Any uses for a near dead SLA battery? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: e100
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 12:10:03 pm
content: I have an old 12v sealed lead acid battery from a UPS that has degraded from 20Ah to 3.4Ah when measured with a 12v cutoff.Before I take it to be recycled are there any potential uses for a battery in this condition?

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 12:14:02 pm
content: The uses are limited by your imaginationThey make great doorstopsPaperweightHandy for running a LED during a power outageGood for the kids to do experiments withRun a small 80mm fanBlow holes in alfoil and make pretty sparks

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 01:56:20 pm
content: The scrap value of dead (S)LA batteries is higher than you might expect.

author: UnijunctionTransistor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 02:05:39 pm
content: Quote from: Gyro on March 24, 2025, 01:56:20 pmAnd is the environmentally responsible thing to do.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 02:10:21 pm
content: You can use it as a paperweight (e.g. when gluing things down) until you have a few more (e.g., when your car battery needs a replacement too), and/or lead prices are good, then you can recycle them at once. You will be positively surprised - cost of the lead itself dominates the cost of lead-acid battery so the compensation you get is more than just some nominal fee. Selling just a few for scrap pays for a lunch, at least!

author: tunk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 03:58:26 pm
content: Maybe connect it to a solar panel and use it tocharge your phones etc. (plus something thatconverts 12V to e.g. 5V).

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 04:09:55 pm
content: Quote from: Gyro on March 24, 2025, 01:56:20 pmI have yet to find a use for a trashed lead-acid battery.In the US the only payment available for properly recycling a lead acid battery is if it is part of a core charge, and that typically only happens with starter batteries. I have yet to see a recycling center that even accepted them. I guess Batteries Plus accepts them, but only as a customer?Reminds me of when someone put sugar in my friend's gas tank. We drained and cleaned it leaving about 10 gallons of contaminated gasoline. There were no provisions anywhere to take it unless we paid hundreds of dollars in chemical waste fees, so we took it out into the desert and burned ants with it.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 04:27:21 pm
content: Quote from: David Hess on March 24, 2025, 04:09:55 pmStaples and Home Depot will recycle small SLA batteries for free.In many places they will be accepted at the dump as "household hazardous waste".

author: AVGresponding
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 06:56:16 pm
content: Quote from: e100 on March 24, 2025, 12:10:03 pmIn a UPS, you'd typically have a lower cutoff voltage than that. 10V to 11V is more usual. The discharge current has a major bearing on the "capacity" as well; higher discharge rates will result in lower calculated capacities.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 09:14:30 pm
content: Quote from: David Hess on March 24, 2025, 04:09:55 pmThats odd, batteries are worth good money if you have a lot of them 10-20c/lb:https://www.scrapmonster.com/scrap-yard/price/industrial-batteries-scrap/393

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 10:05:57 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on March 24, 2025, 09:14:30 pmWow, in that case OP's 12 pound battery might be worth as much as $2.40

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 10:19:02 pm
content: Quote from: edavid on March 24, 2025, 10:05:57 pmWe deal with pallets worth, if you just have one its not going to be worth it. 1pc -> goes to recycling center, 10pc+ -> scrap dealer.But my point is there should be plenty of scrap dealers in the USA that will gladly take a lead acid battery off your hands for free.

author: mawyatt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 11:21:33 pm
content: Lots of folks use batteries to power sensitive ultra low noise electronics (analog).Best

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 24, 2025, 11:47:04 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on March 24, 2025, 10:19:02 pmx2. When the scrap dealers accumulate enough batteries for them to be worth a the recycling folk's time, then they will pay good money for each battery.In the late 1970s I lived in Roanoke, Virginia and there was a large metal recycling center there and they paid $8 each for old car batteries if you brought them to them. That was when new batteries only cost about $39 so given today battery prices, scrap automobile sized batteries should be worth about $40 to $50 IMO (that's delivered to the recycling plant). Currently the local auto parts stores are charging a core charge of about $25 when you buy a new battery so scrap ones are worth at least that much locally (and not delivered to the recycling center).If you just have one battery it's probably not worth the time to try and sell it. But if you have very many of them then call around and see who will buy them and what they're paying.I keep a few old batteries around just for trade-ins. The last time that I bought an automobile battery (about a month ago), I carried one of my smaller dead batteries in with me and gave it to them on the spot so I didn't have to pay a core charge. The old battery was about half the size of the one that I bought but the sales droids in the store didn't care.