Lead Acid Battery Desulfation

Sulfated VRLA 12V 18AH batteries

feeds@yuku.com (lmantuano) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:19:27 GMT

G'day,

I've been following this forum for several year but never found the time or motivation to build the one or three 555 units I had intended for playing and experimenting. I think I've just found the MOTIVATION!

Nine months ago, I acquired a 10KW PowerWare UPS complete of 96 12V 18AH VRLA batteries made by Shanghai Powerson Co LTD. Apart from 3-4 of these batteries, which I'm using around the house and garage, the bulk has been stored in the garage...

Water Cooling Batteries being pulse conditioned

feeds@yuku.com (desulfator2) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:30:37 GMT

Most of the inductive flyback pulsers require the use of a 1 amp trickle charger that is not automatic, not float.

I found the best trickle charger to use is the Shumacher MC-1 Battery Trickle Charger. You can get them cheaply at Ebay doing a search for "MC-1"

Some folks disregard this advice and continue to use chargers that have too high of a charging voltage/current. This normally results in cell overheating which leads to permanent damage.

But, I...

Current rating at discharge stage

feeds@yuku.com (yup) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:28:45 GMT

Hi All!
Now I try desulfate starter battery 55A*h (Ca/Ca low maintance). I am starting at electrolyte density 1.19-1.21g/m3 now 1.26-1.275g/m3 and last two weeks do not change (total time 6 weeks).
Now if I right understand I need discharge my battery to 10.5V, bu I do not know discharge current, I think this very important.
Also I have some AGM battery (12V, 7A*h and 12A*h) and want desulfate and do not know current at discharge stage.
Please advice.
With kind...

Two ideas for microcontrolled pulsers torpedoed at the same time

feeds@yuku.com (desulfator2) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:18:37 GMT

I long felt it was easily possible to have a microcontroller notify you at the end of a desulfation cycle and be able to predict how long it would take.

While testing a new pulser prototype, I discovered that desulfation occurs at a random rate....

Desulfation Information Overload

feeds@yuku.com (jladder) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:28:56 GMT

I sent this to Don. He thought it would make a good post:
"I have read almost all the posts and I know what you mean by repeated questions and the like. If there was some way to downsize the repeated and relevant info into a more compact structure. I've been in some message boards that frowned on posting in a non relevant topic area. But as you said some people are blind most of the time. It would be easier to get around. I bet a lot of people sign on to never use it again. If...

Is the current pulse really accurate?

feeds@yuku.com (jladder) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:26:51 GMT

I have been trying to work on 2 optima starter batteries. I have noticed pulses on the battery in excess of 50 + volts. Although I am really in doubt of any massive current spike even with a resistor in series. The reason, in my circuit I have protected the timer with a forward biased rectifier as a zener only regulates voltage peak, not polarity. In studying the mosfet circuit. I have observed when the cap charges relatively fast and when the n-channel I use, saturates " shorts itself...

Desulfator efficiency vs frequency.

feeds@yuku.com (Patryn999) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:14:46 GMT

I've searched around and found differing opinions, is it better to operate the desulfator at a higher frequency with a slightly lower voltage or vise versa?

To give it a quantitative approach, I can run my cct at at least the following points:
5kHz @ 55V above Vcc, or 50kHz @ 42V above Vcc. (same current draw)

Which have people found to be the better operating point?

Thanks for your time,
Carl.

Part sources for coils? Goldmine? Altronics?

feeds@yuku.com (hamlet jones) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:39:29 GMT

Hi guys,
It's been awhile (wow, 4 years!) since I've posted. I suppose I'm a newbie again

Anyway, I've been wanting to source parts for another build, and as I recall, L1 and L2 were tough to find in a complementary pair.

Anybody have success finding parts that work well?

*****************WHoops!
Disregard this post. I found my notes in a box full of parts for...

desulfator in altoids can

feeds@yuku.com (Shooter3k) — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:52:54 GMT

saw this on another website and thought I might post it here in case anyone wanted to see it.

Although it doesn't look like it was a write up from a desulfating seasoned professional, they seem to do a really good job:

http://www.instructables....ies_in_an_Altoids_Ti.pdf

Resealing Battery Cases

feeds@yuku.com (Bruno) — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:42:30 GMT

Hello all. I've had the joy and fortune to come upon a group of large batteries out of commercial tow trucks (you may have seen them before, it's the kind the repair guy is usually red in the face and cussing as he's trying to carry it to the battery box!). The case on one of the units has a large crack in it, and is apparently leaking acid. I was thinking to use an epoxy resin to re-bond - but wanted to check and see if anyone had any experience resealing these plastic case...

PICAXE schematic?

feeds@yuku.com (bobbyrae) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:39:13 GMT

I'm sorry, I guess I'm just not looking in the right places, but I can't find a schematic for the PICAXE-based desulfator. I have been in the PICAXE forum and looked at all the sticky posts. I found the BASIC Stamp schematic. I would assume that the two would be pretty similar, but it also sounds like some changes were planned.

Thanks

My 10 volt battery revival project

feeds@yuku.com (bobbyrae) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:03:39 GMT

I aquired several used UPS AGM batteries. Some were pretty good, some not, some just questionable.

The one I am currently considering as a "project" seems to have a totally dead cell, since I have never been able to charge it above 11.25 volts and it's resting voltage has ranged from 8.66v to 9.6v. A load tester is currently showing the loaded voltage to be 6-7 volts.

So I am hoping to get it back to 12 volts, or maybe just revive the five cells that are...

Batteries in series........

feeds@yuku.com (emsvitil) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:00:43 GMT

Ran into something interesting when fixing 2 UPS power supplies.

Both had the same problem: Bad Battery indicator light on.

They both use 2 12v hobby batteries (7ah) and both had the same problem: 1 good battery and 1 bad battery. (I had previously changed the batteries, so each UPS should have had a matched set.)

Now the interesting find. I put the 2 good batteries in 1 UPS. The UPS charges them up and I get 27.42 volts (<10ma) across the 2...

Peak pulse voltage - wire position dependant

feeds@yuku.com (Laurentiu) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:13:23 GMT

Hello guys! I'm Laurentiu and I'm new to this board and to the fine art of battery desulfation.
To start, I bought a desulfator kit and I assembled it. It works perfectly as the led lights up, the board buzzes and a nice peak is seen with a scope. The candidates are some of my old age/abused starter batteries.
Anyway, all of them are sealed so I can't measure SG. I must rely only on the peak pulse voltage and max charging voltage in order to check the desufation...

What battery charger are you using?

feeds@yuku.com (Shooter3k) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:40:22 GMT

I've burned up a couple of the last battery chargers after using them for 24/7 over the last year. It would appear after running them for about a year they just tend to die.. Go figure.

Anyways, I'm curious what others have been using for a charger, where you got it, and what you paid.

Thanks for any input you can offer.

Can't Revive one Cell

feeds@yuku.com (Bruno) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:09:32 GMT

Hello Everyone
I've been running my desulphator on a large battery for what seems like two months now. It's working, I see the sulfation on the plates diminishing - I must say, I feel like a real dork getting excited over this, but it does make me smile! :-)

The new dilema I am trying to solve on this battery is what appears to be a weak cell. One of the six cells in this large battery will never go over a 25% charge (by hydrometer) while the others will rise to...

It works wonders

feeds@yuku.com (techyguru) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:50:55 GMT

I was a bit skeptical when I started looking at these things, so I started looking into its history and the chemistry of it. I am a college student so I went and talked to a few of my professors and they all agreed that pulsed desulfation could restore a significant part of a batteries capacity.

So I took the plunge and bought an assembled unit from Don <desulfator@yahoo.com>. It was the 555 based unit with the thermistors and it was...

How do you do it?

feeds@yuku.com (papagolf) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:09:14 GMT

Hello All! I'm a noob here but i've been researching desulfation techniques for about a year now. I recently built the n-channel low-power in effort to recover my golf cart batteries(t-105s). using a beat up tek-475 scope i get all the signals i think i should have but have not had any rise in SG or apparent increase in power or duration over a month of treatment. my question is if there is a best way as far as cycling the batts, edta treatments, pulsing etc. that seems to have...