Deep cycle battery desulfators?

[Johnbear]

I have done a search on this forum and only found a few results, so I would like to start a dedicated topic on results obtained from desulfator from anyones experience.

It would be awesome if they work as good as their claims. Please let me know of your experience.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mvadventure]

I just posted a response on another thread, don't remember which one, re this issue. Check out http://pulsetech.net/productinfo/productinfo.html I have had great success with this on 12, 36 & 48 wet cell systems
Mike

 

[Johnbear]

How do you test your cells, watt meter, drain brain, electrolyte test? Or just riding your bike?

 

[mvadventure]

With my golf cart, currently deceased, the batteries at the time were about three years old and the built in meter indicated 50% charge after six miles. This same cart had previously indicated 50% after 15 miles. I installed the pulse tech and continued to use and charge the cart normally and after a couple of weeks could see the reserve gradually climbing to 75 or 80%. Testing with a hydrometer confirmed the results but I no longer have the hydrometer notes, they went with the cart when I sold it.

On my boat the 8D house battery stayed 100% discharged with a load for over a week. After charging it simply didn't have the power to maintain normal devices without a noticeable discharge rate on the panel. A few weeks with the pulse tech and everything is normal. It is not possible due to space limitations to put a hydrometer on it.

Again, never tried in on SLA
Mike

 

[oatnet]

I have done a search on this forum and only found a few results, so I would like to start a dedicated topic on results obtained from desulfator from anyones experience.

It would be awesome if they work as good as their claims. Please let me know of your experience.

Thanks in advance!

I posted on another thread - I have used one with great success on a number of car batteries. Don't know if all desulfinators are created equal.

-JD

 

[Johnbear]

Did you add distilled water or new electrolyte as well, or was the improvement soley due to the desulphinator?

 

[oatnet]

Did you add distilled water or new electrolyte as well, or was the improvement soley due to the desulphinator?

Soley the desulphiantor. I coulda hacked the tops open, but didn't.

Left it hooked up to each battery full time, on the charger at night and off the charger during the day. Each one took about a week to go from barely functional to strong. Didn't put a meter on them though.

I paid like $30 on ebay for a 12v version; I have seen them selling for $100+ too. Not much to them, partswise.

-JD

 

[Johnbear]

Anyone try a deslufator on a Sealed Lead Acid battery? Any suggestions recommendations?

 

[Doctorbass]

try the advices found at http://www.batteryuniversity.com

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-48.htm

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-35.htm

Doc

 

[xyster]

batteryuniversity should be required reading for anyone serious about small EVs.

 

[Doctorbass]

I wonder if anyone ever tried their Cadex battery analyzer?.. they seems to be engineered with alot of experience in that domain.

Doc

 

[Johnbear]

Thanks, I have read their site and others, I am curious about people here having any personal experience with their SLA's with a desulfator. If it works as good as the claims it would be an awesome little units.

 

[Doctorbass]

I have 20 12V 5Ah Sla and will have many other.. they are coming from UPS. I will try to increase their capacity. form now I just equalize those. I completly charge them from 2h at 15V in the 2/3 of their cycle of charging. they accept it.. but they come a bit hot.. I use a fan to stabilyse those. They keep a 13.45V on standby without any charging after that step... That help to keep the max capacity.. but it little decrease their cycle life.. I prefer that. Also I try to keep those at 14.4V of standby voltage for a coupple of hour.. each 3 or 4 charge cycle.

I learned that in the how to charge SLA section o fthat article.


Also, I charge them seperatly with 6 independent 15V constant voltage power supply and 2ohm serie resistor on each batery...this avoid problem of non balanced SLA unit.....

Doc

 

[fechter]

I have a Cadex battery analyzer at work. Top quality unit, but it does not have a desulphator function.

You could get about the same results by using a DrainBrain and a regular charger.

 

[Johnbear]

Has anyone tried chemical additive restoration to their SLA's - I just watched a couple of videos on you tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaAM7tWES0A

interesting stuff.

 

[fechter]

I tried some stuff, but I'm not sure if it's the same as the ad. Some kind of Selenium solution. It had no effect that I could tell, but the battery I was testing it on was pretty far gone.

My guess is that if that stuff really helped the batteries, the manufacturers would use it when they made the batteries.

I think it might help flooded batteries. Many times a battery will fail from causes other than sulfation. Cracked connector bars and shorted separators are common, and nothing you dump in the top will fix those.

 

[solarbbq2003]

i've tried a few things, combination of a few things seems to bring em back quite a bit. Only tricky bit is if adding demineralised water or some new electrolyte, judging when the matting has enough is problematic, if its too saturated the electolyte fills up the gas pores ( microscopic ) in the matting which are integral to the functioning of the battery. If too much can I guess bubble some off......no idea how to know when the matting has enough electolyte, but certainly drying out is a big problem.
I put a bit of info here
http://www.users.bigpond.com/solarbbq/batteriesrejuvenating.htm

 

[wakataka]

I have a 36v SLA battery pack on an e-bike. I bought the system used and the batteries were about 1 year old and had not been treated well. The previous owner told me he rode to work daily (about 6 miles round trip) and often would only charge the batteries once a week. I bought a relatively inexpensive little desulfator off of E-bay and left it connected to the batteries for about a week whenever I wasn't using them. It did seem to make a difference in the performance of the batteries. I did not have a watt meter to check the performance before and after, but I thought I could tell from the performance of the bike that the batteries were stronger after the using the desulfator. My normal commute only discharges the batteries about 30% so I really don't feel them sag that much anyway. The old battery pack seems to have about 75% the capacity of the new one I bought to replace it. I'm still using the old ones for my relatively short daily commute and I use the new one for longer rides on the weekends. I use the desulfator just for good measure about once a week or more often if I think of it.

I'm curious how this little desulfator works. I can't detect any amperage draw with my Watts Up meter when I have it hooked up. If it's not drawing any amps, how does it direct enough energy back into the battery to do any good? I opened it up to see what was inside but I don't really know much about electronics. I had expected to see capacitors which would store up energy and send pulses back into the battery, but there aren't any that I recognize. Below is a picture of the circuit board and the case of the device. The black staining on the circuit board is some kind of potting compound. Does anybody have an opinion about what this little thing does and how it does it? Is the apparent beneficial effect on my battery just my imagination?

 

[mvadventure]

I'm not sure I can answer your question properly, especially if you want a technical answer. I keep a device on the house battery, an 8D on my boat. What it is, basically, is a capacitor that build a little current and discharges it back into the battery over and over and over again, a few times a minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year over and over again.. This little boost of current over time is sufficient to keep sulfation from forming and to loosen what has formed.

I also have a Black and Decker battery charger with a desulfator mode. It attempts the same thing in 24 hours and the directions say it may have to be repeated several times, they both work.

The best way is to charge your SLA batteries after each use no matter how short the use may have been. There are folks here on the forum that can supply the technical answer but mostly I just want something that works. The device on my boat and I also had one on my golf carts work. The 8D battery is 4 years old and still strong and I was able to keep my golf cart batteries in peak condition long after other carts had replaced theirs.

 

[wakataka]

MVAdventure - are your desulfators tiny little things like this? It's about 3" square and 1" thick. Smaller than a deck of cards.

I just checked with my multimeter and the little desulfator draws about 7.8 milliamps, below the resolution of my Watts Up meter I guess.I suppose it must be doing something but I wonder how it does it without some capacitors?? Or maybe some of those things on the circuit board are capacitors.

Glad to hear that they are working for you. I'll keep using this one. Suppose it can't do any harm.

 

[mvadventure]

A major disadvantaqge of a computer crash is the loss of your favorites in either IE or FireFox. I have lost the primary web site and can't seem to find it via google but look here:
http://www.ecobuildsupply.com/images/PDF/PulseTech/ReNewIT_LIT.pdf
and here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.survivalunlimited.com/batteries/pulsetech/PowerPulse-medium.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.survivalunlimited.com/batteries/powerpulse12.htm&h=154&w=200&sz=11&hl=en&start=1&um=1&usg=__XmOEVSncnJU1YqifAuF129b5sAs=&tbnid=w_QfkFuiZlPglM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpulse%2Btech%2Bpower%2Bpulse%2Bbattery%2Bdesulfator%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIK_enUS275US276%26sa%3DN

It may simply be their web site has changed substantially and they no longer sell the power pulse except through dealers.

About three years ago I was using a 36 volt EZGO golf cart for transportation in my gated community. It was on its second set of batteries and they were fixing to go, range and power were declining and it looked like I needed to buy six more batteries. I took a chance and bought one of these desulfators and put it on the old batteries. Prior to the power pulse the meter read 50% after a 6.2 mile run back and forth to the golf course. One month later it read 90% and maintained that reading 'till I sold that cart and bought a newer 48 volt model. Unfortunately my HOA decided golf carts were not going to be allowed and threatened me with fines, suspension from the club and eventual imprisonment if I continued to operate the cart so I didn't have it long enough to determine how much longer the batteries would last using the pulse tech. I did however learn a couple things. The pulse tech worked for me and the president of the HOA is a self centered prick.

I have three 24 volt electric scooters and will probably put one of these devices on two of them as they get very limited use. My bike has LiPO4 batteries and doesn't need one.

But....for an ebike to reach maximum effectiveness SLA batteries are becoming a thing of the past as other technologies are coming down in price. If I used the two lighweight scooters much I would replace their SLA's with LiPO4 simply to get an extended range. I carry them on our boat for local transportation while travelling and have to carefully monitor battery usage which limits our ability to go as far as we may like. Opportunity charging helps but the time it takes to charge them using a 2amp charge doesn't solve the problem.

Good luck, enjoy the ride.
Mike

 

[wrobinson0413]

.

 

[fechter]

I built one like the one shown in the .pdf file. I measured pulses of about 10 amps into the battery. It will not restore a battery with shorted plates.

The Chinese one shown in the pic above does not have any parts I could recognize as being inductors or large capacitors, so I have absolutely no clue how it could function as a desulphator.

 

[wrobinson0413]

.

 

[fechter]

That's possible, but why the two big power resistors? And you'd want a big capacitor I think.