Battery tender & storage

Always good to hear the results. Thank you.

Veebyes wrote:
... my 4 year old, Lifeline 4D AGM battery after sitting disconnected with absolutely no attention since last October..... 12.5V.

Excellent. AGMs are real good at holding a charge.

As promised, here is the result of my 4 year old, Lifeline 4D AGM battery after sitting disconnected with absolutely no attention since last October.

Hooked it up & took a reading. 12.5V. Plenty of power to operate landing legs & be off to the first CG.

Well some people still believe in 3K oil changes, technology changes, their mindset doesn't.

Dan, it is certainly not a fraud, many on here use it as a maintainer, it's just hard to quantify how much desulfating it actually does. I have a B&D 40 amp battery charger that has a desulfating function, I use it but have no idea how good it works, I think the equalizing function is more effective.

Gjac, that is very insightful -- unless the fraud is easily discovered (for example, where a disgruntled whistleblower produces "smoking gun" emails), some types of deceptive conduct will never see the light of day.

Having said all of that, I still have no reason to think that the Batteryminder is a fraud. I've been using one for many years, with great results.

profdant139 wrote:
As mentioned, the BatteryMinder Plus is automatic -- set it and forget it. During the charging phase, a little light turns green. When the battery is fully charged, the little light starts to blink, which means that the device has begun its desulphation pulse phase. Here is their website:

BatteryMinder Plus website

I must add that some very knowledgeable folks (like MexicoWanderer, who used to maintain the batteries on submarines) have doubts about the BatteryMinder's claim that it prevents sulphation of the battery by virtue of its pulsing action. So although I personally have had great success with this device, be aware that not everyone is a fan.

Having said that, my professional opinion (as a former lawyer and law professor) is that if the BatteryMinder folks were falsely claiming that their product prevents sulphation, they would have been sued for fraud in a class action and would have been driven out of business. They have not been sued (I have checked!), and they are still in business after many years.

For both good and ill, class action lawyers stand at the ready, eagerly awaiting the chance to bring suit against manufacturers of phony products. The lack of a class action in this case is what lawyers sometimes call an "eloquent silence."

I think it would be very difficult to prove how much if any sulfate is shed off the plates during a desufating cycle so unless someone cuts up a battery to examine the plates after 4 or 5 years, I can see why there would be no lawsuits. Just being a good maintainer should make the batteries last longer than 4-5 years so most people would be happy with the product.

Gjac wrote:
I'm not familiar with Battery Minder plus but does it go into a desulfating mode automatically over a 4-month period of absence or do you have to be there to program it manually to desulfate?

"Desulfation" is an attempt to repair a battery which has been abused (i.e., chronically undercharged, or left discharged for an extended period).

Properly maintained, a battery should never need it.

It is a marketing gimmick - designed to make one product stand out from hundreds of other, essentially identical products.

As mentioned, the BatteryMinder Plus is automatic -- set it and forget it. During the charging phase, a little light turns green. When the battery is fully charged, the little light starts to blink, which means that the device has begun its desulphation pulse phase. Here is their website:

BatteryMinder Plus website

I must add that some very knowledgeable folks (like MexicoWanderer, who used to maintain the batteries on submarines) have doubts about the BatteryMinder's claim that it prevents sulphation of the battery by virtue of its pulsing action. So although I personally have had great success with this device, be aware that not everyone is a fan.

Having said that, my professional opinion (as a former lawyer and law professor) is that if the BatteryMinder folks were falsely claiming that their product prevents sulphation, they would have been sued for fraud in a class action and would have been driven out of business. They have not been sued (I have checked!), and they are still in business after many years.

For both good and ill, class action lawyers stand at the ready, eagerly awaiting the chance to bring suit against manufacturers of phony products. The lack of a class action in this case is what lawyers sometimes call an "eloquent silence."

Gjac wrote:

austinjenna wrote:
But a lot of maintainers do de-sulpahte the battery. This is from the Batteryminder plus website.

The BatteryMINDer Plus is a 3-mode charger-maintainer-desulfator that extends performance and life of all types and sizes of 12 Volt lead acid batteries, including all starter, deep cycle, maintenance-free, sealed AGM, gelled or dry-type batteries, regardless of size or make. The Model 12117 automatically dissolves harmful power-robbing sulfation using safe, low voltage, patented high-frequency pulse technology

I'm not familiar with Battery Minder plus but does it go into a desulfating mode automatically over a 4-month period of absence or do you have to be there to program it manually to desulfate?

Mine does it automatically, no programming required.