Batteries get a second chance to avoid landfills

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Zulima Murgado Thought your vehicle's battery was dead? It probably still has another life to live, claims Zulima Murgado, a Fort Myers resident with a new business called Battery Medics, Inc.

She reconditions old lead-acid batteries, from any type of vehicle, by cleaning them and adding chemicals that restore them to their original power. Her business keeps batteries from cars, golf carts, farm equipment and boats out of landfills and makes them "better than new," she said.

"We're trying to keep batteries from going in to landfills," she said. "That's one of the reasons I was attracted to this process. Everybody that uses these batteries is obviously green conscious."

She sells the batteries back to consumers for about half the price of a new one. Ms. Murgado also delivers for free. If you're broken down or just at home, Battery Medics will bring you one of her reconditioned batteries that fit the make and model of the car. (The company serves customers within a 40 mile radius of South Fort Myers).

Ms. Murgado's batteries come with a one-year warranty.

Since starting the business about a year ago, she has been able to fully recondition more than 400 of about 600 old, dead batteries brought to her.

Ms. Murgado is trying to get city and county governments to use her service. She hopes to regularly recondition batteries for its fleets. Southwest Florida International Airport already uses her service for some of its trucks and vans.

And she's getting involved with a Fort Myers-based charity, The Nations Association, by donating $5 for every reconditioned battery she sells through Thanksgiving.

The money will go toward the Nations Association's annual Fall Food Drive.

"We're out there trying to do the best we can in the neighborhoods," Ms. Murgado said.

When she gets an old battery to recondition, she cleans out the plates inside the battery and adds a chemical mixture to restore the battery to its original state or better.

Three out of four batteries can be reconditioned, she said, because the leadacid batteries used in most vehicles are unable to hold a charge when lead sulfate crystals, which won't conduct electricity, form on the plates. If a battery is physically cracked inside, instead of encrusted, can't be repaired, Ms. Murgado said.

The chemicals, testing equipment and machinery she uses to clean and recondition the batteries are products from a company called ProBat and ReNovo power. Each battery she reconditions is cleaned, and remarked with her company's logo.

After learning about the franchise opportunity for reconditioning batteries, Ms. Murgado took courses to become a lead-acid battery expert, learning their history, as well as how they operate and how to recondition them safely. She started reconditioning batteries of friends and family first, before quitting her day job and opening Battery Medics full time.

Call 887-7116 to get your old battery reconditioned, purchase a reconditioned batteries, or for more information.