we say that last line as; "an 'ex' is a has been (like ex-husband) and a spurt is 'a drip under lots of pressure'.
I use a '10% rule' as to how much is acceptable drop under load, if it looses 10% of it's voltage, you need to charge it and check it again. so if it was at 37.7 at rest it could drop to 34.0 volts under hydraulic stall before I called it 'bad' and not just discharged, but if it dropped to 33.5 i would want to be sure it had an equalize charge before I tested it again.

Rafarmer, you're already doing a good job with charging that battery. You don't know until you try! It might be fine. A lot of tech's gave many different testing scenario's that seemed a might confusing. I've shown our battery guy a few tricks to find bad batteries and know when to put them out of service. batteries that wont last more than 3 or 4 hours are equalized and watered properly. He simply uses a Fluke meter with the MIN/MAX setting and lifts the load or drives the truck. Some batteries that test fine cell to cell and are properly charged will show bad during the load test. A bad 36 volt Bat in a reach truck drops to 26 when under load. If yours is good, it will maintain at least 32 volts under extreme load. Simple test. I showed him to touch the connections on the battery and check for heat build up and discoloration.. Now he doesn't spend time with gravity tester and complicated tests. My trucks are not blowing power amps and drive motors any more.
And yes those scrap dealers are hungry for lead!
Rafarmer, you are quite capable of testing this battery your self without paying some expert!
Expert: X is unknown Spert is what what comes of a garden hose when you turn off the water

swoop223,
Selling any used forklift (as is, refurbished or recondtioned but never rebuilt) is selling a piece of equipment that is some percentage of being worn out (engine, trans, motor, etc), the hourmeter reading "maybe an indicator" what the remaining useful life maybe be, unless it has been disconnect, broken or non functioning, replaced (there are some large dealers in this state that install new hourmeters with zero hours on every used truck sold - they say it is easier to keep track of usage - hmmm - maybe a hide the pea game here. And a low hourmeter reading on a unit that came out of a "pickle foundry" is probably no a good indicator of expected useful life, either. Following your analogies on recond batteries one can conclude no one should sell any used forklift as pistons have just so many up and down strokes too & crank shaft turns before they are wore out, right? Wouldn't expect you to agree with that either unless you are an OEM manufacturer. Personally, I have never been bitten by sell used electrics with recond batteries but they are certainly not in high hour use or high cycle operations. There are a myraid of small companies that may use a forklift 3-5 hours per week and wish to go electric. Again, a key is proper charging & maintenance (no over filling the cells, don't put on charge every night, check connectors for cracking, etc.). Education of users & their employees is key to succes or failure and there are few users with electrics that follow proper procedures genrally because no one took the time to explain - just gave the customer a book and expected them to read & UNDERSTAND it.

in all fairness, trying to restore an industrial battery is like trying to restore an old car, its a crapshoot on what it will take to get it back to optimal working condition. And yes as it has been said, ONLY a professional battery technition with the proper equiptment should do this.

But in my experience it should not be considered a long term investment, refurbed batteries do not last near as long as one would expect. As with any refurbed components your only running on borrowed time.

In the short term it MIGHT be a viable option to get you by for a year or so till you can budget in a new battery. But in the longterm i wouldnt advise such a thing to any customer of mine. From my experience dealing with refurb batteries its just throwing good money to the bad and shouldnt be done unless there is no other option.

Most battery companies will tell you otherwise but remember they are in the business to sell batteries(and/or service) and they will tell you anything you want to hear just to make a sale. Its what they dont tell you is what bites you in the end. Sure they can test cells and replentish electrolyte in them and deep draw and recharge and reseal them and make them look nice but in the end your still dealing with used material that does have a lifecycle inside these cells in these batteries. Once this lifecycle has reached its expected term no amount of reconditioning will ever bring it back to good usable condition for very long.
So once again i remind those that are not aware your only running on borrowed time when trying to save money by going the refurb way.

oh yes, from what i do remember about industrial battery warranties? they are usually 5 to 7 yrs depending on what type and size they are and this is for new batteries only, refurbed battery warranties vary usually from 30-90days to 1yr. This depends on the company doing the work.

On another note, a question to those that have dealt with battery companies and techs... if you pose the question to any number of battery techs about battery care and charging and maintenace how many different answers have you gotten on how this should be done? ponder this question next time you deal with a battery tech or salesman.

I'm sure your results will vary widely ;o)

What is the risk when the battery rebuilder extends a 1 year warranty - part, labor & service calls? A lot of new batteries have a 5 year warranty but the lower end priced batteries have a proration during that period - like a 3 yr fully & 2 proprated. Additionally, with every one I sold and installed I personally went over proper battery charging & maintence procedures plus charger care (cables, connectors) & features did actually explained what & when the equalizing charge is and when it should be used - my experience was that when you asked a customer what the Equalize button is & what it does 9 out of 10 did not know and I again thanked my competitors.
Just to give you an example in early 2006, I sold a used TM30 with a reconned battery to a small retail flooring company in the town I live in - I knew the owner, we coached dixie boys (like little league) baseball 15 years ago. Useage 1-2 hours per week. Less than a month ago I saw him & inquired how that truck was running & he said "mighty fine" no major issues. I never was embarrassed by selling a reconned battery in the "right" application and I enjoyed the commissions that came with happy users and so did our used truck manager.
I have seen "other" lift truck companys put a reconned battery in an operation where the trucks running time averages 4-5 hours/8hr shift* and they flunked again I thanked my competitor.
*That's heavy duty usage based on my experience - freight companies such as ABF & Roadway average 4.5 lift truck hours/8 hour shift at their break bulk terminals and food distribution companies like Kroger have similar results - I've dealt with all these companies in my career. Most lift truck operations average about 3 hr. per/8hour shift. End users/owners generally have no clue as to their average daily lift truck usage.

We dont take that risk w/ our customers

I also had 41 years in the business and I have found that a reputable battery company can refurbish a battery that will give good service in intermittment type operations max. run time 2-3 yrs per day. One thing they do is test the amh/hr capacity of each cell via a rapid discharge test and each cell must have 85% of the original amp/hr. rating and theyfurnish a report on the battery. They even warranted full parts & labor the battery & charger if it was included for 1 year, not pro rated plus they would go to the customers site at their cost and responded within one day or sooner. Sold a lot of used electric forklifts using them.

After nearly 40 years of experience in the industry,I have come to a conclusion; you can do all the magic testing, check the water weight, check the voltages, change a cell, dance on 1 foot during a full moon, dazel your customer w/ BS. The only thing that I found that works is:
1) if a cell has to be replaced in an older battery, take it to the glue factory. The other cells are sure to follow suit.
2) if the battery can do 5 hours of daily usage on a single charge at least 2X keep it.
Remember the newer trucks are voltage sensitive, and a electronic repair is going to equate to a battery replacement any way.

I probably should have been a bit more specific. I work in a shop that refurbishes used forklifts and most of the time the batteries that come in don't need more than a few cups of water to cover the plates but have been sitting for a while without a charge. If the battery is discharged past the point than our newer chargers will start, we will use an old school dial charger to bring up the voltage to a level that the newer chargers will detect and start. We will put them through an equalized charge cycle and then check the specific gravity ( most of the time around 1230 to 1250 ) and check the voltage of each cell any cell lower that 2.00 volts is marked. We then decide if we are going to sent it out to the local battery guy or send it to the scrap man. Our problem comes from the fact that the battery companies here pretty much use the same scrap company that we use and they are giving.35 cents a pound and they will tell us a battery is not worth repair and wants to work out a scrap deal at.24 cents a pound. Also we do have all of the required safety equipment and a very nice and well ventilated charge area ( total air replacement every 10 minutes ).

justinm, whos' giving you 36 cents a pound? I'm getting 29 cents.

Agreed Macro. Not worth the effort. Seen mixed results with "refurbished" batteries as well. Buy new and save the headaches.

Also... I'm getting about 36 cents a pound. They're worth more dead than alive most of the time. IMO lol

Not worth the time, usually that happens when a battery is not watered and charged daily causing the cell plates to deteriorate.

If the water is brownish in color the cell is internally not salvageable.

Shoot it, then send it to the glue factory

As has already been said, seek the advice of a battery company expert.

Some deeply discharged batteries can be saved with a little time & expert knowledge while others just can't & are best weighed in for scrap.

I've also seen batteries blown up by diy people trying to bring back to life an old / deeply discharged battery, one such instance also took the charger pcb out with it meaning even more expense for the customer.

Take it to a proffessional battery company have them check it out, they will need to keep it for at least 3 days to peform all the tests required to see if this battery is worth shooting and keeping.
Test such as deep discharge cycling, acid balance, charging & recharging, etc. things a DIY person can't do unless they have all the right equipment & training & eye wash stations w/shower - batteries can create a lot of gassing and "blow-up". Often an old battery may have a "dead' cel or two and need to be replaced or the inner cell connectors are corroded and need replacing, etc. The experts know how to do this correctly as well.