench) with no goo formation....
However when I moved it to the truck and started useing 30 amps the goo formation came back
for a while.... so after each trip to town I'ed flush the system and re set it again
about 3 flushings is all it took to stop the formation of goo at 30 amps at that point
...
this was a long and aggravating proccess and each time it GOOed up I had to flush out all the crap to get it as clean as possable again...
I then discovered that using the Muratic acid cleaned up the cells about 100% better than just running them and hopeing it would stop !....
I flushed the cell with 100% muratic acid and ran it for a few minutes with the acid in it and top off ( don't know if that was wise to do or not , but that is what I did) and then let it set for 30 minutes ...as the cell was extreamily dirty...
I flushed the cell and used High pressure water to remove the gunk on the plates that the Acid Loosened! and the cell was shinnie like new ! for the first time sense instilation...
...
so as you can see each step UP in amps brought out MORE GOO... so when your breaking in the cell try to run the most AMPS you can....  I think it was Hydrotech that conditioned his cell plates at 100amps for 48hrs and didn't have to mess with them after that..but not many of us can do that...<GRIN>
...
it realy cleaned up my cell and did not hurt a thing (that I could tell) so give it a try
and stop using tap water ! that will give you more goo....
I don't recomend useing 100% for 30 min as that is very strong and a long time...
100% for 10 min should do the trick for you...and save the old acid if you can... it is mean stuff...do NOT get it on you.... even for a second!
as I said the acid Loosened the dark stuff on my cell plates ...but did not remove it...the water pressure did the removeing!...
after sloshing water around in the cell for a good 20 min I opened it up to a nice ans shinnie cell once again...I was quite pleased with the results!
You can find the Muratic acid (sp?) at the hardware stores in their swimming pool section.
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Now I don't use tap water at all as I know it just adds to the GOO formation...and unfortionately it adds allot of it ! so try conditioning the cells by etching the plates with Muratic Acid for a few minutes and then flush good and try it with Distilled/Deminerilized water and KOH....
...
I also found that it was the KOH that was turning dark coffee brown on me when I was running 2 Randy cells in parallel at 30 amps, I guess that the heat affected the KOH and made coffee colored water... which coated the plates fast!...
So I switched to Lemonaid and it worked fantasticly....with no discoloration at all
...
I am totally guessing here but 40~50 amps should get that cell to produce fairly well but watch your heat...as that is allot of amps ! (I don't think 20amps will be enough!)
....
good luck to ya !
Bob.......