Miracle workers or snake oil? If, in your opinion, it works, what do I need? Sources?
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And now for something right out of left field: Battery Desulfating?
- Thread starter Downeaster
- Start date
Picked up a charger with the desulfate function in it not too long ago. Tried it on a car battery that wouldn't stay above 12.5 volts for more than about 3-4 days.
After 3 sessions, it improved to about a week before it dropped the same amount.
So... work? Yes, definitely not snake oil.
But miracle worker? No, unfortunately even a week isn't enough to be a useful battery.
Maybe this one was just too far gone.... dunno.
I bought the CTEK (56-353) off Amazon several years ago after seeing how much Jay Leno liked that model.
Its worked pretty amazingly well for me...brought some batteries back that I thought werent ever gonna make it back. It gets used constantly around the homestead for topping different vehicles up that have been sitting through cold snaps, etc.
I'll definitely buy another if this one craps out some day (knock on wood).
Its worked pretty amazingly well for me...brought some batteries back that I thought werent ever gonna make it back. It gets used constantly around the homestead for topping different vehicles up that have been sitting through cold snaps, etc.
I'll definitely buy another if this one craps out some day (knock on wood).
To be clear
We did this with the salts, not using a gizmo.
The time we spent we could have at the time gotten an equivalent battery for $120. I think he slant $20 on the chemical kit and it was nasty dealing with the chemicals and we spent an hour or more understanding what got do and doing it.
My brother got into solar power for his house. he bought second hand refurbished solar batteries for his set up. The seller had desulfecated, (if that's a word), the batteries and tested them so they were holding around 90 -95% or more of new batteries. Cost wise to the holding power gave them value for money.
My understanding is it also depends on how bad the damage is to the battery. with a vehicle it needs to be done before the battery has got to the point where the output is reduced. if a battery is 3 year old and still working then it would be a good time to do it.
My understanding is it also depends on how bad the damage is to the battery. with a vehicle it needs to be done before the battery has got to the point where the output is reduced. if a battery is 3 year old and still working then it would be a good time to do it.
I've used these a few times with limited success. First time was for wet cell batteries in a camper trailer. Ran it about three times, didn't work at all.
I used another a few months ago on the TX650 AGM battery. It seemed to work alright, held it's charge overnight, but cranking power still wasn't enough to crank over the engine.
I did a post on it here not that long ago.
I think these are best used regularly on new batteries to prevent sulphation, not a lot of use on old batteries that have stopped performing.
I have read you can put baking soda, caustic soda or Epsom salts into a wet cell to revive it, but I think you can take that with a pinch of salt. Perhaps one of these in conjunction with a desulphater might work. I wouldn't stand to close though.
But where on earth would you find a wet cell these days.
I used another a few months ago on the TX650 AGM battery. It seemed to work alright, held it's charge overnight, but cranking power still wasn't enough to crank over the engine.
I did a post on it here not that long ago.
I think these are best used regularly on new batteries to prevent sulphation, not a lot of use on old batteries that have stopped performing.
I have read you can put baking soda, caustic soda or Epsom salts into a wet cell to revive it, but I think you can take that with a pinch of salt. Perhaps one of these in conjunction with a desulphater might work. I wouldn't stand to close though.
But where on earth would you find a wet cell these days.
Yeah mebby, notice those pulse desulfator chargers that were all the rage a couple years ago have mostly disappeared.
I keep an old non automatic charger around to bring back seriously discharged batteries but I never trust them again.
I keep an old non automatic charger around to bring back seriously discharged batteries but I never trust them again.
I have a charger with a "doctor" feature. I thought about using it on my rv's deep cycle battery that is currently (no pun intended) mostly dead. I'm not even going to try. It's 5 years old and doesn't owe me a thing. I'm not going to get fancy with it (as in Li-ion replacement Expensive, much?), just a plain old (new) battery. It should last me another 5 years...
I just picked up a NOS Optimate 3+ battery maintainer. It was supposed to be a pretty smart device. When you connect your battery to it, it goes through a number of diagnostic functions and if your battery meets certain conditions, it starts charging and eventually goes to a 24/7/365 maintain mode. I plugged the charger into my Moto Guzzi (newest battery). Everything seemed to be going ok, then one day (after being plugged in for 3+ days), a yellow light was on telling me the battery was in a desulphate mode. This made no sense because the battery was quite healthy and well charged. I unplugged the charger and tried to get it out of the desulphate mode but no way. I hooked it up to a different battery and managed to get out of the mode that way. I hooked it back up to the Moto Guzzi again and it went through its diagnostic modes again, then went to the maintain mode - all looked well. I kept an eye on it and every other time I checked, the charge led was flashing telling me it was is a test / diagnostic mode again. Too complex.
Sorry for the long story but the bottom line is sometimes simple is better. I think I’ll stick to my 2 led maintainers. Red = hooked up wrong, solid green = charged.
Sorry for the long story but the bottom line is sometimes simple is better. I think I’ll stick to my 2 led maintainers. Red = hooked up wrong, solid green = charged.
Yeah, those damn smart chargers are extremely frustrating. They are soooo finicky and only work part of the time.
I finally found one I liked after seeing Jay Leno's recommendations for these.
I finally found one I liked after seeing Jay Leno's recommendations for these.
Well my ”smart” charger is driving me crazy. Seems like it likes to toggle between test and maintain continuously (frequency in hours unknown). I hooked up a small led voltmeter to watch the voltage and what it’s doing is on maintain it brings voltage to 13.7 / 13.8, then goes to test and the voltage drops to 13.0, then it goes to maintain again and continues the cycle. Optimate says solid green (maintain) and flashing green (test) are ok, however from what I understand it shouldn’t switch back and forth so often. I just disconnected the ground for the battery to see if there might be a parasitic load pulling the voltage down. When the green light goes from solid to flashing, the voltage drops from 13.8 to 13.0 in I’m guessing an hour or so. Sound normal?
Maybe as usual, I’m just looking for another problem to chase. lol.
Edit: I watched it go through another cycle, then checked the battery with my cheap digital tester. It said all was ok, so I’m buttoning it up and won’t pay as much attention to it.
Maybe as usual, I’m just looking for another problem to chase. lol.
Edit: I watched it go through another cycle, then checked the battery with my cheap digital tester. It said all was ok, so I’m buttoning it up and won’t pay as much attention to it.
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AUTOMAN
XS650 Addict
FLA bats need cycling. Smarty is doing that.
SLA almost same
AGM no way. Let em go flat and game over, you will never recover any current.
SLA almost same
AGM no way. Let em go flat and game over, you will never recover any current.
Thx, that ‘splains why its doing what it’s doing.
I have to disagree with that. I have a AGM in my XS2. I left the ignition on for a week or so by accident or brain fade. Luckily the kill switch was off. The neutral light drained it flat dead. My chargers did not want to charge it. I had to hook another battery to it in parallel to it to get a charger to start working. After a couple of hours I could unhook the jumper battery. It took a couple of days and the battery was charged. That was 2 years ago. It's been fine ever since. I'm thinking of replacing it this spring because it's been in the bike for 4 years. It cam out of a parts bike I had bought so I really don't know how old it is.
The Shadow says it want a new battery but before I pull the trigger on that I’ll see if my fancy Optimate can give it a new life.
I must tell my two AGMs that went totally flat, that.
Both of them recovered fine, with some careful re-charging.
My “smart” Optimate charger wants to see 2 or 2.4V to start charging a deeply discharged battery. The parallel trick is a good hack.
Thinking the Shadow needed a new battery, I removed it and bench tested it. Lucky for me it passed its health test. For some reason it was failing while still in the bike. Perhaps the connections from the tester to the battery terminals weren’t so good?
