# Battery Desulfator



## UncleJoe

I've been thinking about one of these since I first read about them here. DW asked what I wanted for Christmas so she ordered it. I have 8 old batteries that I never took back for the core charge of $10 each so I'm hoping I can bring them back to life. It has plenty of good reviews and a 5 year warranty so we'll see how it goes.

Here's the one I chose.

VDC Electronics BatteryMINDer 12 Volt Solar Charging System with 5 Watt Panel and Desulfator, Model# SCC005 | Battery Maintainers | Northern Tool + Equipment


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## bunkerbob

UncleJoe said:


> I've been thinking about one of these since I first read about them here. DW asked what I wanted for Christmas so she ordered it. I have 8 old batteries that I never took back for the core charge of $10 each so I'm hoping I can bring them back to life. It has plenty of good reviews and a 5 year warranty so we'll see how it goes.
> 
> Here's the one I chose.
> 
> VDC Electronics BatteryMINDer 12 Volt Solar Charging System with 5 Watt Panel and Desulfator, Model# SCC005 | Battery Maintainers | Northern Tool + Equipment


I had one that I built years ago and installed on my travel trailer batteries, unfortunately I did not see a significant change in battery life or power. Here is a schematic for one if you plan on building it...12 Volt Battery Desulfator - Assembled & Tested Unit - Drilled & Etched PC Board - Laser Printed Circuit Board Patterns


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## Viking

I added two new 6 volt 225 ah batteries to the existing two for the house batteries of our motorhome. I installed them in such a way that the new ones were in series with the older batteries. This set up worked great but I didn't have a charge system set up for winter months when I stored the motorhome under a shelter other than running the inverter/charger once and a while. That's when I found the batteries to be under the voltage they should be due to residual current draw so I bought a 20 solar panel and controller which helped but by then the batteries had sulfated. I knew that the business I bought the solar panel from had liquid Battery Equaliser so I bought enough to put 2 oz. per cell in each battery and amazingly it works and I'm a big skeptic about things that restore batteries from the dead. The Xantrex inverter/charger I installed on the motorhome has an Equaliser setting which runs a much higher voltage for a timed period to break through the sulfiting but one has to be really careful not to buckle the battery plates using it. I've done that once with the Battery Equaliser fluid because of the recommendation of heavy discharge and recharge to get the solution to work. It gave us two years of use out of the batteries but I'm going to have to replace them all before the next time we go out to the desert. I think the two original batteries just weren't all that good to begin with. If you are interested in using Battery Equaliser their address is: Motorcycle Batteries, ATV, Car, Marine, and Solar Battery Products | BatteryStuff.com I live just over 30 miles from their business but they do mostly on line sales. Sorry for the long post but I thought you might be interested in what my experiances were because it worked even on batteries in bad shape.


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## longtime

I have 4 of the northern tools desulfators without the solar panels. I have only had them for about a year so I can't give you a lot of information, but I did put one of them on a deep cycle that I removed from service because it would not hold a full charge, under 12V . Well after a couple months (yes months) the battery will now take a full charge ( voltage over 12.5 V) I have not used the battery yet so I do not know how much energy has been stored, but at least I can charge it to over 12.5 V. I had to manually start desulfating in the beginning(the charger automaticlly starts desulfating after the battery voltage reaches 12.5V on the floating charger). We will see if my other batteries last longer.


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## prince5

hi,..
Hack a Day favorite [Mikey Sklar] is back with a new project. Mini-D is a battery desulfator. If a 12V lead-acid battery sits with a voltage below 12.3V, sulfur crystals will begin to form on the lead plates. This crystal growth increases the internal resistance and eventually makes the battery unusable.
thanks,..


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## bunkerbob

prince5 said:


> hi,..
> Hack a Day favorite [Mikey Sklar] is back with a new project. Mini-D is a battery desulfator. If a 12V lead-acid battery sits with a voltage below 12.3V, sulfur crystals will begin to form on the lead plates. This crystal growth increases the internal resistance and eventually makes the battery unusable.
> thanks,..


 That is why you equalize your battery bank on a regular schedule. Most of my 40 batteries in my bank are over 8years old and going strong.


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