Trying to recover some batts with a batteryMINder

[TexAndy]

And I really don't know what I'm doing...

ok, when I first tested the batts with a voltmeter, one (manufactured in 0 read a little over 9 volt and the other (manufactured in 01) read 0.0 volt.

So I connected them in series, made sure they were topped off with RO water, and hooked the charger up. Set it for 1 amp (choices are 1, 2, and 4) and "flooded" for battery type.

It took a few days, but finally the indicator showed that it was into the trickle/maintenance cycle but still with a solid yellow light to indicate deep sulfation. So I disconnected the charger and tested.

Old battery initially read around 14 V, but rapidly dropped off with the rate of drop off slowing as it neared 9 V. Took about 15 minutes to do that. The newer battery read about 11.5

So I hooked them back up and tested them while they were charging. Old battery was accepting a 14.7? V charge and the newer battery was accepting an 11 V charge. It then took a few hours to get to the blinking maintenance/trickle mode. Still showing sulfated.

Today I took them off the charger again and tested.

Old battery did the same, tho this time it appeared to stabilize around 10V. New battery didn't drop at all. Read about 11.5V.

So I just hooked them back up. Old battery charging at ~14.5 V. New battery charging at 11.7 V

Sorry for the long winded post. Do ya'll think it's working? Should I get some pH test strips and try to see if the batts are low on acid? Or should I just continue letting the batteryMINder do it's thing?

Regarding the batteryMINder... am I using it right?

eta: Yes, it's a 24V batteryMINder.

 

[Keith_J]

Desulfating a battery takes TIME. Lots of time. Little sealed AGMs take me a week. I had a deep cycle 20 AH that took a month.

Just be patient. As long as you have progress, it will eventually work. As long as the interconnects don't corrode.

When you take it off the charger, the voltage will be much higher, this is the surface effect, the charge on the surface of the plates dissipates into the plate, usually within an hour.

pH strips? Won't work, the pH of even totally discharged batteries is 0.

 

[datsunaholic]

You made one little mistake- when the batteries are unbalanced, you never want to charge them in series. You need to charge them individually until they are balanced, else one gets overcharged and the other undercharged.

In addition...

The battery that's falling off to 9V likely has 2 bad cells, and may not be recoverable. But I'd charge them individually with a 12V charger and see.

 

[Crackerjax]

put a solargizer on it with the charger... should help move it along

 

[TexAndy]

You made one little mistake- when the batteries are unbalanced, you never want to charge them in series. You need to charge them individually until they are balanced, else one gets overcharged and the other undercharged.

In addition...

The battery that's falling off to 9V likely has 2 bad cells, and may not be recoverable. But I'd charge them individually with a 12V charger and see.

If it had two bad cells, why would it ever show more than 9 V?

It's taking a few minutes to get down there. I would think that it means kind of like what keith is saying. Surface charge.

Could it be tho that some of the cells are more deeply sulfated than the others and that's why it seems to stabilize at around 9.9 V?

Now that it's back on the blinking/maintenance mode, the newer batt is charging at 11.5 V and the older is charging at 15.2 V


Hm, I did not know about charging two unequal batts in series. Will it hurt it? The older battery did have some leakage out the top of a couple of the caps.

I'd get a 12V batteryMINder, but they're kind of expensive.

 

[TexAndy]

Update:

Checked it just now and it was off of the "yellow, sulfated light with blinking maintenance indicator" and on "green good and charging" light indicator.

Newer batt is charging at 11.9 V. Older batt is charging at 12.6 V or 15.5 V. It seems to make a difference if I have the multimeter probe touch just the post or both the battery post and the series connection cable at the same time.

When I take them off the charger and measure, they both drop off a bit and seem to stabilize around 11.8 V

I think it's working!

 

[steelandcanvas]

I bought a 24V Battery-Minder last winter and had to run it through 4 or 5 cyles to de-sulphate the batteries completely. I think you're on the right track here. Read through that operator's manual again and I think you'll find they say to do this. At $100 a unit, kind of spendy, that's why I bought the 24V model.

 

[coolnick73]

I just bought a 12v Batteryminder from Northern. I had one of my deuce batteries charging with a normal charger, took it off the charger and left it "rest" in the basement (60deg vs -10deg outside) This morning the battery read about 10.7v. Do you think the batteryminder will recondition this battery or do I have too high of hopes?

 

[greenjeepster]

My understanding of it is that it will restore a batter back to 85% of its Cranking Amps... when you need 750 CCA will 635 be enough?

 

[derby]

I don't know much about the battery minder, it de-sulfates the plates? Are these the 6TL's? I have two from 06 that are crapped out. I don't know about that batt from 01' that is pretty old. I would like to see your results, might be a good investment for all the batt's i have around the farm.

 

[steelandcanvas]

I just bought a 12v Batteryminder from Northern. I had one of my deuce batteries charging with a normal charger, took it off the charger and left it "rest" in the basement (60deg vs -10deg outside) This morning the battery read about 10.7v. Do you think the batteryminder will recondition this battery or do I have too high of hopes?

Wouldn't hurt to try. Run it through a couple of cycles and see what happens. Mine took about 4 or 5 cycles to de-sulphate, and then the maintenance charge light came on. Try it and get back with us, I'm curious.

 

[Warthog]

Found some interesting reading about Sulphation.

http://www.batteryminders.com/batterycharger/desulphation.php

Also about charging multiple batteries.

Charging Multiple Batteries

 

[bugei]

i beat the living crap out of a set of batteries with my big charger/jumper. i set it on "maintenance free" and just let it go. the charger would cycle with a 90 or so second charge, then pause for 30 or so seconds then "hit again". i did add new battery acid, because there was some boiling off going on. a few days latter, the batteries were "all better". i did charge the batteries in parallel, 2 at a time with the batteries connected with a set of jumper cables, i did this because i am impatient and did not want to wait forever

 

[WyoDeuce]

I am currently trying to revive 2 hawker amma safe's that came in my deuce. I am using the batteryMINDer from northern.
When I started it had the orange (yellow?) light on. The batt. only charged for an hour and then went to the green blinking light. I cranked the engine and the batt. died very quickly. I turned the charger back on and it charged for several hours this time. I have been doing a float charge/ desulfation for about 10 days.
Yesterday the truck started immediately with only a small (300 watt) magnetic block heater at 28 degrees. The charger seems to be doing it's job. I am going to keep cycling the charger and let it do it's job. Forcast is -25 tonight so I will see how the batts. do in the real cold.
Should I just let the charger keep desulfating or should I discharge the battery and charge it back up? I was thinking of leaving the lights on all day and then charging it back up and leaving it on for desulfating. My batteries are less than a year old but I think they sat at the DRMO lot dead for a while. We had to slave the truck when I picked it up.

 

[SCSG-G4]

NEVER let them get cold when discharged! the liquid in them is close to plain water as far as freezing is concerned and they will crack. the little 1.5 amp battery minder I got from Northern was able to bring some batteries back from the dead, but I was checking the specific gravity of each cell, not the voltage, to determine charge. On my battery minder, it is desulfating on the blinking green light. I let them run that way for a week at a time, then put the six amp charger on for a couple of hours while switching the battery minder over to the other battery. Took two months to bring them back up. I have Solargizers for all my trucks!

 

[WyoDeuce]

Good advice on freezing. I also have a solargizer but it didn't seem to do much so I bought the batteryMINDer. The solargizer is real small so I am not surprised it didn't help a questionable battery. I hope it does better after the desulphating process.

 

[emmado22]

Read this thread for some Hawker battery specific info. http://www.steelsoldiers.com/electrical/19234-hawker-agm-battery-charging-info.html They aren't your normal battery....

 

[steelandcanvas]

Should I just let the charger keep desulfating or should I discharge the battery and charge it back up?

The charger will come out of de-sulphating mode, and go into a maintenance (trickle) mode, I'd just leave it connected. I have plans just to mount mine on the Deuce somewhere, maybe under the companion seat.

 

[WyoDeuce]

I was thinking of mounting mine behind the passenger seat also.