Battery Charger - desulphation?
 

Not sure which part of the forum to put this in....

Battery charger that reconditions / has a desulphite function

I see several people charge their 12v battery from mains power to reduce alternator load. I’m also interested in making my starter battery (not a hybrid car) last as long as possible. After my daughter left the keys in and turned on to ‘acc’ overnight I put a very small charger on it for the day. I eventually had to connect it to my other car to start it... that peopmted me

My question is about chargers with these 2 functions. Does anyone have any experience with these? Will they prolong battery life substantially?

Pretty much what they do is remove the sulfate. Since that is a pretty inert substance, it means a mechanical removal. On starting batteries, if they use a sintered plate it could mean early demise.

Anything that exposes fresh plate material will cause the cell to appear "refreshed", except watt hours decrease.

You need a big battery charger that can put out some real power. Not a battery tender or trickle charger that will only ever achieve a max voltage of 14v.
To do a real desulfur cycle and cell equalization you need to hold the battery to at least 15.5v for an hour or so. 16v would be better.
A 12 to 15 amp charger with "flooded" or "standard", a "gel battery" and "AGM" settings is what you will need.

Many “electronic” battery chargers won’t work if the battery is dead, just hook up an antique charger that never shuts off and let it charge 24 hours

If you have a desulphator charger you likely will still need an antique one to keep it running, thats what I do on my fathers 3 year old motorcycle battery, I hook both the 40 amp desulphator and the old 6 amp unit

Some electronic battery chargers need to read a few volts before they will try to charge. Yesterday I killed my riding lawn mower battery by leaving the key on for about 8 days, only had a half volt, but the electronic charger came on anyways.

What oilpan and rmay said...

Also, I have a 25 amp electronic charger that has a desulphation stage for my deep cycle 40 amp hour battery. I charge from the grid mostly & use the alternator only sporadically if at all. Out of my last battery on this set up, I got 7 years of cycling the battery down to about 50% of charge daily--driving 11,000 miles a year. So, I think yes it likely helps preserve and extend the battery life. A key rule of thumb: pick a three stage charger that has AT LEAST 40% of the amps that your battery stores. If you have a 50 amp hr battery, don't get a charger less than 20 amps... and so on...

Thank you all for the replies. I bought a 7 step charger which claims to be able to charge totally drained natteries as well. Its 15amps. It did its thing and it tells me that the battery is fully charged. Car starts quickly, I didnt check the battery voltage after charging - its cold, dark and raining now.

I have one of those imax rc hobby chargers.

It can cahrge all chemisties. It can output 8A.

When a battery is dead. You have to lie to the charger and tell it that it is a 6v battery instead of 12v. Likewise if you tell the charger it is an 16v battery you can make it push the set current indefinitely.

I'm starting to put the charger on my liquid fuelled cars. Now that I have the nissan leaf most of the times my firebird gets started I'm just moving it.
My wife drives her car to and from work, 6 miles each way.
I don't want to have to buy a battery for them or waste gas just to drive it around to keep the battery up.

I have 15 Amp Battery Charger with 40 Amp Engine Start. Made by Black+Decker. Works well