Coach Batteries not holding charge

[HandyDan]

I have been trying to charge some 6 volt batteries that are indicating 1.5 - 2.5 volts.  On the first battery I put the Schumacher 10 amp 12/6 volt automatic charger on it and it immediately went to 5 amps and putting out a good charge.  After 24 hours it still was at 5 amps but the battery was holding 6.75 volts after I took the charger off it.  Now on the second and third batteries the charger showed 0 amps but was putting 9 volts into the battery.  I'm guessing it is trickle charging it.  I let it sit for 24 hours on each and when I took the charger off, the batteries were holding at 6.5 volts.  However, after 24 hours they had dropped to 5.9.  I'm not real smart in the battery charging business and was wondering why the charger would not put out more amps for a 6 volt battery that was completely discharged?  Is there any hope for these batteries?  They were given to me so, other than finding a place to recycle them, I'm not out anything. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

The ones not keeping a charge are probably sulfated and need to be equalized.  The Shumachers won't do that, so if you can find someone you know with a professional duty setup that has an equalization stage you might be able to save the batteries.  If I'd have known about all this last year I wouldn't have eaten the cost on the 4 used Interstate batteries I bought that I thought were bad because they wouldn't fully charge and hold the charge.

If they were free though and can't be fixed, then at least you aren't out any money!  And at least you have core charges for new batteries!  Core charge on new golf cart batteries is 50 bucks each!

Interstate deep cycle batteries like ours can be had as cheap as 125 bucks each on sale at the Interstate All Battery stores, which is what we paid each for the first 4, and because I had the 4 used ones I paid 250 bucks for, I didn't have to pay the core charges, and was only out 50 bucks.  The last two we just bought in New York weren't on sale and cost 145 bucks each.

Kev

[Oz]

Dan - go to the Member area and get the battery info on the right side of the list in the "Mechanics 101" section.
There's 4 good pubs there which will help you out!