Re: Reviving Lazy Cells?

bob mcree wrote: 


seriously though, does anybody know much about electronic desulphation
and prevention? there are an awful lot of products out there that make
claims about extending lead acid battery life with high voltage pulsing
to prevent/reverse sulphation. do they do more to extend life than we
can do by managing discharge/charge carefully?



No. 


they have a bunch of electron micrographs on the web that claim to
show badly sulphated plates before and after treatment with their
desulphator and the micrographs show dramatic results. i know the
plates were abused to get them that way but unless the photos are
fake it looks like it really does work sometimes at least to extend
the life of badly damaged cells. they aren't selling desulphators,
they are giving the plans away free online to build your own.

Does your experience indicate otherwise, that the desulphators don't
sometimes "repair" sulphated batteries? thanks...

-bob



I've built one from free plans on the web..
I've tried it with car batteries,and SLA's from old UPS's,all of varying age and condition..
If the battery is too far gone(crumbling plates,internal shorts,etc),no amount of desulphating will help.

BUT,With a "so-so" battery,it does seem to work!
I've revived a car battery that was almost dead to the world,but it now holds a good charge,and seems to be in pretty good shape.I don't expect it to hold it's rated capacity anymore,but it's good enough to actually use now!

I also have another battery that was/is pretty far gone.
It wouldn't take any current while charging..
I connected the desulphator to the battery,along with a 12V 1A "wall-wart" to power the desulphator,since the battery was dead-to-the-world... A couple weeks later it could power a 55W halogen bulb for a few minutes..
Every week it would power the lightbulb longer and longer.
That battery still won't start a car,and it's *nowhere* near it's rated capacity,but it could run some LED lighting or something low-current for a while.. Not bad considering it wouldn't even take a charge at first.
.

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