Car Battery Restoration using a Desulfator

[ChewChewTrain]

My Miata is 16y/o. My Civic is 27y/o.

With the Miata it will go months between use, which is hard on the battery.

With the Civic I EOC aggressively, which doesn't allow the engine to run long enough to adequately recharge the battery.

My Mum no longer drives, so I'm currently trying to sell her car. Being parked for many months has caused her car battery to flatline at 11.8 volts.

All three situations abuses a car battery.

Not wanting to spend hundreds of $$$ on new batteries, I heard about battery desulfators.

I initially thought battery desulfators were "snake oil". But after watching many YouTube success stories I took the gamble and bought a cheap one off eBay.

I've had great success restoring all three car batteries to a 100%, 12.6 volt holding charge using a desulfator.

BTW, every time you flatline a car battery by mistakenly leaving your headlights on, the battery loses 20% of it's holding capacity. That loss compounds if you flatline your battery repeatedly. A battery desulfator will restore your battery to 100% capacity.

[R.I.D.E.]

Best way to test any battery is to simply turn on the headlights and watch the battery voltage decline.

Fully charge then hook up a simple voltmeter. A new battery will generally dump below 11 volts in about 4 hours.

I used to test batteries for customers and they would test OK, only to dump overnight. The test I mention here is an absolute test of battery condition. It allows you to go further in testing the circuits, grounds, and other conditions that can mimic a weak battery.

I have never tried the sulfation processes to see if they actually will bring a battery back to 100%. Not saying they will or won't but if you really want to know, use the "lights on" procedure to really see if you can get one back to 100% or even above 80%.

Tools needed, battery charger and volt meter, even an ancient batteryless voltmeter will work fine. The voltage wiil be stable for about 85% of the batteries useful life, then it will start dropping rapidly. Once it starts to rapidly drop you need to stop draining the battery to prevent damage.

Ever had one that had been totally discharged then charged with reverse polarity?

[R.I.D.E.]

As far as your civic, I would test the battery using the above suggested process. It may be the battery is weak, alt belt is not quite tight enough, or other issues are contributing to the symptoms you are experiencing.
I am not saying it is absolutely anything, just that you might be able to use the same amount of EOC and not have a battery problem.
Try the test process and see how long your battery (FULLY CHARGED WITH A SEPARATE CHARGER) will actually keep the lights functioning.

[ChewChewTrain]

Thanks, R.I.D.E.!

Is R.I.D.E. an acronym?

[R.I.D.E.]

Regenerative Infinite Drive Engineering @ US patent 7677208, issued March 18th 2010.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by R.I.D.E.

Regenerative Infinite Drive Engineering @ US patent 7677208, issued March 18th 2010.

Interesting invention, Gary.

If I understood correctly, with my fast reading, your invention allows a rolling car to store regenerative braking energy as compressed air to be released when power is needed?

[R.I.D.E.]

It has a whole lot more utility than that.

Hydraulic capacitor is more of a precise definition.

When you do EOC your energy consumption is at the 0 line. Adding power goes above the line. Decelerating or even engine drag goes below the line. These things cost you mileage dearly.

RIDE allows you to disconnect the engine from the drivetrain, running the engine at peak efficiency or shutting it down, just like EOC.

One fully charged accumulator would get you a mile at 60 mph with no fuel consumption after the accumulator is fully charged. This power could be derived from a "braking event".

Basically instead of the spikes and valleys of the energy application curve. The drive system acts as a inertial "shock absorber".

In the worst stop and go traffic, instead of using up your brakes, you would make incremental applications of power and regeneration, allowing the engine to be off for significant periods of time, up to several minutes under certain circumstances.

Bottom line is depending on the situation you could see 80 mpg combined from a 3800 pound vehicle as the EPA did in their hydraulic hybrid test mule in 2006.

Wheel to wheel regeneration efficiencies above 80% should be possible. They were at 78% in 2006 using WW2 era technology. A military Hummer was converted to use the EPA's system just after 2006 and it's mileage was basically doubled.

The EPA predicted by today they could have in production a 10k pound GVW truck that averaged 58 mpg.

Ford actually announced a F150 pickup version that would equal the mileage of a Prius.

In the end the developers, Michigan State, Ford, Parker Hannefin, Next Energy and other major manufacturers as well as the EPA, predicted an 80% potential increase in fuel economy through powertrain developments alone.

[R.I.D.E.]

The problem with compressed air is energy density and efficiency although the idea of super highly compressed air is interesting.

One downside of highly compressed air is the presence of even a minuscule amount of petroleum based lubricants means you now have a diesel engine. Generally that means a explosive catastrophic failure of your pressure vessel.

Unless you make it intentional. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Looking for a major manufacturer to become interested in further development.

[ChewChewTrain]

80% fuel economy bump from powertrain advances? Interesting.

Sounds like this might work for EVs, too.

How much does this add to the cost of a car?

What's been done to promote your invention?

And, what your next step, Gary?

BTW, I'm an inventor, too. One invention sold for 4.5 years through 550+ stores, before the product lifecycle petered out. Was lucky to have 4.5 years.

[ChewChewTrain]

Have you seen the French experimental car that runs ONLY on compressed air?