Reconditioning batteries for solar system

[sunnydays2016]

Hi Guys, this is my first post and I am hoping that someone can offer me some advice. Around six weeks ago one of our 2 volt batteries went down and we purchased a new one. We thought the price was very expensive and also thought that perhaps prices might have come down by now. We are in Spain and have had our system for eight years so expected the batteries to last much longer than that. Is there any way that we can recondition these batteries. We have started to have problems again in the last two days and think that maybe one or two are now on their way out. Thanks

[Logan5]

Big mistake! you do not replace a single battery/cell in a bank, You replace the whole battery bank.. You just destroyed that expensive 2 volt cell. It will also have to be replaced now.

[Sunking]

What is the problem? At 8 years, the batteries are 2 to 4 years overdue for replacement. You cannot just replace one cell at a time. You replace all the batteries at the same time. Your older cells will destroy the new one.

You cannot complain about expense being off-grid. You happily volunteered to pay 5 to 10 times more for electricity when you cut the cord and should be thrilled to death to spend money on battery replacement. That is what Off-Grid people do, throw money away. So rejoice and celebrate, you get to replace all the batteries and spend lots of money on them. You should be thrilled. .

[Sunking]

Big mistake! you do not replace a single battery/cell in a bank, You replace the whole battery bank.. You just destroyed that expensive 2 volt cell. It will also have to be replaced now.

That takes time, they just need to replace the rest while they can.

[Logan5]

Replace the rest of the batteries ASAP!

[sunnydays2016]

Hi and thank you for the replies. Firstly Sunking we did not happily volunteer to go off grid we were forced to do it at a great expense that took all our savings and more but that´s another story.

Logan we would have replaced all the batteries but to be quite honest we just do not have the money to do so and we just bought what we could afford. You say replace all the batteries ASAP we wish we could.

We were told that the batteries would last at least ten years before replacing.

Are we just going to be wasting our money by replacing them over a period of time when we can afford to.

[Logan5]

Yes when I started I had 2 X t-105's then 4 and then 8 for 48 volts. My batteries started failing in the order they were installed and much sooner than an all new bank. because the original two batteries damaged the newer batteries even wired in series. This gets many times worse when paralleled battery banks are employed.

[Logan5]

You are lucky they lasted 8 years. You may just have to run your genny, if you can not afford to replace the bank, you'll spend similar in fule but will have much more power.