My Bluetooth attached to the Bosch battery and Fluke says 14.3v in float mode. This is the XC400 charger.
PulseTech battery charger/maintainer
- Thread starter factorytuned2012
- Start date
My Bluetooth attached to the Bosch battery and Fluke says 14.3v in float mode. This is the XC400 charger.
Genius 5 is floating @ 13.39. Being 26 degrees out that number is maybe a tad low. It did take my flooded battery to 100% in next to no time. Now a half hour later it’s up to 13.9. Got me. I’ll leave it on for the day and see where it settles at.
Last edited:
I just got the xc450 with the agm setting and a pair of 25 ft extender cords so I can mount these. This xc450 is floating @14 volts on the agm setting. On the STD setting on a flooded battery it was floating at 13.67. There’s no temp compensation but it’s 28 degrees outside.
I'm a believer. I had a lawn mower battery that wouldn't hold a charge and put it on a BatteryMinder for two or three weeks. That battery then worked fine for a couple of more years. Now, I remove the battery from the mower in the winter and put it on the BatteryMinder for a couple of weeks before reinstallation in the spring - current battery is at about 5 years so far.
Little bit of anecdotal evidence here, but I've messed around with various desulfators and battery chargers with desulfators. They have varying levels of success, but only very minor. The best way I've found to desulfate batteries is simply to make sure the water is topped up, then hook up the batteries to a 16.00V power supply and let the battery boil for 4-12 hours. Also known as an equalizing charge. I've done this on AGMs as well, just have to make sure the caps are open and the mats are saturated. If this doesn't fix things, then chances are the plates are too physically damaged.
I'm not looking to bring a battery back from the dead as much as I'm trying to keep them newer, longer. So far @ almost 4 months, all my new batteries are testing @100% state of health and charge. I did take my zero turn battery, which was new last year and revived it back to the same. pulsetech, battery minder...they're both great.
I’ve been working from home this week and had time to watch these Pulsetechs. They’re all over the map. Lots of times maintaining @ 13.2-13.5 and other times while pulsing, they’re 14.2-14.8. I started with 3 cars with new batteries that were charged at 80%, give or take. These thing will absolutely charge a battery to 100% everytime. Weird algorithm no doubt, but definitely effective. I’ve searched and searched and can’t come up with 1 testimony of a fried battery. I’m just going to roll with them I guess!
I just pulled my boat out and had the Pulsetech hooked to the battery for the last month. It was not looking good at 1st, it’s a 5 yr old exide from the farm store and I honestly hoped it was gonna croak so I could get a new one. When I tested it there was 509 CCA and was reading replace, 55% charged, today when I went down to get things around, it was reading good and 94% charged with 692 CCA out of 700. I’m going to leave it on for a few more weeks since it’s not even close to warm enough to put this thing in. Color me impressed.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2025
I have had similar results on a 6 year old AC Delco AGM (made in Germany by Varta). I have kept it on a Granite Digital "save a battery" battery tender with a claimed continuous pulse desulfation during the float. But over the past 18 months I saw gradual decline in CCA. Rated at 900CCA, for most of its life it was over 1000CCA. But starting in last 2023 I started seeing it decline. By late October I was seeing around 830CCA even though it was on the battery tender overnight at least four or five nights a week.
I started using the Battery Minder instead and have over the next 3 months have seen the CCA climb to where it is testing around 980CCA now. So the Battery Minder desulfation is more effective than the Save a Battery.
I just pulled my wife’s car off the 2012agm and it charged to 100%. I’m going to leave it off the charger for a few days and see if it holds a charge any better. It seems to take forever next to the regular 2012 but I can’t argue with the results. I let my son in-law use my other pulstech and it took his side by side which was on a cheap maintainer all winter from 85% to 100% in a few days. I’m sure my boat battery will crap out this year at some point.
I have 9 BatteryMinders, all on sale buys from Northern, in play on my parked and parked for the season batteries.
Most of my BM are temp. compensated units.
2011 Odessey battery in my HD, was fine last year, will see about this year when it warms up to ride. 2013 Yuasa in my one snowmobile was fine all last winter, Yeah I'm pushing them going over 10 years, time to replace them. Unheated parking areas also.
I cannot say enough good things about BatteryMinder's 1 and 1.5 amp maintainers.
Most of my BM are temp. compensated units.
2011 Odessey battery in my HD, was fine last year, will see about this year when it warms up to ride. 2013 Yuasa in my one snowmobile was fine all last winter, Yeah I'm pushing them going over 10 years, time to replace them. Unheated parking areas also.
I cannot say enough good things about BatteryMinder's 1 and 1.5 amp maintainers.
Do you just let the northern tool BMs run their course or put them into maintenance mode right away? My last attempt was a fully charged u1 mower battery that I hooked up the northern tool, and 24 hrs later it hadn’t gone into maintenance mode and was still pumping 14.8 volts into a battery that didn’t need it.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2025
Actually, it may have needed it. Here is my thought...I'm not an EE or expert by any means:
If you connect up battery tender set on 4 amps, or 6 amps, if the battery is close to fully charged, it will switch over to float, usually pretty quickly...within 4 hours. But if I connect up to a battery tender rated at 1amp, or 800ma, it can take 12 to 24 hours or more. I think at the lower charge rate it is actually taking the battery up to a more complete charge. That is my guess anyway.
You might want to test that theory with your various battery tenders and you Ancel tester.
That would make sense but I have those cheapo motopowers that are 800MA and they charge rather quickly. I chicken out at the 24 hr mark with these northern tools. The reviews on the website are good, I just don’t like the idea of pumping 14.8 into a battery that’s reading 13.9
I let them run their cycle. I have never had an issue with them. Voltage will need to peak out before it goes into maintenance mode.
All the battery cells will need to equalize and stabilize before it goes in maintenance mode.
I brought back a completely dead, under 4 volts, Can Am battery for a friend with one, had to use a manual charger to get voltage up to the level the BM would start charging it. He left the key on for a month before noticing it. Battery was good all last summer.
Put the meter down and step away from the battery and let the maintainer do its thing. Vehicle charging systems will routinely put out that much while you're driving.
Mower battery new or was in service? Used battery may have had a partially shorted plate in it needing a higher charge to ''break it free".
1 or 1.5 amps is not a lot of charging.
Roughly a 6 month old battery that had been charged and maintained all winter by either a Pulsetech or battery minder 2012 with the occasional maintenance mode manual activated on the northern tools. Before I gave the northern tool a shot to run its full cycle the battery tested @ 13.9 after sitting for a few days. How long does it take for yours to finally go into maintenance mode?
My garage queen Traverse can take an hour or so If I start it and move it out of the garage.
My one mower/plow can take 5 min. or an hour or two to go into maintenance mode after use depending on ambient temperature.
Same with my motorcycles.
I've noticed that after being in maintenance mode and coming off it the BM will revert into going to peak charge mode again before going into maintenance mode which is a lower voltage than the peak point. Time to peak will vary with any usage of the battery.
Going by memory since its been a while since I was meter monitoring them, I just let them do their thing now. Quick disconnects on all of them.
My one mower/plow can take 5 min. or an hour or two to go into maintenance mode after use depending on ambient temperature.
Same with my motorcycles.
I've noticed that after being in maintenance mode and coming off it the BM will revert into going to peak charge mode again before going into maintenance mode which is a lower voltage than the peak point. Time to peak will vary with any usage of the battery.
Going by memory since its been a while since I was meter monitoring them, I just let them do their thing now. Quick disconnects on all of them.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2025
Here is the algorithm the Battery Minder from NorthernTool uses. It does use temperature compensation.
