What happens to old batteries?

[Jed]

At the rate I am going, I/m worried that I'll need to swap over to a new battery in twelve months time. When this happens can I get my batterty refurbished or I have to bin in and get a new one?

thanks
Jed

 

[flecc]

As things stand, NiMh and Li-ions just get dumped. They're not polluting in the way that lead acid and Ni-cad batteries are, and the cell contents are chemically exhausted and virtually useless. There's very little metal involved and the cost/benefit of decontamination and separation make it not worthwhile at present.

 

[Jed]

thanks Flecc. What would be the best indication when the battery needs to be replaced. Does it manifest in a greatly reduced range or does the battery take longer and longer to charge? Does it vary by battery type.

thanks
Jed

 

[flecc]

In all cases it's range initially Jed, but in some battery types the internal resistance of the electrolyte can also give performance deterioration. This is most noticeable with cobalt based Lithium batteries, and also happens to some extent with NiMh. eZee bike's Li-ions are manganese based and suffer chemical deterioration instead, so mainly the range is affected.

Lead acid batteries have internal plates which can sulphate over with time, this affecting the performance, for example when a car will no longer start reliably. The sulphating is accelerated when a battery is not charged and recharged regularly through leaving the battery out of use for lengthy periods. An aging lead acid battery has it's plates thinned by acid action, and when subjected to a heavy load, one or more of the thinned plates can buckle and short out. When that happens the battery is finished, and that's most often the point of death for car batteries. Sealed Lead Acid batteries (SLAs) as used by Currie and others have a semi solid paste electrolyte, making them less prone to this termination.