De Sulphator

[tanner0441]

Hi

I have three 113 Ah batteries on my system. I have noticed the capacity was dropping off for a while, I tried hitting them with the charger, the only problem I have is, the only chargers I have are multi stage charger conditioners which are OK on good batteries but start cutting back if the voltage gets to 14.5V.

So I started reading on desulphators and bought one.  It arrived this morning and within half an hour it was connected across the battery and a charger was connected.

The little light came on and it whined, which I am led to believe means it was working.  After a few hours my curiosity got the better of me. I realised it was no good looking on a meter to see what's happening, so out came the scope.

Battery  113 Ah VRLA
Meter     Blue Point MT596A
Scope    Tektronix  465 (100MHz)
Charger   Protech 4 (Marine 4 stage charger conditioner)

At the time of the test the battery voltage was 14.53 the charger was on the float mode having been on for some 6 hours.
I connected the scope and set it up, it took a while to find the pulse rate but they were then clearly visible, A nice asymmetrical sine wave, the positive half cycle was +9V above base the negative part was -2.1 the first cycle had a duration of just under two divisions on the scope with the timebase running at .05uS per division with plenty of ringing.

All I can do now is be patient for three or four weeks then test the capacity again if it is OK do the same to the other two batteries.  I wonder what success others on here have had with these things?

Brian

[OperaHouse]

I oten wondwe why these don't come with a big clamp on inductor to isolate the battery lead from the rest of the system which will absorb some of the pulse at best and possibly be damaged.

[ChrisOlson]

All I can do now is be patient for three or four weeks then test the capacity again if it is OK do the same to the other two batteries.  I wonder what success others on here have had with these things?

I had one on my 12 volt system for at least three years but it never seemed to do much.  I think my battery bank was too big for it (24 125 ah batteries).  Desulfating the bank the "regular" way by running it up to 15.5 volts for a couple hours a month seemed to do the most for freshening up the bank and bringing back the storage capacity.

I got 8 years out of those batteries and finally replaced them with a new 24 volt system with 24 Rolls T12's this past summer.  At the time I recycled the old batteries I found six of them that were starting to get pretty bad on a load test.

It's my suspicion that those pulsating desulfators probably are better for preventive rather than corrective desulfation.  But I don't know for sure.
--
Chris

[tanner0441]

Hi

The battery I have the thing on has been isolated from the rest of the system so there is no way for the pulses to back feed into the system.

Chris I have read up on these things and the principle is sound, but as I stated I don't have a battery charger that is not classed as intelligent (not my description) if it was that intelligent it would see the change in internal resistance and screw the voltage up.  I do have a bench power supply somewhere so I might sort it out and as the battery voltage rises I can keep twiddling the pot and get the battery voltage up without the heat going up.

As for the batteries, being VRLA they are sealed so I can't look in them to see if it is just the electrolyte that is low.  I did manage to get the top of one from a customers boat and had to hit it with a Snap On dead blow hammer to put it back.

I will keep checking the progress for the next week or so and report the findings, it only cost me about 30 GBP from Thailand so I reckoned it was worth a try. If I do finish up removing the top I will put it through the band saw and refit it as six separate tops.

It is just gone 12:30 AM and I have just had to shut my system down the wind is howling so my turbine has the shorting link on, it is turning gently and pirouetting like a ballerina.

Brian.

[tecker]

I've put this up a few times but this pulser on an ac Line in or transformer works the best for most I've discussed calcification with.
It also works with Ac direct from an alternator . The caps should be  running caps  oil filled . Running caps in the 5 to10 uf range are common in AC equipment.

 

[tanner0441]

Hi

One month on...

I put the batteries on a marine charger conditioner for 24 hours a day for two weeks with the desulphator connected, I noticed over time I noticed the battery voltage slowly creeping up. To reduce the boredom I checked out the rest of the system and found (I had 2 solar controller's connected, one to control the panels and one just monitoring state of charge) I removed the SOC controller to mount the ammeter, I immediately noticed the battery voltage start to creep higher at 14.7 volts I disconnected the charger and just relied on the panels clipping the desulphator on every day and removing at night.  During the few days the sky was cloud free I actually saw the voltmeter hit 15 volts on two occasions.  Clipping the drop tester on the voltage remained steady at 11.9 volts until the load resistor was glowing. Separating the batteries made no difference the individual battery voltages holding up.

This evening I will wait until we settle for the evening and I can keep my eye on the lighting load and put the inverter on.

I also disconnected the wind turbine put the shorting link on and when the weather settles I Will move it to a different location and try again hoping for less turbulence..

Brian.

[tecker]

One thing that Caps in the Charge circuit do is match the state of Charge by reacting to the time you have set the pulse  . The Cap will only Charge with  low impedance (react to the Ions that have accumulated ) .And of coarse when the ions on the surface of the plates and in the solution block the charge voltage of the cells the cap is also blocked .
  One of the checks you have to make is to watch the voltage with the circuit connected to 120 line voltage if the voltage rises slowly your usually good to let it run .
If the voltage climbs immediately  you have to brake down the inter connect and charge individually until you find the bad battery  .