How long should battery minder take, in conditioning mode?

[Naio]

I've had mine on a 150aH AGM for a couple months now, and it is still blinking.

Battery is not connected to anything else, and was working ok for house loads when I hooked it up, but not recently put to serious test.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

With an algorithm like that the voltage is "sweeping" not "pulsing". I wish Herb Tarlek would learn to use a dictionary or better yet, consult engineering (too hard to pick up an in-plant telephone?}.

For example take a voltage limited charging source limited to say 1.5 amperes, then apply it with a 15-second on 30-seconds off (555 timer I.C.) to a 100 ampere hour battery. The voltage sweep would be identical. There is more to it of course - the inclusion of a thermistor for temperature compensation with a finished product.

But the sweep is not something to to rattle shrunken skulls about. It is easier on a battery to see an appropriate constant voltage.

See if you can find (out of the thousands of emergency lighting products on the market) one single solitary product that utilizes sweeping voltage battery maintenance charge.

Any claims made that sweep maintenance voltage would be superior would invariably be utterly unsupported by documented blind field trials. If the feature remains silent, not hyped or promoted then it is benign and cannot be construed as a negative strike against the manufacturer. However if the feature is hyped it is a horse of a different color.

[pnichols]

I have used a BatteryMINDer Plus to maintain our RV's (Class C motorhome) flooded OEM engine battery for years -> plug the motorhome into the house all the time between trips, plug the BatteryMINDer Plus input into a 120V AC outlet in the motorhome, and then plug the BatteryMINDer Plus output into a always-hot 12V receptacle on the Ford cab's dash.

I have a voltmeter on the cab dash that shows the voltage on the engine battery at all times, so I can watch what the BatteryMINDer Plus is doing to the engine battery. Sometimes this voltmeter reads around 12.7 volts and sometimes it's reading is slowing creeping up to a maximum of around 13.5 volts and then sometimes it's reading is slowly declining down from around 13.5 volts to around 12.7 volts. This is the "pulsing" it does once a battery is charged over a long time from it's meager and gentle output current. My first Ford OEM flooded engine battery lasted for around 6 years until I replaced it and it's replacement Ford OEM flooded engine battery is still going strong (as far as I can tell) into around it's current 5th year. The first OEM engine battery was still turning over the V10 vigorously when I replaced it - I replaced it "just in case".

I have another BatteryMINDer Plus maintaining a couple of small AGM batteries ... one in our stick house backup generator and one in our garden power sprayer - alternating the BatteryMINDer Plus between these two batteries so I don't have to buy a 3rd BatteryMINDer Plus. I have checked the voltage on these two small AGM batteries during the times they're hooked up to the BatteryMINDer Plus and the voltage does the same thing as shown on the V10 engine battery - cycling slowly up and down.

I fail to see how a slow cycling up and down of the applied voltage between a float value and about an absorption value - once a flooded (or AGM battery?) is charged - is going to do anything but maintain it nicely.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Conditioning is reserved for VRB sealed batteries. Equalization is to bring all flooded battery cells to uniform density. Desulfation is used when a flooded battery sits for a long time and none of the cells can reach OEM density.

I coined the term "top charge" to bring a flooded battery that has cells less than full density but still well above hard sulfation stage back to OEM density.
It is to apply 5% total ampere hour constant current (amperage) charge to the cells until such time as the cells reach 15.0 volts, then terminate the charge.

If any fool of a battery OEM wants to go toe-to-toe with me and declare the BCI equalization regimen invalid, bring them on. Fully charge battery. Let it cool, then apply 5% total ampere hour constant current charge until such time as the cell gravity is corrected to OEM density or cell voltage reaches 16.0 then terminate the current. It sometimes takes hours for cell gravity to ascend from end of equalization to full density (partially due to temperature non correction).

Flaky manufacturers want to shuck and jive, use buzzwords, miracle innovation trickery, anything they can get their hands on to entice people into buying their product. In the end, the consumer ends up with the poorest value on the market and the OEM ends up with the most money in their pocket. This warping of manufacturing ethics does not sit well with me.

Not battery related but remember the fraud of Underwriters Laboratories and ETL listing on Chinese products I posted several months ago? Nobody in out stinking government is interested in even investigating the outrageous defrauding of consumer safety.

What has happened to our country?

[red31]

PulseMode as in PulseMode Circuitry printed on said charger is available for trademark, it was not maintained.

Condition equated to conditioning, whatever.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Manufacturers have EVERYTHING at stake. I don't. That's why they hated me. Selenium plate paste additive. Yeah, make it U-235 and you got a deal. Accumulate around 4.2 Kg of it in a clump and store it in a nice Pb lined box. These boys are counting on the public to remain uneducated and gullible.

Yeah set it over by the Vornado® Turbo intake nebulizer, VX-6 battery concentrate, and Chlorinated oil additives. That's right, by the miracle weight loss vitamins, and Ron Popiel kitchen fantastic gadget crates.

[profdant139]

Mex's point about the strength of the lattice is very interesting. I wish we could persuade the manufacturers to jump in here and offer their thoughts, but I doubt that is going to happen.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The battery minder PDF says (desulfation) but no mention of "pulse".

The maintainer therefore is not damaging your AGM.

If you buy any more maintainers if the nomenclature says "Pulse" run like hell.

I remember, an engineer from "X" visiting me and asking "Have you tried everything?" I cranked the "I" amplitude up to 60,000 ma, the battery caps shot up, fountains of electrolyte sprayed six feet in the air... (onto an epoxy coated concrete pad with containment gutters)

"I guess your answer is 'Yes'"

[Almot]

I don't see blue color code in this model.

You have a floater-maintainer. With 14 Absorb point, and then it's floating at 13. This is the only difference from other/simpler maintainers that have only 13.

I've never believed in magic power of pulse charging, glad to hear that Mex has come to the same conclusion.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

We have no FTC. We have an army of moneygrubbers who could care less what happens outside of Foggy Bottom and Georgetown. Legislation for the sake of legislation. As long as legislation is politically correct. People? Oh yeah! The source of votes and revenue.

[Naio]

Well, dang. Wish I'd not wasted my money.

It's a 12117, btw.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Different battery minders have different color codes. If you can squeeze in a look t the Battery minder model number then post it here I'd have a better idea of colors and codes. 13.2 - 13.4 steady volts would be best float maintenance no matter what.

Gyro Gearloose claims of battery testing authority must come with a host of corroborating footnotes as to methodology, number of DUT, and comparison of the same type of DUT using a different desulfation format with similar kWh expended.This does not even cover authentication of test instrumentation accuracy nor images of both positive and negative plates before and after the test. Does this "test" even include cell to cell electrolyte densities?

100% of the tests I performed revealed exactly zero difference between pulse desulfation and constant voltage desulfation. Electrolyte density and 10X loupe plate autopsies confirmed zero advantage. Extremely high frequency >600 MHz with high current 7000 ma did affect sulfation but extensively damaged unsulfated residual plate material. Lead Dioxide was particularly vulnerable.

Wish for something hard enough and the human brain will tend to deform reality and make it so. Remember this: Hardened (lattice-binded) sulfation is many X harder, stronger and tougher than cured plate paste. Energy that is great enough to affect latticed lead sulfate will destroy plate paste. Even phased (variable frequency) and multiplexed frequencies (multiple frequencies to 6 simultaneous bandwidths) did not advantageously affect latticed sulfation.

I had 10Kw of adjustable frequency power at my command. And three channels to work with (30Kw total). Two Siemens four channel multiplexers.

Now, in your wildest dreams would you imagine any backyard tinkerer to have that plus $100,000+ lab instrumentation at his command? Ask yourself: Have any of these tests incorporated cell electrolyte density comparison? BCI load testing?

Yeah I had "visitors". I am bound by courtesy and professionalism to not reveal names or entities, but they managed to parade through. Everyone had opinions: Some were useless while others proved worthy to follow up on. After 4 years I declared the entire program a "wash". Eight thousand dollars worth of SCE power expended. I won't depress myself thinking of the man-hours expended.

Regular battery chargers pulse 60 Hz. High frequency chargers pulse at whatever frequency the devices oscillate at.

I will say this: Whatever charge source I use (especially on the lifeline) extra capacitors have been incorporated to absolutely minimize ripple down to the microvolt level.

It's wonderful we live in a free country and opinions can differ and be respected. But limit is mandatory when opinions become predatory.

[Almot]

If it's blinking blue, not blue and red, this is wrong. You should bring the cruiser back to the station and notify desk sergeant ASAP.

[Naio]

@Mex no, it's green. Why?

[Almot]

You won't find claims of fraud for any charger/maintainer. Battery is a chemical machine, electricity is a byproduct. This chemistry is rather complicated. Good luck proving that it was a particular charger and not your negligence that contributed to premature demise of battery.