desulfation of lead-acid car battery with RuiDeng Riden RD6018 or RD6024

[2vlado]

Hi!

I'm newbie to electronics and this is my first post on this forum. I need to perform desulfation of my car battery and I'm looking to buy my first laboratory PSU. Riden RD6018/RD6024 looks nice to me. The Riden PSUs can be set to pulse. AFAIK the lowest frequency is 1 Hz and there is no option to set PWM. My question is: can be car battery desulfation performed with a Riden RD6018 or RD6024 PSU? As far as I know, desulfation is done by performing short high current pulses. How many amps are needed to achieve reasonable speed of desulfation?

Thanks!

EDIT: before anyone asks: I don't own a lead acid battery regenerator (desulfator) and I would like to avoid buying one because I would use it rarely and I already own a lead acid battery charger.

[Gyro]

Welcome to the forum.

The general concensus seems to be that effective LA battery desulphation can't be done at all. This has been discussed at length on the forum over the years:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/renewable-energy/reconditioning-olddead-lead-acid-batteries/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/renewable-energy/lead-acid-battery-regenerator-(12kw-pulse-power)-diy/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/renewable-energy/recovering-deep-discharge-lead-acid-battery/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/attempt-rejuvenating-old-gel-cell-lead-acid-batteries-with-a-bench-supply/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/rejuvenating-batteries/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/battery-desulfating-multiple-batteries-or-keeping-pulses-from-going-upstream/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/how-to-charge-a-lead-acid-bat/

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/guess-what-will-happen-battery-desulfation-experiment/


A forum search will bring up others.

Charging LA batteries is a good way of killing a bench PSU without careful precautions (this is the Beginners section) to avoid back-driving on power loss.

[strawberry]

must be reason why they rebuild plates

[BrokenYugo]

Best way I know to rejuvenate a lead acid battery is to shred it, melt the lead down, and make a new one. That's where your core return goes and how new batteries end up on the shelf.

The only "success" I've personally had making a weak battery work longer is by popping the caps (this won't work on a sealed battery) making sure the fluid level is at least covering the plates, add water if needed but just enough to cover the plates (level goes up with more charge). Then I roll a big, dumb, manual charger out and overvolt the battery ( I think around 18V) with the max rate/"boost" tap on the transformer to balance the shit out of it for like half an hour. Then I top the water off properly and that will sometimes keep it limping along for another month or two. This is a dangerous trick as the battery spews hydrogen, no smoking, make sure connections are secure before applying power, and stay away from the thing just to be safe, internal faults can also be an ignition source. I really don't recommend anybody does this, the risk/reward simply doesn't work out.

As mentioned by Gyro, you really need to know what you're doing to charge batteries with a bench supply, and not smoke said bench supply. They usually have little to no protection against using the output as an input, unlike an actual battery charger.

[strawberry]

tap water is full of metals and salts

[james_s]

Some is, my tap water is actually very soft, not much in the way of minerals in it at all. Even so, distilled water is preferred.

I have had zero luck resurrecting truly tired car batteries, although I have had a few successes bringing back those that had fully discharged down to 0V by leaving them on a smart charger for a few days.

[SilverSolder]

If a LA battery gets completely discharged, it seems to be salvageable with a smart charger as long as you do it quickly!

If left dead for more than a day or two, they become very difficult to deal with...

[Gyro]

Yes, Sulphation sets in really quickly in over-discharge.

[james_s]

If a LA battery gets completely discharged, it seems to be salvageable with a smart charger as long as you do it quickly!

If left dead for more than a day or two, they become very difficult to deal with...

Generally I agree, but I had one sit completely dead in a car for close to 5 years and then I put it on a charger and it fully recovered. I changed the head gasket and got the car running then it sat for about another 5 years completely dead before my dad finally found the paperwork. I thought sure it was finished but I put it back on the charger and it recovered again, now 14 years old and having been drained totally flat twice. It was still in good enough shape for cumulatively about 2-3 minutes of cranking the engine to get the stale fuel out of the system before it started.

[strawberry]

for solar they make deep discharge lead acid battery
it is possible to start engine with damaged battery. but will it keep charge after 1 day and at what rate charge drops

[SilverSolder]

If a LA battery gets completely discharged, it seems to be salvageable with a smart charger as long as you do it quickly!

If left dead for more than a day or two, they become very difficult to deal with...

Generally I agree, but I had one sit completely dead in a car for close to 5 years and then I put it on a charger and it fully recovered. I changed the head gasket and got the car running then it sat for about another 5 years completely dead before my dad finally found the paperwork. I thought sure it was finished but I put it back on the charger and it recovered again, now 14 years old and having been drained totally flat twice. It was still in good enough shape for cumulatively about 2-3 minutes of cranking the engine to get the stale fuel out of the system before it started.

Wow, that's interesting.    I've had the experience that once the battery has gone flat, it can be very difficult to recover.   That said, I have a battery still going strong in a car here which has gone flat twice...   but not for more than a week or so.

[Circlotron]

If a LA battery gets completely discharged, it seems to be salvageable with a smart charger as long as you do it quickly!

If left dead for more than a day or two, they become very difficult to deal with...

Generally I agree, but I had one sit completely dead in a car for close to 5 years and then I put it on a charger and it fully recovered. I changed the head gasket and got the car running then it sat for about another 5 years completely dead before my dad finally found the paperwork. I thought sure it was finished but I put it back on the charger and it recovered again, now 14 years old and having been drained totally flat twice. It was still in good enough shape for cumulatively about 2-3 minutes of cranking the engine to get the stale fuel out of the system before it started.

Did you buy the battery at a government surplus auction at Roswell? 

[james_s]

Did you buy the battery at a government surplus auction at Roswell? 

It came in a 1977 Volvo 245 that one of my dad's coworkers gave him after the head gasket blew. I have no idea where the battery originally came from but it did have a date sticker on it for the warranty. I think it must have been a fluke, one of those rare cases where the build happened to go just right and the substances in it were exceptionally pure.

[freda]

It came in a 1977 Volvo 245 that one of my dad's coworkers gave him after the head gasket blew. I have no idea where the battery originally came from but it did have a date sticker on it for the warranty. I think it must have been a fluke, one of those rare cases where the build happened to go just right and the substances in it were exceptionally pure.

I'm just speculating, but those old batteries might have been made with thick plates and more space perhaps. You know how technology evolves use as little material as possible, as little labour as possible, test it to a hair's width of the specification.....

However, even now you can buy car batteries at very different prices, I've twice got 8+ years out of the batteries I bought, and each time i've held on to the old batteries to service the UPS for 3years+ or so

[james_s]

It came in a 1977 Volvo 245 that one of my dad's coworkers gave him after the head gasket blew. I have no idea where the battery originally came from but it did have a date sticker on it for the warranty. I think it must have been a fluke, one of those rare cases where the build happened to go just right and the substances in it were exceptionally pure.

I'm just speculating, but those old batteries might have been made with thick plates and more space perhaps. You know how technology evolves use as little material as possible, as little labour as possible, test it to a hair's width of the specification.....

However, even now you can buy car batteries at very different prices, I've twice got 8+ years out of the batteries I bought, and each time i've held on to the old batteries to service the UPS for 3years+ or so

The battery wasn't *that* old, I think he was given the car around 2005 and the battery was 3-4 years old at the time. My memory is a little hazy but I think I remember noting the battery was 14 years old when I sold the car.