Comments on: Desulfator in an altoids tin

By: sam

sam — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:09:28 +0000

In Venezuela, they have special lemons, most of them grown by Miss World and Universe. Most batteries are sulpahted by those lemons.

By: new car lemon laws

new car lemon laws — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:24:14 +0000

a fantastic modification indeed!

By: kmpres

kmpres — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:51:59 +0000

No need for separate desulfators for each battery. The Intro page of the instructible has a link to a high power version that can desulfate a whole bank of batteries. The webpage is old but it’ll give you an idea of what to expect. Essentially, it’s just larger coils, diodes, FETs, higher voltage caps, and voltage regulation for the chip. Check out the link and the Home Power websites for more info.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:48:08 +0000

Hi, I’ve a PV system using a battery bank of 20 x 12v 150AH batteries connected in series. Could I use one of these desulfators or would I require twenty to clean all the batteries? You mention that it’s possible to build a desulfator that’s capable of handling the whole battery bank at one time, but where would I find information about such a project? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Bryan

By: s r venka rao

s r venka rao — Sat, 09 May 2009 01:45:52 +0000

dear sir
i want to purchase a desulfator 12v please let me know he price with dhl charges iam staying in india hyderabad give me the payment terms and how fast you can send

By: arthur

arthur — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:02:50 +0000

This is a fantastic hack, thank you.

By: kmpres

kmpres — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:44:24 +0000

I don’t recommend using rectified 120V AC on a car battery due to the potentially lethal voltages involved, not to mention the potential for sparks around gasoline and hydrogen gas. Frankly, you’d have to be nuts to attempt it when this circuit will do the job safely and can be left on indefinately as long as a trickle charger is connected with it. It also uses only the power in your battery so you don’t have to pay for electricity to feed it power so your battery can produce more power. However, high voltage desulfators are used on large banks of batteries. See the instructable for a link on this.

By: kmpres

kmpres — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:26:06 +0000

Desulfators have been around since 2000. If you read the instructable and check out the links in it, you’ll see that they are used to restore not just car batteries, but also large banks of batteries in PV banks, electric golf carts, wheelchairs and many other applications. It’s not a patch and it doesn’t result in a temporarily improved but degraded battery. It instead, reverses the process of sulfation returning the lead sulphate to the electrolyte, from whence it came. With the lead sulfate off the plates the acid can contact the lead again and the battery can produce electricity up to its normal capacity. Desulfators are especially useful for owners of RVs and off-grid PV systems (if sufficiently scaled up in size) because they can get 10 years or more of life out of their very expensive battery banks instead of having to replace them every few years due to sulfation buildup. Again, the process simply returns the lead sulfate to the electolyte, from whence it came, so there’s no buildup inside the battery after the process is complete. And it keeps your battery out of the local landfill where it pollutes the ground and water. For me, that’s worth the small price of this circuit alone.

By: j9

j9 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:43:26 +0000

Is there any proof that the high frequencies offered on these things are any better than the 120Hz offered by a lamp cord and a full-bridge rectifier minus capacitors?

By: James

James — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:22:07 +0000

I think the process of desulphation is essentially to pass a very large current through the battery (shorting it essentially) for a split second, while charging it – a bit like the idea of burp charging of nicads and nimhs. As demo said, it’ll only patch a dead battery and make it work for a bit longer, often the suphation has damaged the battery, and regardless the battery is more prone to re-sulphation. Good if you’re penny pinching, but you can buy a 3 year guarantee Bosch battery for £35, hardly worth it. Still, good project, good demonstrator.

By: andres

andres — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:39:02 +0000

i stand corrected

By: Demo

Demo — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:30:46 +0000

A longer look revealed a note:
“Since the circuit draws battery power, a trickle charger should be connected to the battery while the circuit is in use”

By: andres

andres — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:41:54 +0000

a quick look at the site shows that this is powered by a battery charger, not by the battery itself

By: riiiight

riiiight — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:29:30 +0000

Except that Venezuela is part of mercosure and makes tons and tons of money

By: cyanide

cyanide — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:48:46 +0000

manuel and spadefinger are lying, people in venezuela can’t afford batteries of any kind, even of the lemon kind.