• Top Most Read Topics:
  • Why do Lead-Acid batteries fail prematurely?
  • Minimizing battery sulfating in common scenarios
  • The Desulfating process comes into play
  • How does our Electronic Battery Desulfater work?
  • What results can I expect? (And how to keep track of progress)
  • What is Sulfate, and why is it produced?
    • Plus: Optimizing charging conditions to maximize battery service life

Why do Lead-Acid batteries fail prematurely?

The most common failure mode of a Lead-Acid battery is sulfate buildup on the lead plates. This is a gradual process that will cause the battery to progressively loose its current capacity to properly operate the associated equipment and/or loads, and to efficiently accept and retain a charge. But the good news is that in most cases this problem can be prevented and even reversed, so the battery gets put back in full operation, instead of replacing it prematurely. The most common factors that promote sulfate buildup in a battery and shorten its useful service life are listed in the table bellow.

Minimizing battery sulfating in common (above) scenarios?

Unfortunately it is not always possible or practical to avoid situations that promote sulfate buildup, specially in the cases where the battery (or battery bank) is the primary source of power, and recharging is not available 24/7. For example: systems that depend on solar or wind power for recharging, or just spot charging only with the engine alternator, but none of these charging methods are enough to attain full charge saturation to prevent sulfate buildup.

The Desulfating process comes into play.

Our 12V1000 Electronic Battery Desulfater is designed to stay connected full time on the battery, so it will work 24/7 to remove sulfate, even while the battery is in a state that normally would promote sulfation This will ensure that little or no sulfate will be added, and existing one will continue to be gradually removed. Restoration of a battery that already has sulfation symptoms will typically take between 4-6 weeks to start improving, but ultimately it would depend on the degree of sulfation that the plates have been affected with. And if our 12V1000 Electronic Battery Desulfater is used on a new battery, it will keep sulfate from forming in the fist place, although only up to a point, as even the best and most efficient Desulfater can not keep up if the battery is being grossly misserviced or completely neglected. But long term it will definitively help the environment by avoiding unnecessary waste and pollution due to prematurely discarded batteries that are not being recycled, or even dumpled overboard.

The 12V1000 Electronic Battery Desulfater is designed to be left continuously connected to the battery as it only requires a small amount of current to operate to eliminate sulfate. And to protect an unattended battery from suffering a deep discharge, the Desulfater will automatically disconnect itself if for any reason if the voltage drops too low, and will not turn on again until the voltage is way back up into the normal range.

How does our Electronic Battery Desulfater work? Also see: Does it REALLY WORK? How does it exactly work?

The 12V1000 Electronic Battery Desulfater actively dislodges and removes the lead sulfate that builds up on the battery plates due to improper maintenance. It does so by contiguously injecting high frequency electronic pulses (NOT high voltage) into the battery plates that will cause the sulfate to resonate ever so slightly, but the continuos process will ultimately help to gradually break it up, cleaning the contact area of the plate with the battery acid (electrolyte) and restoring battery capacity. The dislodged sulfate will be safely reabsorbed into the electrolyte and made once again available for the internal chemical reaction. These pulses will not physically harm the battery in any way, or even less affect its internal temperature (the process will never ever overheat your battery, heat kills batteries!!), only the sulfate on the plates will be affected by these gentle but effective pulses. On a moderately sulfated battery the process will usually take 4-6 weeks before improvements can be noticed. On a new "fresh" off the shelf battery it will prevent the buildup of sulfate in the first place, even during conditions that would normally promote sulfate buildup. The main effect in both cases is a more prolonged battery service life and improved overall current capacity. Not all batteries are candidates for desulfation. A battery will be unrecoverable if the active material has been lost from the plates, has internal shorted cell plates, or if the plates are bent or deformed due to over temperature or over charging.

REALITY CHECK TIME: Not all batteries are good candidates for desulfating! A battery that presents any non reversible electrical faults (shorted or dried out cells; worn out deformed or swollen plates; corroded or broken grids, etc), or shows any physical or structural damage (bulged out cell walls; cracks; acid leaks; badly damaged burned or corroded terminals; or any other sign of abuse or misuse) are NOT eligible candidates for restoration by sulfate removal. The age of the battery itself also will play a role, and needs to be taken into account for wear and tear, specially on the plates. It is important to carefully take these facts into consideration in order to avoid UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. A desulfater WILL WORK very efficiently to gradually recover the capacity on a good candidate battery, but it CAN NOT accomplish miracles!! If you need advice in determining if your battery will be a good candidate for desulfation to rebuild their capacity and extend its service life, please Contact Us and we will provide you with all the required information you will need to make a realistic judgment. Desulfaters are often getting an undeserved BAD REPUTATION because of people with unrealistic expectations trying them on batteries that have damaged/shorted cells, or are just too old and worn out to be restored, but that externally still appear to be in good physical shape. So please if in doubt, please allow us to assist you to determine if your battery really qualifies. WHAT MAKES A GOOD CANDIDATE? In general anything between a brand new to a "well middle-aged" battery that might be just starting to show a gradual loss of current capacity due to sulfate accumulation, but is otherwise in good shape and has not been misused or abused are definitively good candidates. Also a battery that has been left discharged for a long time but the plates have not been exposed to air, or one that has been working under less than ideal charge-discharge conditions (long periods of lower than a full charge) that promote sulfate build up (see above), BUT in any case DOES NOT show any of the faults or damages described earlier. The ideal test is to measure the internal resistance of the battery itself, as this will reveal its true condition and capacity (a simple voltage reading will not be very useful). This internal resistance test and the CCA value of the battery are tests we always perform as part of our FREE Battery Check and Desulfater Installation.

Related Reading: Installation instructions | Technical specifications | Operating Principles

What results can I expect? (and how to keep track of progress)

It depends. For heavily sulfated batteries the process might take between several weeks to a few months. The more sulfation is present in the battery that needs to be reversed, the longer and slower the process will be. The reason is that sulfate that has had more time to solidify will have a more solid crystalline structure, whereas more recent sulfate buildup will have an amorphous characteristic that will be easier to be removed. Battery size is also a factor, bigger batteries will take longer as they have bigger plates. I any case the recovery of the battery will seem to go quite slow at first and then as the process moves forward the pace of capacity restoration will seem to speed up to a point where no further improvements will be noticed. At this point the desulfater will mainly act as a sulfate buildup preventer, specially during conditions when the battery is at any point other that a full charge.

To keep track of progress first one needs to establish a baseline reference, so the CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) capacity and internal resistance of the battery to be treated has to be measured. After a couple of weeks of treatment these measurements should be taken again and compared. The sulfate removal process will have been effective when the internal resistance of the battery has been lowered, which in term allows for higher CCA capacity, as the two are closely related. The lower this internal resistance becomes, the higher the capacity of the battery will be, as energy will not be wasted as generated heat across the increased internal resistance, which in turn will reduce the CCA rating of the battery. Voltage readings will usually not be a clear indication in order to gauge battery capacity, as the voltage usually stays constant independent of the capacity of the battery and degree of sulfate buildup. The only case where this does not apply is when a battery cell has failed and is shorted, in which case the battery voltage will be lower by the amount of the lost cell (for example in cases of a battery with one shorted cell, the total voltage will always fall back to a maximum of 10-10.5V, no matter how much the battery is charged). Batteries with shorted cells ARE NOT recoverable with desulfation, and should be replaced and recycled.

What is SULFATE, and why is it produced?

Battery Sulfate is actually Lead Sulfate (formula: 2PbSO4), and it is an unavoidable byproduct of the Lead-Acid battery chemistry and is produced as part of the chemical reaction every time the battery charge is being used (drained) in order to power a load. Sulfate is a non-conducting (isolating) white crystalline compound, that if left unchecked will slowly but surely erode the battery capacity as it becomes more and more attached to the internal lead plates by effectively diminishing its useful surface areas. Only the plate surface area that can be in direct contact with the battery acid (electrolyte) can actively contribute to battery capacity, so as the plate gets progressively covered with sulfate, its capacity diminishes accordingly as it basically will start behaving as a smaller size (capacity) battery, with smaller plates.

There are two types of sulfation: reversible (soft) sulfation, and permanent (hard) sulfation. Sulfate accumulation will be at first powdery and brittle, but will progressively harden into a more solid polycrystalline layer and restoration becomes more difficult. That is why it is very important to implement an 12V1000 Electronic Battery Desulfater as early as possible to prevent sulfate formation in the first place, or to proactively reverse its effects. You can read here a more detailed explanation of how the battery chemistry and the sulfating process works.

• Additional reading: Optimizing charging conditions to maximize battery service life (external link to Battery University).