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Old 01-13-2011, 08:09 PM   #1
sonicj
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Default Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

Lots of talk lately about desulfating lead acid batteries by various chemical means... Unfortunately, i have yet to see any hard data supporting, nor debunking these claims. What i did stumble onto however, was the concept of using short electronic pulses to slowly convince the lead sulfate crystals to dislodge (dissolve?) from the plates. Heres a good summery on the topic for those who want a little better explanation of the concept. link Based on the volume of participants and their claims of effectiveness, I believe this method may hold some truth to it's claims.

These pulsing circuits are available in many different flavors. You can simply buy one off the shelf and you're ready to go, or you can build one of the many open source designs available online. The concept can be applied to any lead acid or nickel based battery, but requires proper scaling of the circuit to match the various voltages and capacities. DIY designs range from a simple 555 timer based circuit to much more complex microprocessor based systems. Some of these designs are available as easy to assemble kits, or you can choose to source the components on your own. Options exist for any skill level to participate, you don't need to be a electronics whizz kid to build one of these on your own!

More Information on DIY Desulfation

Out of my own personal interest in the performance of these devices as well as to benefit the curiosity of others here in BGW the community, I am documenting the results of my experience with one of these devices connected to a heavily sulfated SLA battery.

For this first experiment, I'm using the BatteryMINDer Plus Charger/Maintainer/Desulphator from Northern Tool. The test subject is a Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) battery from Power Sonic. It is listed at 12V with a capacity of 5 Amp Hours. Based on a "03" sticker attached to the bottom of the case, the year of manufacture is believed to be 2003. The small capacity battery was chosen for the practicality of measurement. As I understand it, results should scale proportionally with battery weight and conditioning duration. ie: as the battery increases in weight, so does the time required to pulse condition. The underlying principle of operation of this battery is the same as any deep cycle golf cart battery.

I feel that the best method for measuring any gain (or loss) in performance of a SLA battery is to measure the current consumption of the battery over a constant current discharge until the voltage drops below a specified threshold followed by the same test performed after the conditioning period. For this test I have chosen to discharge the battery at a rate of 1C (aka: One Hour Discharge) which for this particular battery is 5A. The depleted threshold for the tests is set at 10.5V; widely considered to be the total completed discharge voltage for a typical 6 cell lead acid battery under load. These amperage and voltage settings will be used for both measurements.

The equipment to be used for the discharge tests is a West Mountain Radio - CBA II - Computerized Battery Analyzer. The initial charge for the battery was performed by a IMAX B6 (clone) at a variable rate not exceeding 1A. Maximum charge capacity was determined by the charger. The battery was left to rest for approximately 8 hours prior to initial discharge test.

Initial results not looking too good for the 7 year old lil' fella... The CBA reported only 1.480Ah consumed before the battery reached its depleted voltage threshold; a mere 29.6% of it's stated capacity. IMO, should be a excellent candidate for viewing the effects of this technology. The user manual for the BatteryMINDer Plus mentions that results are typically seen after 2 weeks... almost as much fun as watching paint dry!
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Old 01-13-2011, 10:22 PM   #2
redriderno22
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

I use the CBA to test my batts as well.

a very handy tool to have with testing battery additives
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Old 01-14-2011, 05:13 AM   #3
sonicj
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

it is a nice lil' tool to have on hand. a bit expensive for what it is, imo. the overpriced upgrade software should be included free at the price they are asking for the cba. lame.

anywho, are you using the add-on amplifier for discharge tests? or are you testing at a the 8a current limit? have you plotted any results yet? i wanna see some graphs!
cheers,
-sj
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Old 01-14-2011, 02:11 PM   #4
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

no i dont have the add on

and sadly i use my vista laptop with it and have lost alot of the work ive done with the CBA....

i hate vista....
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Old 01-14-2011, 02:20 PM   #5
sonicj
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

booo vista!
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Old 01-14-2011, 02:28 PM   #6
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

do you get those ripples in the curve when discharging LA batteries? i wonder whats up with that?

have you seen this yet? constant current discharger

same design, different page

up to 50A would be sweet!
-sj
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Old 01-14-2011, 02:44 PM   #7
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

yes i do see the ripples

i think its from the varying resistance in the battery during discharge

and as far as a true read on a batterys capacity the slower the better

it helps you to see those little hicups in a battery at a certin voltage

which can help you to weed out those that will not hold up to a higher discharge rate
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Old 01-25-2011, 07:01 PM   #8
sonicj
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

only 20 hours to go!
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Old 01-26-2011, 04:54 PM   #9
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

results are in!

black is initial test. red is the same discharge profile applied to the battery after 2 weeks connected to the desulfator.
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Old 01-27-2011, 01:00 AM   #10
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Default Re: Pulse Desulfators: Fact or Fiction?

Quote:
Originally Posted by sonicj View Post
results are in!

black is initial test. red is the same discharge profile applied to the battery after 2 weeks connected to the desulfator.
Thanks for the detailed report sonicj. At the office we had a 48 volt bank of 4x12's that new had a run time of around 60 minutes but that run time dropped to 30 minutes.

The B&D 12v chargers that we use have the Desulf Mode feature. When started it will run for 24 hours and B&D reports no gain should be expected after three of these cycles have been run.

After doing three cycles on each battery run time jumped back to 45 minutes due to running the Desulf Mode feature. That made me a believer in the process. Hope our new 36v BatteryMINDer works as good on the GC batteries as on your test battery.
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