FREE Recycled Batteries for HAM's

Skip the verbiage and go straight to the "what's available" list!

Hospitals use and discard LOTS of batteries!

For example, a mobile X-ray machine carries ten 12V-28AH sealed lead-acid batteries, each of which is about the size of a small automobile battery, and each battery consists of six non-replaceable 2-volt cells.   Over time and/or use, cells lose their ability to hold a charge, and after enough cells have deteriorated such that the total voltage won't operate the X-ray machine, the hospital replaces the ENTIRE BANK!   Furthermore, to try to ensure they will never fail in use, batteries which power IV pumps and UPS's (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) are replaced on a time-in-use basis even if they haven't yet failed.

For 20 years, Mercy Hospital in Manhattan, Kansas, has given me their "old" batteries.   Those whose voltage remains "nominal" while supplying a current of an ampere or so (I use an automobile headlamp as a visual load) are listed below and are given (free of charge, of course) to HAM (amateur radio) operators all over the nation (I once sent, via a HAM who was going that way, ten 12V, 28AH batteries to southern Florida for use in their hurricane season!), while those which fail go to the recycling center.

Over the years, I've received all sorts of batteries, from monster 110-pound 12V-100AH batteries to 50-pound 120V-4AH batteries to ounce-size cells.   Most batteries are LEAD-ACID, but many are NiCd's and NiMH's, some are so well encased that I don't know what they are, I once (long ago) received some "wet" NiCd's (think potassium hydroxide instead of dilute sulfuric acid), and about two years ago I was given two humongous-big/heavy 5 KVA UPS's (the entire uninterruptible power supply INcluding the batteries; these went to Kansas City and Nebraska for emergency repeater power!)

Many of these batteries last for YEARS beyond their replacement date.   (In 2007, for example, I finally had to recycle a 12V-17AH battery which HAMs used to provide emergency communication for the 1996 International Horse Race!)

As of April, 2011, the following batteries are available

  Sealed Lead-Acid batteries
  ==========================
  How        Amp
  Many Volts  Hrs         Other Comments
  ---- ----- ----  ----------------------------------------------------------
    0   12   28    About the size of a small automobile battery
    0   12   17    About the size of a motorcycle battery
    2   12   5-9   UPS batteries replaced every two years (several sizes)
    2   12    3    Not sure of original use
    0   12    2.5  Not sure of original use
    0   12    2.3  Not sure of original use
    1   12    3?   Looks like a "lantern battery" with wire terminals

    0    8    2.7  IV-pump batteries rated for a fairly-low discharge rate
                   and replaced on a time-in-use basis.  I've used
                   one with appropriate cabling in place of a 9-volt
                   "transistor" battery and it has lasted a LONG time!
    3    6    5    Three "Gates"-type cells in a triangular package

  The following are shrink-wrapped instead of sealed and can be disassembled
  and/or rebuilt by a (pick one:  true?  cheap?  thrifty?  desperate?) HAM!
  ==========================================================================
  How       Amp
  Many Volt  Hrs         Other Comments
  ---- ---- ----  ----------------------------------------------------------
    1   12   4    10 NiMH cells, each a little longer than AA-size
                      (some may have some bad cells)
    1   12   3    NiMH, about "C" size cells
    1   16   ?    12 AA-size cells of unknown type
If you have a use for one or more of the above, and if you'll promise to dispose of it/them properly at its/their end of life, then contact me by phone (785-539-4448; Manhattan, KS) or email (W0PBV@ARRL.net).   First come, first served, and you must come to my place to get them.

Some miscellaneous hardware and a few miscellaneous connectors are also available.
Five boxes preserve our freedoms:  soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge.
PhD EE - Barbershop Tenor - CDL(PTXS) - Amateur Radio Operator (W0PBV)
NRA "Lifer" & Certified Rifle, Pistol, and Home-Firearm-Safety Instructor
Certified Instructor for Kansas CCH (Concealed-Carry Handgun) license

This page was last modified on Friday, 2 December, 2011.