Posted: 6/30/2016 7:40:38 PM EDT
Does anyone use a battery maintainer/desulfator?
I ordered the BatteryMinder 128CEC1 from Amazon. http://www.batteryminders.com/batteryminder-model-128cec1-12v-2-4-8-amp-charger-maintainer-desulfator/ It have a SLA battery for the shack for backup power. My battery is a 75 amp hour Group 24 size. I want to maintain it and this was recommended by a another ham, so I am curious what the hive mind uses to maintain their batteries. |
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I use one called Da PIMP, and have had very good results. It's not an intelligent charger/desulphator though-which is good in that you can use it a variety of battery chemistries and series/parallel combinations but bad in that you have to keep an eye on it.
I have saved several car batteries, one motorcycle battery, and rejuvenated 10 year old c sized NimH cells to 70% capacity. Totally worth it so far for me as it has paid for itself several times over but now that I know desulphating works I'm tempted to get one of the solar powere set it and forget it models. In know that Da PIMP uses capacitors to pulse the current to the batteries and uses mains power AC switching to handle the dump cycling, don't know if what he has is better than what others are doing, I just know that desulphating has worked for me. |
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Properly charged and maintained batteries aren't particularly prone to sulfation.
Slightly OT, but there is considerable hype in the battery charger market. Since most chargers accomplish essentially the same thing, their manufacturers are under constant pressure to add new "features" that help distinguish their products from those of their competitors. If your product has a 17 stage recharge process, and the closest competing product only has 16, you can ask a few extra bucks for yours... |
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Amazon sent me the wrong charger after checking my original order.
I ordered the model only that was half the price for AGM batteries only, but Amazon sent me the higher cost model by mistake. I called about this and was told that if I was happy with it to keep it. 
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I have never used a purpose built desulfator. I just start them out at (usually) the highest setting on a big commercial charger, and adjust the output down as I see the battery start taking a charge. It is a process that takes a lot of monitoring during the first 2-3 hours, but when they get to where they are absorbing 10-15 amps I go to a normal automatic cycle (if the charger has one) and they will usually go to near enough to full capacity to be serviceable. My battery learning came from a Vietnam era Air Force mechanic (who also happened to be a ham) and he described the process, and how to succeed or fail, in pretty simple terms. A shock of high current destabilizes crystallized lead sulfate (the substance which is blocking the flow of charging current in a sulfated battery), some of which returns to participation in the chemical process, while some simply falls away and never rejoins that process. Too much charging current for too long can overheat the plates which will cause them to warp or crack, so you want to monitor that stage of the game closely and fall back to a normal charging current as soon as the battery's internal resistance is low enough that it begins taking a good charge. Warped material will cause a short circuit in the cell while cracked material will fall out of the circuit and never again participate in the production of current, either of which essentially kills the battery for good so you want to avoid them. Commercial desulfators avoid the buildup of heat by delivering shocks of high current in relatively short, measured pulses. There will still be some falloff of crystalline lead sulfate in this process but the other dangers are lessened somewhat , and the operator doesn't have to give the ongoing process so much attention. So whether or not you buy and use one depends on whether you have more time or money, but in my opinion you can do just as well without one.
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| I picked up a MegaBoost 4000 from Cycle Gear on one of their sales. Yes, it was to keep the battery in my bike topped off, but it works well on my 12v UPS & radio batteries too. |
| I have been using Battery Minder chargers for several years with excellent results. I had a pretty abused and sulfated auto battery that they brought back, that was like 5 years ago and that battery is still in use. I've doubled or more the usual life of our agricultural equipment batteries by putting a Battery Minder on each piece of equipment for 2-4 weeks each while stuff is sitting in the winter. |
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I have this one and it kicks butt. It's resurrected at least 4-5 fubar 12v wet-cell batteries I've dealt with over the last 2 years. I thought desulphating might be a gimmic, but it easily brought back batteries that my other computerized and analog chargers couldn't.
Amazon link |
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Quoted:
I have this one and it kicks butt. It's resurrected at least 4-5 fubar 12v wet-cell batteries I've dealt with over the last 2 years. I thought desulphating might be a gimmic, but it easily brought back batteries that my other computerized and analog chargers couldn't. Amazon link Fixed the link for you. |
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Quoted: I bought several of these to take care of my battery backup projects. So far I'm tickled pink with them. http://<a href=http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac216/Rockyriver1234/Home%20Made%20Battery%20Charger/D6E8450D-A8D7-4BAE-9A2C-3B3D6694A459_zps1qo85gat.jpg</a>" /> Very very happy after about 6 years now. Wish I could afford 2 or 3 more. |
| I've seen several 'desulfators' that look to be a black box with red and black wires I'm assuming get attached directly to the battery. Is anyone familiar with these units? I'm assuming its a weird circuit that somehow charges a capacitor then dumps the charge back into the battery? |
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Quoted:
I've seen several 'desulfators' that look to be a black box with red and black wires I'm assuming get attached directly to the battery. Is anyone familiar with these units? I'm assuming its a weird circuit that somehow charges a capacitor then dumps the charge back into the battery? Some are like that and can only be us dead with vehicles that are used regularly or on something like a solar battery bank that gets charged enough to cover the parasitic drain from the desulphator. Something to keep in mind you guys is that a desulphator won't be able to fix cells in a battery that have bridged with sulfur crystals. My first recovery was like that, a motorcycle gel cell that had been left in the bike for a long winter. It was down to 6v or so when I started and two weeks later I couldn't get it about about 10.5v resting. The desulfator turned the plates in the battery back to shiny new lead, but one cell still had all of the white sulfur coating I started out with. |