battery sulfation

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OK, I am trying to revive the battery in my pickup and have been reading some about battery sulfation and desulfation.

Some interesting videos on YouTube. One was the picture taken down the cell cap hole looking at the plates with one picture taken every other day for over a month. You could see the brown-tanish stuff disappear and the battery go back to normal plates and separators. However a comment was made that it takes about 1 day per pound of battery. Thats a long time.

BatteryMinder seems to have the best products to deal with sulfation. Other products mention desulfation but then complete the cycle in 8 hours or less.
 
It might work as long as there are no issues with any of the cells . Once a battery has been sulfated I'm not sure if it will have the capacity it should have , you may only have a smaller percentage .

Keep us posted , I've often thought of getting a battery minder or smart charger .
 
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Its often mentioned a "neglected" battery sulfates so I could see that for a boat, lawn tractor, generator, but would a vehicle battery sulfate that is used once or twice a week (30 min minimum drive) sulfate?
 
Usually I've seen sulfation on ones that are neglected, or ran dead due to vehicles not being driven. I just used it on my brother's battery out of his '94 Cobra that sat undriven for 2 months+, he had jumped it, driven it several miles, and it didn't charge enough to restart it when he got back. Left the Minder on for a week, and AAP load tested it at 580 CCA on a 610 CCA battery (2 1/2 year old JC built WM Everstart battery). It doesn't fix everything, but it definitely makes a difference.
 
I have a couple of chargers that are suppoeed to fix sulfated batteries and neither work. I've also tried Epson salt which didn't work either.

I think that a dead battery is just that...dead.
 
The right way to desulfation is higher than normal charge voltages. The battery will gas, and water will need to be replaced (recall the opening vent cap thread).
 
Interesting, it also has a worldwide voltage support. Last time I was looking for a battery maintainer that would work in Europe, I had to go to ebay.
It's pricy though.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
…………….would a vehicle battery sulfate that is used once or twice a week (30 min minimum drive) sulfate?


Yes, a lead acid battery kept under less than 100% state of charge (SOC) is susceptible to sulfating. It takes a lot more time to get a battery from 70% SOC to 100% SOC, than from 40% SOC to 70% SOC. A 30 minute drive once or twice a week is unlikely to prevent sulfation.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/sulfation_and_how_to_prevent_it
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The right way to desulfation is higher than normal charge voltages. The battery will gas, and water will need to be replaced (recall the opening vent cap thread).


While that may be one way to do it, the BatteryMinder uses high frequency pulses.
 
Back at the old battery factory where we made AGM industrial batteries we had the ability to run the cells into reverse or negative voltage with a discharge. Then a slow recharge. Brought many back from an initial test discharge failing.
 
There is a ton of research data available about lead acid battery sulfation prevention, mechanisms, and reversal.

A google search for [sulfation "journal of power sources"] will turn it up.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The right way to desulfation is higher than normal charge voltages. The battery will gas, and water will need to be replaced (recall the opening vent cap thread).


I've noticed on my Schumancher XCS15 battery charger that it would hit 15.56v at near completing charge. I'm guess the charger is desulfating the battery but I've been wondering why the % hangs at 100% then it enters desulfation mode.
 
This company called Granite Digital located locally to me has a maintainer called the Power bar.

http://shop.saveabattery.com/media/4055SPEC-s.gif

It's supposed to unsulfate a battery, given enough time, and keep a battery maintained.

A friend has an 85 Porsche 911. The poor car sits and does nothing. the battery is a 49series monster.
When they decide to see if it starts, it never did. So they jump start it and drive around for a bit and park it again.
Well they weren't able to jump it last time, so it sat again for 8months.
So I get them the Power Bar, hook it up and walk away.
about 3 weeks later, they unplug it, and the Porsche comes to life! The car still sits, but they keep the Power Bar on it all the time, and I know it was sulfated and abused.
But.. the car's been starting up and running good.

I'm going to believe the power bar turned around the sulfation and has kept that monster battery alive.
 
Originally Posted By: wirelessF
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The right way to desulfation is higher than normal charge voltages. The battery will gas, and water will need to be replaced (recall the opening vent cap thread).


I've noticed on my Schumancher XCS15 battery charger that it would hit 15.56v at near completing charge. I'm guess the charger is desulfating the battery but I've been wondering why the % hangs at 100% then it enters desulfation mode.


I do not think what your seeing is the desulfation as its done at the beginning, not the end.

While I think the XCS15 is a good charger, its forte is not desulfation.

From the digital display on my XCS15, I have never seen the voltage over 14 while a battery was being charged. But thats from occasionally looking at the display, not sitting with my eyes glued to the display.


From Schumacher:

Thank you for your support of our products. When you first connect a battery to the XCS15, it does several checks on the battery, sulfation being one of them. If it finds sulfation issues, it runs a desulfation program. There is no indication when it is in desulfation. The only indication is if desulfation should fail, requiring that you have the battery checked.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The right way to desulfation is higher than normal charge voltages. The battery will gas, and water will need to be replaced (recall the opening vent cap thread).


While that may be one way to do it, the BatteryMinder uses high frequency pulses.



That is the technical right way to do it. IIRC the minders make the pulse at high voltage, the voltage just swings up and down at different coltages to theoretically work off the sulfate without causing as much consistent gassing as would occur if charged consistently.

There is also a reason why many folks say they dont work. Im giving you the correct answer based upon the chemistry here. Minder is an approach that may or may not work, and is more gentle upon connected equipment.


As for the schumacher, I too have seen the 15.6V ops, and while this would be sufficient to bubble off hydrogen as well as solubilize some sulfate, I do not believe that it is the intent. The initial sulfate test is checking for a higher impedance charge transfer issue indicative of sulfate.
 
My plan is to pull the bad battery from my pickup and swap in either my generator battery or my boat battery. Its a second battery and either is close to group 27. Then put the bad battery on my BatteryMinder measuring the CCAs every week or so.
 
Originally Posted By: EricF
This company called Granite Digital located locally to me has a maintainer called the Power bar.

http://shop.saveabattery.com/media/4055SPEC-s.gif

It's supposed to unsulfate a battery, given enough time, and keep a battery maintained.

A friend has an 85 Porsche 911. The poor car sits and does nothing. the battery is a 49series monster.
When they decide to see if it starts, it never did. So they jump start it and drive around for a bit and park it again.
Well they weren't able to jump it last time, so it sat again for 8months.
So I get them the Power Bar, hook it up and walk away.
about 3 weeks later, they unplug it, and the Porsche comes to life! The car still sits, but they keep the Power Bar on it all the time, and I know it was sulfated and abused.
But.. the car's been starting up and running good.

I'm going to believe the power bar turned around the sulfation and has kept that monster battery alive.




I would go with the BatteryMinder over the PowerBar. I have several BatteryMinders and I believe that company has gained a lot of knowledge in battery maintaining and desulfation technology.

The PowerBar looks more gimmicky.
 
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