Hi all.

I hope well. I am assisting a chap that has 2V cells x 12 for 24V. They pretty old. Unfortunately he does not have the financial capacity to purchase a new bank 

I recommended a battery desulfator. As the units are fairly old. I have seen some videos on YouTube of a some battery desulfators are permanently hooked up to the battery bank and deliver the pulse x amount of times during the day or week. 

What can you gents recommended?

Sincerely

Jason

I'm not aware of anything of value that can be bought, you'd have to homebrew a unit and yes, one would probably keep it connected, if the batteries are in good condition the desulfator would not consume just about any power and do not much, but whilst the batteries need it, it would  produce measurable pulses to help the batteries get in better shape again and still not consume much power.

@Jason. I have built (had PCBs made) for 2x variations of desulphators. The aim being to destroy the sulphite tendrils from shorting the cells. The design is to  have a short high energy pulse to achieve the desulphation. I scoped the outputs and the ringing on the pulse is perfectly visible showing that the units do work. 

Sadly though I was never able to revive any dead batteries with the units (lead acid batteries). Due to the operation of the pulses my opinion is that are even of less use for gel type LA batteries. I also tried using the method found on the 'net to drain the sulphuric acid out the battery, fill it with epsom salts, drain and fill with battery acid etc etc etc. I found this to be a dangerous exercice - working with a heavy battery trying to drain out all the sulphuric acid which was frequently dirty (contaminants or bad quality lead perhaps ?)

So after the experience of hours of building and testing the different circuits I am of the opinion that these de-sulphators are of little value and for me are in the "snake-oil" category. 

I did try to investigate how the batteries failed. Quite a few of the dead ones I tested  had one cell gone bad which renders the whole battery useless and that cell showed significant deformation to the point where I think the plates in the dead cell are shorting each other. No amount of de-sulphation will work.   

Thanks Gents.

I have found this: https://www.batterystuff.com/battery-restoration/24-volt/PP24L.html

Your thoughts?

I still reckon you should consider homebrewing, look at this one for inspiration/using that circuit/design to construct your own, it would be a lot less costly than having to purchase one and I'm willing to bet that the one you've linked to contains pretty much Alistairs circuit from 2000.

Hello all,

Just getting into the full house Hybrid experience, after messing around with multiple UPS around the house in the past.

I have found this little pulse charger has been able to revive a few gel batteries to useful service again.

https://www.banggood.com/Enusic-12V-6A-Pulse-Repair-LCD-Battery-Charger-For-Car-Motorcycle-Lead-Acid-Battery-Agm-Gel-Wet-p-1365821.html?rmmds=product_topselling&cur_warehouse=CN&act_poa=SKUA55473

Always use "South Africa Direct Mail", as this is a courier service for +- R27.0 to your door. Post Office doesn't work anymore.

 

The battery must be taken offline, and connected to the charger / Pulse repairer one at a time, and it normally takes a day and a half to two days to complete the repair cycle.

Before checking, I let the battery "rest" for a day.  

On my old analogue "battery tester", some batteries have gone from 200A crank pre to 1000A crank post.

But with any old batteries, the service life is still questionable.

 

Regards,

Tim

 

P.S. Enjoying my New SunSynK 8K, Manufactured date:- 2104254101

my 2nd vehicle... which I rarely use... essentially in storage... is permanently hooked up to an optimate 6 in the garage. always starts effortlessly even if left for months at a time.
i see prices have gone up - got mine yonks ago, but its more than paid for itself in batteries saved and recovered.

Try powerpulse. they are available locally. and works great. but any dead cells, are just that. dead.

i recommend you do a drop test on every cell (good luck finding a tester) and change out the weak cells.

 

most of the time it is the inter cell cables and corroded posts that is the cause of the problem. replace cables every 2 years. clean posts and charge correctly.

 

those 2v FLA cells are golden. Mine is 12 years old. 

1 hour ago, Wildebees said:

Try powerpulse. they are available locally. and works great. but any dead cells, are just that. dead.

i recommend you do a drop test on every cell (good luck finding a tester) and change out the weak cells.

 

most of the time it is the inter cell cables and corroded posts that is the cause of the problem. replace cables every 2 years. clean posts and charge correctly.

 

those 2v FLA cells are golden. Mine is 12 years old. 

Fantastic!