Glenlivet wrote:
If he can use that to safely activate his new battery, and doing so costs him .0025% of his battery's full capacity in so doing due to a bit of sulfation, then it's cheap at the price, especially when compared to what the donkey at the parts desk might have done!
Well yes, but the problem with sulfation is that it's additive. Each time the battery is drained and not fully recharged in a timely fashion, a bit more of the lead in the plates get covered with crystalline sulfation.
So the battery just keeps losing total capacity little by little over time. Eventually, that 100ah battery might actually be a 50ah battery, or a 20ah battery...
As long as the crystals haven't built up to the point of shorting the plates, or the battery hasn't been overheated causing the plates to warp and touch, the battery will behave normally. I.e., it can be charged up and will have a resting voltage of 12.8v, etc.
It'll just go dead a lot faster because its total capacity has gone down.
Sulfation forms any time a lead-acid battery is drained. That's normal. And it dissolves back into the electrolyte when the battery is charged. That's normal too.
The problem is when it sits long enough to harden. Then it doesn't dissolve when the battery is charged. It has become permanent.
Until makers start supplying their AGM batteries already activated, like Odyssey and Optima do, the chance that someone out of your sight will like as not activate and charge your nice new AGM battery the same way Grandpa charged the six volt Exide battery in his DeSoto and wreck it, is just too great.
Most AGM batteries are VRLA (valve-regulated lead-acid), in other words - sealed.
They are shipped fully charged from the factory, minus whatever self-discharge from sitting on the shelf at the dealer (not a lot, AGMs don't usually self-discharge very quickly).
So with most AGMs there is nothing for a dealer to do, except perhaps give them a top up charge if they've been sitting a while. Since they are factory sealed, there is no "activation".
And yes, apologies to all for the hijack.
I just felt I should speak up about using a regulated power supply as a battery charger before someone ends up deep sixing an expensive battery.
