I once read somewhere that civilians in Bosnia/Serbia/Yugoslavia in general would do things such as boil their old batteries in salt water to recharge them, in times of a war-torn economy. If that really works, then why the hell aren’t we always doing that? Has anyone ever heard of this? Do you think it works with only NiCad-style batteries, or with alkaline, or ‘heavy duty’ ones, or what? I can barely recall how batteries work in the first place, so naturally I am having a hard time grasping this. Let me know what you know. Thanks.
I’ve successfully re-charged “dead” car batteries by smacking them very hard onto the concrete (not quite hard enough to break them, but almost)…
but I’ve never heard of boiling in salt-water.
I may be wrong here, but I don’t think boiling ordinary cells would actually recharge them (it might get a bit more juice out of them (or rather get the last dregs out at a higher, useful voltage), because the rate of chemical reactions, like the ones that go on inside the battery, is increased by heating and also (possibly) heating them allows the reagents inside to remix).
Boiling batteries in anything won’t recharge them nor will dropping car batteries on concrete. Please DON"T TRY THIS! Dropping a car battery can cause it to explode and bring possible serious injury to anyone nearby, including yourself.