Sterling device to stop batteries sulphating.

[Guest]

Don't know what they are called, but I was thumbing through a friends WW magazine and noticed that Sterling are selling a device that connects across a battery bank which they calaim stops sulphation. Has anybody GOT or USED one? What is/was the effectiveness of the device? No armachair critics or petty arguments please I need to know if they are worth their money.

 

http://www.sterling-power.com/products-battref.htm

Edited September 11, 2007 by Guest

[turnbuttonboy]

We have two of these units straddling our 700 amp 24volt battery (12 x 2 volt cells) and we have had them fitted for four months or so. The units were bought after the batterry started to show sings of being sulphated. They took several weeks to show dividends but the battery capacity has definitely improved substantially. I do not think that we will recover all the capacity through the desulphation devices alone but have yet to get organised for a prolonged equalisation charge. Charles sterling himself suggested that I use these because I was moaning that they did not have stock of the 150 amp 24 volt alternator to battery charger. It seems that they have done all that they claim to do and we are 300 quid better off!

 

Regards Turnbuttonboy

[Guest]

We have two of these units straddling our 700 amp 24volt battery (12 x 2 volt cells) and we have had them fitted for four months or so. The units were bought after the batterry started to show sings of being sulphated. They took several weeks to show dividends but the battery capacity has definitely improved substantially. I do not think that we will recover all the capacity through the desulphation devices alone but have yet to get organised for a prolonged equalisation charge. Charles sterling himself suggested that I use these because I was moaning that they did not have stock of the 150 amp 24 volt alternator to battery charger. It seems that they have done all that they claim to do and we are 300 quid better off!

 

Regards Turnbuttonboy

Thanks for your reply. I am encouraged by your findings.

[chris w]

You don't need one of these if you already have a Sterling charger because the charger will carry out a desulphation cycle anyway.

 

Chris

[ChrisPy]

You don't need one of these if you already have a Sterling charger because the charger will carry out a desulphation cycle anyway.

 

Chris

Chris, do you happen to know if the combi inverter/charger has the same arrangement?

[chris w]

Chris, do you happen to know if the combi inverter/charger has the same arrangement?

 

I don't know either way. On the Sterling website, they state:

 

"This device is not required if you have a Pro Digital battery charger or any other advanced Sterling charging product (my emphasis) connected to your batteries as they have a desulphation cycle built into their software program.

 

Chris

[Sir Nibble]

"This device is not required if you have a Pro Digital battery charger or any other advanced Sterling charging product

Wot? even if you haven't seen a landline for 6 months?

[chris w]

Wot? even if you haven't seen a landline for 6 months?

 

The charger has its own desulphation cycle and therefore you would gain nothing from having the stand-alone unit. (See the sterling website)

 

Chris

[Guest]

The charger has its own desulphation cycle and therefore you would gain nothing from having the stand-alone unit. (See the sterling website)

 

Chris

Thanks

Yes it does say that on their site Chris. I rarely use my Sterling charger though having little access to landlines, so wondered if these devices were in fact worthwhile. Cheap enough to "give it a go" I feel.

[charles123]

Thanks

Yes it does say that on their site Chris. I rarely use my Sterling charger though having little access to landlines, so wondered if these devices were in fact worthwhile. Cheap enough to "give it a go" I feel.

 

I looked at one of these but I understand the Sterling alternator controller I have does reduce suphation as well

 

Charles

[Gibbo]

We tested a dollop of this type of device a few years ago. They have been out for donkeys years, usually sold as "battery rejuvenators". ie for getting old, knackered, batteries back to life. Electronics hobbyist magazines are full of circuits for them. As is the internet.

 

When used for the purpose of rejuvenating old batteries the results are completely hit and miss. Some batteries recover quite well, some recover well only to give up the ghost a few days later, some come out of it worse than they started.

 

However the use here is as a preventative measure ie to stop the batteries ever reaching the "sulphated to buggery" stage. In that case they do actually work.

 

The only reservations I have are that:-

 

A in order to function they have to wack quite high voltage pulses into the battery. Any equipment connected will also *benefit* from these which might not do them a lot of good. I am also not totally convinced that the device would have sufficient power to produce the pulses whilst loads are connected.

 

B They do use some power from the battery.

 

If you disconnect the loads I believe they *would* prolong battery life.

 

As others have said "if you have a Sterling bla bla bla......." you don't need one.

 

What they *should* have said was "If your charger has an equalisation function you don't need one". Not only Sterling equipment has equalisation functions. Most Victron, Statpower, Heart Interface, Mastervolt etc etc etc equipment also has this function.

 

Gibbo

Edited September 12, 2007 by Gibbo

[smileypete]

Thanks

Yes it does say that on their site Chris. I rarely use my Sterling charger though having little access to landlines, so wondered if these devices were in fact worthwhile. Cheap enough to "give it a go" I feel.

Hi,

 

I wonder if they need the battery to be fully charged and under charge in order to work?

 

Eg if the battery only ever gets charged to 80%, would one of these prevent or even reverse sulphation?

 

cheers,

Pete.

[Guest]

We tested a dollop of this type of device a few years ago. They have been out for donkeys years, usually sold as "battery rejuvenators". ie for getting old, knackered, batteries back to life. Electronics hobbyist magazines are full of circuits for them. As is the internet.

 

When used for the purpose of rejuvenating old batteries the results are completely hit and miss. Some batteries recover quite well, some recover well only to give up the ghost a few days later, some come out of it worse than they started.

 

However the use here is as a preventative measure ie to stop the batteries ever reaching the "sulphated to buggery" stage. In that case they do actually work.

 

The only reservations I have are that:-

 

A in order to function they have to wack quite high voltage pulses into the battery. Any equipment connected will also *benefit* from these which might not do them a lot of good. I am also not totally convinced that the device would have sufficient power to produce the pulses whilst loads are connected.

 

B They do use some power from the battery.

 

If you disconnect the loads I believe they *would* prolong battery life.

 

As others have said "if you have a Sterling bla bla bla......." you don't need one.

 

What they *should* have said was "If your charger has an equalisation function you don't need one". Not only Sterling equipment has equalisation functions. Most Victron, Statpower, Heart Interface, Mastervolt etc etc etc equipment also has this function.

 

Gibbo

Thanks Gibbo for your in depth reply. Points noted.

[smileypete]

As an aside...

 

I've found I could reverse mild sulphation to my boat (truck) battery by discharging it at rated CCA (500-600A) for short periods.

 

The sulphation came about through storage for 6 months without charging, and couldn't be reversed by a full charge.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[Big Steve]

I think the idea is that they suck a little juice from the battery, even when not under charge, and squirt some big pulses back in. So if your boat is left for long periods out of use, ie Winter, they may do some good, otherwise your high quality charger will take care of it.

[Gibbo]

As an aside...

 

I've found I could reverse mild sulphation to my boat (truck) battery by discharging it at rated CCA (500-600A) for short periods.

 

The sulphation came about through storage for 6 months without charging, and couldn't be reversed by a full charge.

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

Interesting. I suspect you'll find the sulphate came off because it was attached to the lead that fell off and landed in the bottom of the battery.

 

Gibbo

[smileypete]

Interesting. I suspect you'll find the sulphate came off because it was attached to the lead that fell off and landed in the bottom of the battery.

 

After testing I gave the battery a full charge and normal SG was restored. I'm perfectly happy to accept it shouldn't work

 

Anyway I've just charged the battery so I'll leave it 'til March 2008 and see if it's a bit sulphated again.

 

Once cell's SG is down a touch after a full charge but not enough to bother with for now...

 

cheers,

Pete.

[Gibbo]

After testing I gave the battery a full charge and normal SG was restored. I'm perfectly happy to accept it shouldn't work

 

Anyway I've just charged the battery so I'll leave it 'til March 2008 and see if it's a bit sulphated again.

 

Once cell's SG is down a touch after a full charge but not enough to bother with for now...

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

How bizarre. I shall go and have a play with a few sulphated batteries.

 

Gibbo

[smileypete]

How bizarre. I shall go and have a play with a few sulphated batteries.

 

Gibbo

 

I doubt it'll do much good on heavily sulphated batteres, it might help the SG recover somewhat on lightly sulphated ones.

 

I wonder if it helps explain why 'battery pills' seem to work a bit on starting batteries when 'in theory' they shouldn't - it's just the heavy discharge of starting that helps recover some capacity.

 

To test the battery I discharged at 500-600A for 15 second intervals with rest in between, until the terminal voltage got down to 7V though a bit riskly to go that low really.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[tosher]

The charger has its own desulphation cycle and therefore you would gain nothing from having the stand-alone unit. (See the sterling website)

 

Chris

 

I have a Sterling 3000w 3 in 1 pure sine wave inverter/charger (11 months old) which is sold as having an "Equalisation Cycle" to prolong the life of the batteries by reducing sulphation. The manual states that this equalition cycle is supposed to happen after every 25 normal cycles and increases the charge voltage to 15.3v for 2 hours. I Have never actually seen this happen on mine so I contacted Sterling to ask them. I was very supprised to be told that this feature has been removed from these units "because charging at 15.3 v caused too much damage to the boats electrical systems and no longer happens". Is this what you are refering to Chris are is this something different, I would be interested to hear if other peoples combi units do still have this feature. tosher

[valrene9600]

My sterling 3000 has the equalisation function and i thought it sounded good but as i couldn`t quite understand the instructions to turn it on i phoned sterling. They told me NOT to use the function for the same high input electrical problem tosher states. They also said it`s not needed as a 3 stage charger takes care of it anyway.

[chris w]

I have a Sterling 3000w 3 in 1 pure sine wave inverter/charger (11 months old) which is sold as having an "Equalisation Cycle" to prolong the life of the batteries by reducing sulphation. The manual states that this equalition cycle is supposed to happen after every 25 normal cycles and increases the charge voltage to 15.3v for 2 hours. I Have never actually seen this happen on mine so I contacted Sterling to ask them. I was very supprised to be told that this feature has been removed from these units "because charging at 15.3 v caused too much damage to the boats electrical systems and no longer happens". Is this what you are refering to Chris are is this something different, I would be interested to hear if other peoples combi units do still have this feature. tosher

 

What happens on my (Sterling) charger is that if the charger remains in float mode for 7 days, it automatically starts a normal charge cycle (ie: bulk, absorption and back to float). The absorption phase is at 14.8v (for wet lead acid batteries) thereby performing desulphation.

 

Of course if the batteries are drained, the absoption phase will occur anyway when the charger is reconnected.

 

Chris

[anhar]

Slightly off topic perhaps but Victron Phoenix Multiplus inverter/chargers can have their charging patterns for different kinds of batteries and also different patterns for the same batteries as discussed in this thread, and a lot of other settings such as limiting the incoming shore line current etc., altered via software that can be downloaded from their website. You save the software then connect your computer to the unit via a standard cable of some kind. I haven't done it yet on mine but will need to do so when I get my Honda generator because that requires both incoming current limitation and some other adjustment to do specially with Honda EU series gennies.

 

Clever stuff but I don't know whether Sterling has similar facilities.

 

regards

Steve

Edited September 20, 2007 by anhar

[chris w]

Sterling equipment has no PC interface

 

Chris