The Price of a Scrap Car Battery

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Got an old car battery that you need to dispose of? Don’t just throw it out! Find out how much you could get by taking it to your local scrap yard. If you’re scrapping your entire car, keep reading to find out about whether you should strip the parts before hand.

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What’s The Average Price For A Scrap Car Battery?

Most car batteries sell for around £5. Perhaps that’s disappointing, or maybe you’re just glad someone will pay you anything at all for it. Bear in mind that if you use a council battery disposal service, you’ll get nothing in return… and some places may even charge you to take it off your hands. Of course, your battery might still be in good nick, in which case you could expect a higher payment.

Mechanic looking at an engine in a car

How To Know When To Sell Your Car Battery

You don’t want to jump the gun when selling your car battery, especially if you’re only going to get a fiver for it.

If you’ve established that the battery in your motor is indeed dead and needs replacing, then it’s best to sell the old one when you purchase the new one. Similarly, if your battery is on the way out – and you’ve also checked your alternator to make sure that’s not causing your electrical problems – then you should consider replacing it and selling the old one before it causes you major problems further down the road.

How To Sell Your Scrap Car Batteries

Its possible to take your old car battery to any car breaker or local scrap yard but you wont find that online car scrapping services will be able to arrange the scrapping of just a battery. Those services are reserved for entire cars usually.

Can I get my old battery collected?

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that someone will go out of their way to collect a single battery from you, so you will likely need to drop it off yourself – we understand that might be difficult if you no longer have a working car!

Don’t attempt to mail an old battery to one of these places (or anyone, for that matter) as this can be extremely dangerous.

Are There Other Options Besides Selling?

If you can afford to miss out that fiver, or the cost and hassle of getting the battery to a buyer simply isn’t worth it, you have a couple of other options:

  • Recycling centres – These facilities (which you might have always known as ‘the dump’ or ‘the tip’) specialise in recycling and/or disposing of anything and everything in a safe, environmentally friendly manner – batteries included.
  • Council-operated facilities – In some locations, a council-run waste disposal facility may offer to take car batteries.

These places are unlikely to offer you anything in the way of money for your scrap car batteries.

The materials used in the production of a car battery are two things: rare and dangerous. Not only do these devices contain acids and metals that are expensive to purchase, they’re also incredibly volatile.

Recycling your old batteries means that the materials can be salvaged and reused, and that the recycling/disposal process will be done safely.

The dangers involved in scrapping old car batteries come from the materials used to build them in the first place – namely the battery acid and hydrogen gas. It’s all down to chemical reactions, with improperly ventilated hydrogen actually having the capacity to explode!

The battery acid itself is also very, very dangerous and should not come into contact with a person’s skin. Then there’s the wiring involved with car batteries, which can get so hot that they also set on fire.

All in all, it’s a job that needs to be left to the professionals with access to the proper tools and a secure working environment.

Speaking of a secure working environment, we’d all like to make sure the Earth remains one of those. That’s why recycling your old, dead or dying car batteries is a good idea. Not only do you save the planet by reducing the amount of resources needing to be obtained, you’re also preventing your old battery from degrading to the point that it leaks and does significant damage to its surrounding environment.

Should You Scrap Your Car In One Piece?

Generally speaking, you’re much better off keeping your car altogether in one piece and scrapping it as a whole, instead of breaking it up and selling the parts separately. Whether we’re talking about the battery, the catalytic converter, the engine or even the wheels, you’ll almost always get a higher price for your motor if everything is present and accounted for. Remember, scrap value is mostly dictated by the weight of your vehicle.

So, if you want to remove the battery from your car before you scrap it and sell off individual bits, you’re more than welcome to, but it will impact the money you’re offered – potentially more significantly than that £5 a solo battery could earn you.

If you have a car to scrap read our simple guide to scrapping a car, to give you the best chance of getting a high price for your old vehicle. And before you do take that battery out, make sure you get your entire scrap car valued using our online tool, or use the form below. It takes 2 minutes – and can save you a lot of hassle stripping your own car for parts.

If you are looking to scrap batteries is bulk, at the time of writing and guide price by weight is as follows.

Price per KG – 35p

Price per ton – £500