Battery Vehicle Society

Hi I would like to know if there are any members who has any knowledge practical or theoretical regarding desulphating large battery banks[/b]

Theres many claimed devices, potions and dopes out there but from my own experience a long slow charge will recover a battery just as well if its recoverable.

Also battaries age and condition plays a big part, if a battery is at the end of its life anyway its unlikely it will come back to any real usable capacity.

But feel free to try one and let us know what you find.

What sort of bank of batteries are you looking at ?

ChrisB

the battery bank is 4 x 230amp deep cycle, 7 years old off my narrow boat, 3 in perfect condition, 1 used a lot of water on 3 cells after 1 charge gives good voltage under load but one cell gives a low SG reading any ideas

So generally they are used ? and not left discharged ??

Sounds like that one battery has become un-balanced or has just failed.

Best option is to charge it on its own slowly and see if you can recover it that way ?

Always important to make sure in a string they all end fully charged at the end of a charge cycle as once one cell starts to drop off its agrivated quite quickly if you dont catch it, and thus on each cycle it gets lower and lower until you get to the point where you notice a performance issue, generally by then its too late

Long and slow charge I would say on the suspect battery is your best bet, maybe others might have another idea ?

ChrisB

Randomized rapid charges and discharges thrown in now and then too. Connect a duff battery to a charged battery.

I've brought back some pretty dire batteries this way. You've got to be prepared to wait a long time as it can take weeks. put them in groups of 2 or three and charge / discharge them as units. mix the batteries up now and then and repeat the process over and over.

Don't try this with fancy Lithium though !!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Robbymax, I am a newbie on this forum and just noticed your message. I have been working in the electric vehicle business for 20 years. Battery sulphation has been a major problem here in the UK for all of this time.

There have been many many potions and old wives tales that supposedly work but prove not to.

I was recently made redundant by a large US golf car manufacturer who make 130,000+ electric vehicles per year and our dealers throw many batteries out each year. Most of these batteries are only scrap due to sulphation, the other characteristics of the batteries are generally ok.

I have been looking for a solution for many years and recently came across a product that was developed for the aerospace industry and has been redesigned to smaller lead acid batteries from smaller vehicles like golf cars, forklifts, etc.

The product is the Batt-Recon, an electronic machine that use high pulses of amps and 'ultrasonic' waves to destroy the sulphates from the lead plates. I imported a unit to test and was highly impress, I am now the UK distributor for the various machines available.


The product is like renewing oil in a petrol engine! It extends the life of the battery, reduces charging times and cost by up to 40%, extends run times and reduces battery landfill.

If you are interested please leave me a message.

Hi robbymax,

It sounds to me that you may have 1 or more bad cells in that battery. I'm no expert, but i suggest that you leave that battery to rest for a couple of days after a long slow charge and see if it still copes with a load test.

Assuming you're using them in parallel (connected for 12v), you could leave out the dubious battery. you may find that he remaining batteries work a lot better without it.

no offense, battery-recon UK, but I've yet to see any 'independent' proof of the effectiveness of the pulse desuphators. As chrisb says a long slow charge seems to be the most reliable way to bring a battery up to it's full charge.

mab

Hi Mab,

No offence taken Mab. However, if everyone thought that new technology wouldn't work we would still be riding around on horses and fighting of Dick Turpin!

I have been in the electric vehicle business for 20 years and as stated above I have met many modern day Dick Turpin's trying to convince people that there are all types of liquids, serums and old wife tale potions that can 'refurb' batteries.... and they were driving a car much more expensive than a G-Wiz.

I came across my machine in the US. It is called the BATT RECON and was developed by a company in the Aerospace industry. I can assure you the machine DOES work, it can be used as an annual preventative maintenance tool to remove annual sulphate removal (same as changing oil on a petrol/diesel engine) or it can be used to bring 'graveyard' batteries back to life, providing the plates are not warped, shorted or damaged. 70% of batteries all scrapped batteries can be rejuvinated.

When working the BATT RECON 4800 AGC along with the latest CADEX CA12 battery tester, we can prove that the BATT RECON works. As an example: I desulphated a battery pack today on a golf car using Trogan T105r batteries , the run time of the batteries before sulphation removal was 74 minutes at 95% charge.
Following desulphation removal and re-charge, a discharge to 97%, the run time was increased to 107 minutes.
The time taken was 35 minutes with 3 hours charging using the golf car standard Delta Q solid state charger.

I can provide the before and after print out along with the reduced impendence mOhms. Impenance increases in the battery as sulphates form.

As stated the new Cadex battery tester proves that the BATT RECON really does work, I would not have invested £6000 on the machinery and alot more to be the UK distributor.

If you look at my website, customgolfcars dot co dot uk (newbie, so the site won't let me post my site details) and batt recon dot com, you can see for yourself. The machine can desulphate a motorbike battery, auto battery and up to fork lift batteries.

If you would like a demo or further details call me, numbers on the website.

BATT RECON UK

fair comments, but I have tried one of these (in fact I made my own version), but the question is: does it work better than a long slow charge - from my own tests - no, not really.

mab

Golf cars and industrial electric vehicles using lead acid batteries require between 8 and 12 hour charging times, depending on battery type, battery usage and application. Each battery set requires different algarithum frequencies to charge them. Old fashioned 'valve' chargers, like a Lister, couldn't do this. The new solid state are computerised and are matched to each battery set programmed into the charger unit, maximising the charge.

An old type charger could only charge a battery to 85-89% battery capacity at anytime. The new solid state charger like the Canadian Delta Q now provides a 97% charge.

With this in mind, all the traction/motive batteries only benefit from a slow long charge.

I have seen people on this forum charging their G-Wiz cars for 2 and 3 hours, this is definately a no no. We call this an opportunist charge. This type of charging is like a diabetic having a mars bar, it works for a short period and has side effects. The side effect with a battery is the increase chase of warped and shorted plates.

I'm probably teaching an old granny how to suck eggs here, if so I apologise. I'll keep you updated on progress and once I appoint a service dealer in your area, i'll make you his first port of call for a free trial!

Hope to talk again

Regards