Battery Desulphator

[Kedishen]

Hi Guys

I am in Portugal atm and I had my girlfriend bring back a Desulphator with her when she flew back after christmas.

In short, I was without an alternator for two weeks at the bottom of France a few months ago and the constant deep discharge from my gf watching films and stuff really took the edge off the battery. Even though it was being charged by the solar panels it was not enough. I noticed we just couldn't store as much power anymore.

Anyhow, I fitted this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-BATTERY-D ... 3cce2e290c

and after two weeks it is firing on all cells again. Just like when i first got it new, maybe even a bit better.

Doubt it would have helped with a dead cell though.

Scott

[Kedishen]

yep, am very pleased with the product.

battery is better than when it was new. sits at 13v now after a days charging on solar panel.

[bigjohnthomas]

should it not sit at 12.6volts ?

[triffic]

Sort of defies one of the laws of physics though, doesn't it?

I.e. You can't get something for nothing. If it's using the battery's own power to "desulphate" itself then it surely must discharge the battery quicker?

It seems more likely that the battery is storing more power from the solar panels now because the days have been getting longer for near enough 2 months. Unless you have corrected for that in your findings...

[johnsvan]

Sort of defies one of the laws of physics though, doesn't it?

I agree, snake oil, stuff and nonsense...

[Altransit]

I guess it's supposed to be used when the battery is being charged, or maybe it only works when the battery voltage is above 12.6v

A Smart Charger does the same thing, pulses of charging power instead of steady power, a lot of modern vehicles use smart charging as standard

[johnsvan]

I guess it's supposed to be used when the battery is being charged, or maybe it only works when the battery voltage is above 12.6v

A Smart Charger does the same thing, pulses of charging power instead of steady power, a lot of modern vehicles use smart charging as standard

True, but as this is connected between the terminals, it's difficult to see how it works. I suppose it could put an extra load on the battery/charger at regular intervals to give a pulsing effect but that is just wasting power and not pulsing a higher voltage like a smart charger does.

Magic maybe?

[Kedishen]

it uses 50mA.

the batt is now sitting at 13.1 at full charge with no charge going in. no leisure batt I ever had sat at 12.6 fully charged, always more, I seen gel cells sit at 13.2 fully charged on my friends van.

since I been in Portugal, I been getting top power to the panels. 2.5amps min from 1045 to 1600. after that, angle of sun doesn't hit flat panel as well.

so yes, days are longer, but batt is charged by lunchtime now and is only drawing 0.7 after that - much more efficient than before - even thou panels are kicking out a lot more. before I fitted it, the batt was drawing full power from panels all day long at 2.5amps at peak of sun and still wasn't charged fully at end of day. it always wanted all the power panels had and never gave me it back.

now I get a fully charged batt very quick, I am not losing any noticable amount of power to the device and I'm able to run my laptop for another hour on top of wat I used to before batt goes below 12.1 whilst laptop connected.

overall, I think it is worth the money and I will he putting it on my old batt when I get back to see if it will help it.

[Kedishen]

BTW it is connected all the time - charging or not.

if the solar panels weren't connected then yea it may eventually draw the batt flat. but 50mA is nothing. in theory, i should be able to draw 1amp for 110hours from the batt, so at 50mA it would take in theory more than 2000 hours to completely flatten the batt which would never happen because even without panels, alternator charges it, and if nothing else, I'd have disconnected it or left it on trickle.

[triffic]

Agreed 50mA isn't much, but if you just want to keep the battery in good nick, occasional use of an intelligent charger such as the ones that LIDL and ALDI sell every now and then for £14 are probably a better bet, as they have an automatic pulsed trickle charge mode to prevent sulphate formation.

In general, you should not get sulphate forming if there is enough charge going into the battery, so I personally would save the £23 and put it towards more solar panel capacity, to prevent the battery from getting too heavily discharged in the first place.

[Kedishen]

Agreed 50mA isn't much, but if you just want to keep the battery in good nick, occasional use of an intelligent charger such as the ones that LIDL and ALDI sell every now and then for £14 are probably a better bet, as they have an automatic pulsed trickle charge mode to prevent sulphate formation.

In general, you should not get sulphate forming if there is enough charge going into the battery, so I personally would save the £23 and put it towards more solar panel capacity, to prevent the battery from getting too heavily discharged in the first place.

that's a valid point but solar panels only charge during the day and since all the power is being used at night, your point doesn't really make sense. I'd spend the money on more batteries since there will be a shared load resulting in less draw per battery.

also, more solar panels will produce more energy yes, but unless one has the storage for all that energy its pointless. more panels are only good when you are somewhere without a lot if sun.

plus how would I use one of these lidls chargers? they require a mains connection, so unless I use my inverter to charge my battery, seems a waste of money. unless you plan to stay on camp sites... in which case why bother with solar panels anyway?

with this little gadget, it claims to remove any build up from the plates and keep it off, regardless of whether batt is being charged, without need for external power source. it uses a little power yes, but it draws such a small amount that's its not even worth considering. besides, next day batt is being charged again, more quickly and efficiently than if the device wasnt installed since its not been allowed to sulphate.

id say it is doing what it claims.

[triffic]

Ah Ok - I think I see where the misunderstanding lies. The gadget's advert seems to imply that sulphate formation is a continuous, day-by-day problem.

But it's not - sulphate formation is a relatively slow process, even in quite deeply discharged batteries. If you are doing partial discharge and then charge cycles from the solar panel on a daily basis, sulphate formation simply should not be an issue. It doesn't form quickly enough to be a problem in those circumstances, and should be dissipated by each solar charge.

My suggestion about using a mains-based intelligent charger was meant as an occasional thing - not while you are away, but when you are home and able to do a bit of long-term battery maintenance.

[Kedishen]

I didn't explain that I am on the road for a whole year so this is the best solution for me.

Anyway, point of thread is that it works, so get one if you use your batt alot like me, don't have access to mains electric on the spot and wanna keep it alive as long as possible.

[Stuart30]

I didn't explain that I am on the road for a whole year so this is the best solution for me.

Anyway, point of thread is that it works, so get one if you use your batt alot like me, don't have access to mains electric on the spot and wanna keep it alive as long as possible.

Do you have any connection with the company or individual seling these by any chance...?

[Kedishen]

was just making a recommendation because I tried it and was happy with results.

I am as much affiliated with seller ad triffic is with lidls.