Question about car battery sulfation

[GasSavers_rGS]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Interesting tidbit from the second link:

MetroMPG,

See, I did the charging up of the battery using my Black & Decker VEC1086BBD "Smart Fully Automatic Electronic Battery Charger" until the Full light came on. Then I used a hydrometer on the cell fluids and was getting readings of approximately 1225 "hydrometer units" or worse. A digital multimeter indicated an engine off battery voltage reading of approximately 13.01V. So I'm confused because my battery charger and digital multimeter suggests that my battery is ok but the hydrometer suggests that my battery is possibly bad.

Can you suggest any other tests than can be done at home to help determine if my battery is ok or bad?

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by rGS

Can you suggest any other tests than can be done at home to help determine if my battery is ok or bad?

Put a load on the battery. Surface voltage won't tell you too much. But if you put a load on the battery, then take a voltage reading

Or is the bulging caused by the physical crystals pushing out instead of some sort of built up gas pressure inside the cells?

As no authority on sulfation, and simply regurgitating a person I find to be a very reliable source. It's a gas pressure build up. Which reminds me... Bulging only applies to sealed PbSO4 batteries...

[flapdoodle]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

My understanding is that when used normally, 12v starting/accessory batteries don't suffer from sulfation (compared to a similarly constructed battery that is discharged deeply) because full charge is pretty much always maintained by the alternator.

Sulfation begins the moment acid is added. Try to get replacement batteries that have not been sitting on the shelf for a long time. Gel cells are usually dated and have shelf life of about 3 years.

I have plans for a desulfator here:

http://www.flapdoodledinghy.com/desulfator.html

[theholycow]

There's a few messages earlier in the thread with this link:
http://www.flex.com/~kalepa/lowpower.htm
http://www.shaka.com/~kalepa/desulf.htm
(obviously two links to the same user's stuff)

Unfortunately, the link is dead. Luckily, I was able to find it elsewhere. I started by using archive.org to get a look at it:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://...epa/desulf.htm
but the pictures were missing. I googled for some of that page's text and found the original at
http://home.comcast.net/~ddenhardt20...tor/desulf.htm

Note that the page does not actually contain plans for building it. It refers to the plans as being in "Home Power Magazine" issue #77, and offers additional information/corrections.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by rGS

Is sulfation of a car battery a real problem or is it part of some sort of marketing ploy for sellers of "desulfator" devices?

Walmart use to sell and probably still do a liquid that you could add to your battery that was supposed to prevent sulfation. It was in the sporting goods department. Last time I replaced the battery in my motorcycle I used it, but that was only about a year ago. I did notice that the battery maintained a charge during the off season (Nov.-Feb.). I used to have to recharge the battery about every spring. If I remember right I added 1/2 oz. to each cell when I added the acid to the battery. I think they recommended 1 oz. per cell to a larger battery such as a deep cell or car battery. I think it was about $12. for a 6 oz. bottle a year ago. I thought it would be worth a try since motorcycle batteries usually only lasts about 2-3 years.

[theholycow]

My dad used to use something like that in our lawn tractor battery. It always revived a battery that refused to charge. I found one bottle still in its package when he moved recently. I also recently bought some stuff called "Charge It" but haven't tried it yet.

[Ford Man]

Originally Posted by Ford Man

Walmart use to sell and probably still do a liquid that you could add to your battery that was supposed to prevent sulfation. It was in the sporting goods department. Last time I replaced the battery in my motorcycle I used it, but that was only about a year ago. I did notice that the battery maintained a charge during the off season (Nov.-Feb.). I used to have to recharge the battery about every spring. If I remember right I added 1/2 oz. to each cell when I added the acid to the battery. I think they recommended 1 oz. per cell to a larger battery such as a deep cell or car battery. I think it was about $12. for a 6 oz. bottle a year ago. I thought it would be worth a try since motorcycle batteries usually only lasts about 2-3 years.

I checked and I still had 1/2 of the bottle, the name of it is Minn Kota battery equalizer.