Has anyone actually successfully desulfated a battery?

[metroplex]

AGM batteries sulfate for sure. We switched to AGM at work for hundreds of thousands of vehicles in our fleet and they sure enough die just as quickly as the lead-acid versions when sitting in the yards.

I use Pulsetech chargers as they automatically desulfate as they maintain the batteries. And yes the desulfators work on fairly healthy batteries but they won't work miracles obviously.

 

[Rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Dinoburner
As a battery sulfates particles of lead fall to the bottom of the battery. As the battery loses lead it at the same time loses capacity, thats why it does`nt take as long to charge a sulfated battery. Engines that start quickly will usually show no problem until it completely fails. Since the lead is resting at the bottom of the battery there is no possibility of saving those batterys.





In terms of agm...
I think you are mixing up flooded lead acid sulphation with the effects of excessive discharge in a dry mat battery.

AGM batteries are designed to tolerate excessive discharges by having the mats sealed against the plate and a minimal amount of electrolyte absorbed into the mat (not in liquid form)

If sulphate crystals form in an AGM battery (which is difficult since there is inadequate electrolyte they would naturally break the separator that is sealed to the plate failing the battery.
This also means the plate can't "shed " as again it's stuck to a "dry" mat, if it could it would again damage the mat failing the battery.

A pulse charger likely works as well as a dumb trickle charger at recovering over discharge on these batteries but I guess whatever turns your crank.

AGM behave quite differently than floodies

 

[NYEngineer]

I have a carbon pile load tester. ONCE I brought a battery back by charging it up, loading it, charging it up and loading it a few times. Worked fine for a year or so.

I have a really good battery connection so I really don't waste too much time on them. That was really just to see if it would work.

 

[meep]

yes, but never with an off-the-shelf desulfating charger.

used a DIY design years ago, and pickup up a bunch of junked batteries from the recycling center. Did a load test on them and then put them on a desulfator for several months. Half of them came back to about 70%, half showed no difference. A truly potent desulfator can also damage other electronics, requiring the battery to be isolated.

I bought a "desulfating" charger years later and found it to be ineffective beyond just being a charger. Avoid the hype.

 

[javacontour]

I am on my 3rd year of my $48.88 Value Power Wal*Mart battery. If it makes it to December, it will have done 3 full years of service.

I can buy a lot of $48.88 batteries for what it would cost me to buy some fancy battery charger, even if that battery charger actually worked to extend the life of the battery.

Seems like some interesting quasi science experiments akin to Project Farm. But just for entertainment value.

That's my $0.02

(Watch my battery stop working today because I opened my mouth, LOL.)

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted by Rmay635703
Originally Posted by A_Harman


And this, dear reader, explains why lead acid battery electric cars will NEVER replace internal combustion cars...


Fixed it for you,


Your conclusion is about 20 years out of date, lead acid isn't used for EVs anymore


EV true believers are priceless. First he changes my quote, then tells me I'm wrong.

 

[Dinoburner]

Yes, referring to conventional lead acid, however, they all sulfate though at differing rates. For instance the thinner the plates such as on high cca rated batteries deteriorate faster than their thicker plate designs.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote
I am on my 3rd year of my $48.88 Value Power Wal*Mart battery. If it makes it to December, it will have done 3 full years of service.

I can buy a lot of $48.88 batteries for what it would cost me to buy some fancy battery charger, even if that battery charger actually worked to extend the life of the battery...…..
In June I'll be two years on my JCI VP battery. At purchase time, I thought getting two years would be very good, beyond that a bonus. The vehicle is ungaraged and sits in summer heat and relatively lightly driven (3-4k mi year). If I get three years I'll be tickled.

I do occasionally put it on a low amp maintainer, I wouldn't call it fancy though. I paid ~$20 at Northern Tool for a non temperature compensated Battery Minder maintainer/charger which I use for all my vehicles. That's about the most I'd pay for one, seems worth that to 'top up' voltage on my vehicle batteries from time to time.

 

[javacontour]

Sounds similar to my 99 MGM where the mentioned battery is installed.

I'm driving it this week because my Mazda3 is in the body shop for some driver inflicted damage repair. I scraped a concrete support in a parking garage during my on-call week. In too much of a hurry and tried to cut a corner when I should have just stopped and waited for the other car.

Ouch.

But that's why we keep the MGM around. It gets about 5k miles / year so an annual oil change in the fall now.

Just rolled it over to 98k miles on Tuesday during a 200 mile round trip to Springfield, IL.

Originally Posted by Sayjac
Quote
I am on my 3rd year of my $48.88 Value Power Wal*Mart battery. If it makes it to December, it will have done 3 full years of service.

I can buy a lot of $48.88 batteries for what it would cost me to buy some fancy battery charger, even if that battery charger actually worked to extend the life of the battery...…..
In June I'll be two years on my JCI VP battery. At purchase time, I thought getting two years would be very good, beyond that a bonus. The vehicle is ungaraged and sits in summer heat and relatively lightly driven (3-4k mi year). If I get three years I'll be tickled.

I do occasionally put it on a low amp maintainer, I wouldn't call it fancy though. I paid ~$20 at Northern Tool for a non temperature compensated Battery Minder maintainer/charger which I use for all my vehicles. That's about the most I'd pay for one, seems worth that to 'top up' voltage on my vehicle batteries from time to time.

 

[repairman54]

Batteryminder plus have more than paid for themselves in my powersports batteries. My 09 snowmobile still has its OEM battery in it. This winter at - 20 it cranked up a 3 cylinder 1200 cc engine without an issue. That battery is been on the battery minder since the sled came home and it's always plugged into it whenever it's stored. Same thing apply to my Harley that battery was in the bike for 10 years and the only reason I changed it for new one is I didn't want to take a chance on a 10-year old battery but it was still cranking fine when it got replaced. Both of these batteries are AGM and well over $100 a piece to replace. Folks who do not put a maintainers on their batteries are lucky to get 3 years out of these batteries. Desulfating maintainers are money well spent in my book.

 

[metroplex]

I used to run Battery Tenders and still do on some vehicles. They are great maintainers that keep a floating charge of about 13.2 VDC with varying current. However, I started to try out some Pulsetech maintainers with desulfating capability and it has made an improvement on some of my batteries. The Yuasa in my Ducati 696 gets a workout due to the small capacity and the bike being hard to start in the cold. I noticed that with a desulfating maintainer, the starter has more of a punch now. The same goes for some of the older factory batteries in my cars. Again, it's not going to work miracles if it is totally desulfated.

 

[Cadmanjwm]

I have used a Battery Minder for years rotating it on my vehicles summer and winter on whatever was being unused on a weekend. When it wasn't on a car it was used on the Craftsman 12hp lawn tractor every winter on a Walmart Everstart battery with a date sticker of May 05 that lasted until June 18 before it was replaced. Never had any battery last 13 years.