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Equalisation charge - is it a waste of time?


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My domestic and inexpensive batteries were recently not lasting quite as long and  expected from past performance – as noted on two weekends away from shore power (with a full charge in between).

They are 4 years old batteries – sealed type.

I am trying an equalisation charge by charging them individually and using a higher voltage than they see normally … up to 14.6V or so (may be up to 15V for a very short minute or two ).

Is this liable to revive the performance of the batteries or am I wasting my time? How long do they need to be over charged to make any difference – is it minutes or hours  or days ?

New batteries will not break the bank but I do like to repair things if possible.

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 Equalisation charging is subtly different from desulphation charging, and it is sulphation that degrades battery performance. 

 

So if anything will help, it is gonna be a desulphation cycle or ten. They gas during desulphation though, and need topping up, so being sealed your's have probably had it. Unless you can 'unseal' them and top them up. 

 

 

 

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My 'spare' car (Jaguar) Battery has gone down to about 5 volts over Winter, I've had it on charge for 3 days and got it back up to charging at 1amp current at 14.7v and 12.7v after 3 hours disconnected.

(Too much in the way of electrics / electronics that always keep running in the background - went onto a jaguar forum  and the problem is not unique - the recommendation is to trickle charge continuously, or a 'proper charge' every 10-14 days.)

 

Started the car and went for a run. battery showing fully charged.

This morning down to 5v again.

 

Put it on charge at 15.9v for the last 4 hours it'll either be kill or cure, we'll see later

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21 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 Equalisation charging is subtly different from desulphation charging, and it is sulphation that degrades battery performance. 

 

So if anything will help, it is gonna be a desulphation cycle or ten. They gas during desulphation though, and need topping up, so being sealed your's have probably had it. Unless you can 'unseal' them and top them up. 

 

 

 

Thank you

they are not quite dead - just not as athletic as they used to be. I don't think I will be opening them up

I am  going to give them exercise on a higher voltage charge this week followed by a real life test next weekend. however it sounds like new batteries would be the better bet .

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46 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 Equalisation charging is subtly different from desulphation charging, and it is sulphation that degrades battery performance. 

 

So if anything will help, it is gonna be a desulphation cycle or ten. They gas during desulphation though, and need topping up, so being sealed your's have probably had it. Unless you can 'unseal' them and top them up. 

 

 

 

 

Only in length of time kept at a high voltage.

 

I always found sulphated batteries responded better to several short high voltage charges, rather than one long one. That is if they responded at all. Once the sulphate has hardened it is almost impossible to convert back to spongy lead.

 

Given the age and type of the OP's i dont hold much hope for a miraculous recovery though.

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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I would take great care doing an equalizing charge on a sealed battery  

The charger I am using (not the charger fitted on the boat) pulse charges so it isn’t on higher voltage very long but does raise the battery voltage for a short duration. Once it senses the battery is full it goes to afloat charge mode.

I have been in attendance while the higher voltage charge is happening and not noticed any gassing – which is usually audible with sealed batteries even tough not visible.

I have also checked that the battery is not getting hot.

Despite being called ‘sealed’ the batteries are vented but in theory should not lose any fluid.

I expect I will replace in the near future but just experimenting at the moment .

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When I had lost capacity with ordinary wet lead acid batteries, I found belting them with around 15.5v for about an hour (after normal full charge) worked wonders. Ok mine were not sealed, but this process didn’t cause the electrolyte level to drop noticeably and I didn’t need to top up despite doing this for about 5 or 6 times.

 

It did restore a lot of capacity initially, but I found that the time it took for capacity to drop and thus frequency of having to do it, gradually increased. But I got another year out of them.

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1 hour ago, nicknorman said:

When I had lost capacity with ordinary wet lead acid batteries, I found belting them with around 15.5v for about an hour (after normal full charge) worked wonders. Ok mine were not sealed, but this process didn’t cause the electrolyte level to drop noticeably and I didn’t need to top up despite doing this for about 5 or 6 times.

 

It did restore a lot of capacity initially, but I found that the time it took for capacity to drop and thus frequency of having to do it, gradually increased. But I got another year out of them.

I did something similar with a couple that I removed from the boat when they were showing signs of being at reduced capacity. I use them for outside lighting over winter at the marina running a couple of LED spotlights (we have no mains electrickery), where they have performed well. I hate wasting stuff!

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1 hour ago, OldGoat said:

Off topic -

When you said Jaguar and 5V in the sane sentence - I thought you meant a Standard Swallow 100 model (ooo).

Sadly not...

Saw one of those on Saturday at Jaguar Heritage in Ryton. Well worth a visit, and FREE!  (Not much is these days). 

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4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

My 'spare' car (Jaguar) Battery has gone down to about 5 volts over Winter, I've had it on charge for 3 days and got it back up to charging at 1amp current at 14.7v and 12.7v after 3 hours disconnected.

(Too much in the way of electrics / electronics that always keep running in the background - went onto a jaguar forum  and the problem is not unique - the recommendation is to trickle charge continuously, or a 'proper charge' every 10-14 days.)

 

Started the car and went for a run. battery showing fully charged.

This morning down to 5v again.

 

Put it on charge at 15.9v for the last 4 hours it'll either be kill or cure, we'll see later

My honda sat all winter 5 months on only a solar charger. ( bat disconnected) on my return i reconnected the battery and off we went.

drove for a week then from uk to valkenburg in a day, then four days later to bruges. 

In bruges it wouldnt start.. bumped it and off to roubaix. 90 kms. At roubaix wouldnt start.

left it in car park whilst i had a severe dose of flu. Got it going and to a battery shop

not sure what the french for knackered is but with gesticulation and perseverence a battery with a european warranty got put in.

 

no warning at all. 5 years old. Clearly the swindon honda doesnt like europe.

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5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

My 'spare' car (Jaguar) Battery has gone down to about 5 volts over Winter...

If it’s keyless entry then storing the key out of reach of the car (or in a Faraday bag) helps with battery consumption. 

 

I have a Voyager that also flattens a battery in 2 weeks if not used (or kept on charge). 

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8 minutes ago, WotEver said:

If it’s keyless entry then storing the key out of reach of the car (or in a Faraday bag) helps with battery consumption. 

 

I have a Voyager that also flattens a battery in 2 weeks if not used (or kept on charge). 

 

My youngest son's Lotus Elise flattens it lightweight, miniscule battery in a week if the car isn't used.

 

I solved it by putting a solar panel (a small one marketed as a battery maintainer without a controller) on his garage roof. Current battery has now lasted 9 years to date.

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2 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

My youngest son's Lotus Elise flattens it lightweight, miniscule battery in a week if the car isn't used.

I saw an Elan a couple of weeks ago that had no (zero, nada, zilch) crazing anywhere on the body. It must have had a recent restore because it’s the first blemish-free one I’ve seen in decades. 

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I have never understood the theory behind battery equalization, and consequently never, knowingly, performed what seemed to me to be black magic. In twenty years, We only had two sets of Leisure batteries, in each case being a pair of 6v extra deep cycle units. The first lot were a couple of years old when we bought the boat, and lasted until they were something like thirteen years old, the second set were more than eight years old when we sold the boat and were still holding their charge even when left for a month without any charging. I sometimes wonder whether battery equalization is akin to the "Emperor's New Clothes", but we did have a Sterling Advanced Alternator Regulartor, which charged at a higher rate, and I have asked several people more conversant than me with battery technology whether they were being routuinely balanced, but none of them seemed to know.

 

 

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We found our knackered sealed batteries regained some capacity and we got another winter out of them by charging to 16.5v using an old style car charger, and upping our regular charging voltage to 15v (+temp compensation). You could hear the batteries bubbling at 16.5v (unsurprisingly!) but not when charged at 15v.

 

I strongly believe that for our usage, the added calcium in modern batteries, makes sealed batteries have a very short life if using recommended charging voltages. They certainly appear to work better charged at much higher voltages, and when I removed the cover on one before scraping it I found the level to be absolutely fine. 

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1 hour ago, Tom and Bex said:

We found our knackered sealed batteries regained some capacity and we got another winter out of them by charging to 16.5v using an old style car charger, and upping our regular charging voltage to 15v (+temp compensation). You could hear the batteries bubbling at 16.5v (unsurprisingly!) but not when charged at 15v.

 

I strongly believe that for our usage, the added calcium in modern batteries, makes sealed batteries have a very short life if using recommended charging voltages. They certainly appear to work better charged at much higher voltages, and when I removed the cover on one before scraping it I found the level to be absolutely fine. 

What make and model of old style car charger was it? Were you able to set the voltage,Mir was it designed that way.

 

Inask because there have been some discussions here regarding getting a higher voltage than about 15.5V from chargers, and if you have found a way, it will be of interest.

 

I think my Rolls batteries talk about a 16+ Volts charge for equalising.

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4 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

What make and model of old style car charger was it? Were you able to set the voltage,Mir was it designed that way.

My old Halfords charger keeps 'going & going' I normally switch it off after 2 or 3 hours at 15.9-16.0 volts.

 

If I want a controlled charge (voltage & current) I use my 'bench power supply'

 

CAM00284.jpg

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1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

I have never understood the theory behind battery equalization...

In this context we’re actually talking about desulphation as opposed to equalisation, even though they two are very similar technically, insofar as they are both a controlled overcharge. 

 

Simply put, when a battery is discharged some of the spongy lead on the plates is converted to lead sulphate (PbSO4). When the battery is charged that sulphate is reconverted back to lead and sulphuric acid. If the battery isn’t completely charged then some sulphate remains. Over a period of time the amount of sulphate increases and hardens until you get to the stage where no amount of charging at ‘normal’ charge voltages will convert it. It becomes stubbornly hard and even after hours and hours of charging it won’t dissolve away. This is when you raise the voltage for a while, ‘forcing’ (some of) that hardened sulphate to convert. That is a desulphation charge. 

 

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4 hours ago, WotEver said:

I saw an Elan a couple of weeks ago that had no (zero, nada, zilch) crazing anywhere on the body. It must have had a recent restore because it’s the first blemish-free one I’ve seen in decades. 

 

Strangely I saw one the other day too. The two seater version but not a Sprint. I was shocked by how small it was. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, WotEver said:

In this context we’re actually talking about desulphation as opposed to equalisation, even though they two are very similar technically, insofar as they are both a controlled overcharge. 

 

Simply put, when a battery is discharged some of the spongy lead on the plates is converted to lead sulphate (PbSO4). When the battery is charged that sulphate is reconverted back to lead and sulphuric acid. If the battery isn’t completely charged then some sulphate remains. Over a period of time the amount of sulphate increases and hardens until you get to the stage where no amount of charging at ‘normal’ charge voltages will convert it. It becomes stubbornly hard and even after hours and hours of charging it won’t dissolve away. This is when you raise the voltage for a while, ‘forcing’ (some of) that hardened sulphate to convert. That is a desulphation charge. 

 

That may explain why we never had any problems with our batteries. The regulator ensured that the full output of the alternator was available for as long as it was needed, and the voltage was higher than the regular rate. We cruised every day so any battery power loss was replenished each day.

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10 hours ago, cuthound said:

Only in length of time kept at a high voltage.

 

Not just that, but also the intended effect.

 

Equalising is to bring all the cells up to the same state of charge. Desulphation is to force the led sulphate (hopefully) to revert back into lead and acid.

 

 

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5 hours ago, David Schweizer said:

That may explain why we never had any problems with our batteries. The regulator ensured that the full output of the alternator was available for as long as it was needed, and the voltage was higher than the regular rate. We cruised every day so any battery power loss was replenished each day.

That would be a perfect world for batteries 

Not surprising they lasted 10 years especially as they were top quality expensive batteries.

My wifes car is 11 years old ,used most days except when we are on holiday and has it's original battery.

Many of us are in full time employment and boating is a weekend and holidays activity often with months of winter inactivity. That is not good for battery life.

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2 hours ago, MartynG said:

My wifes car is 11 years old ,used most days except when we are on holiday and has it's original battery.

Slightly off-topic, but we have run several cars to a pretty good age, in fact we still are.

 

One thing I have found is that the originally fitted batteries always seem to have a very good life, (10 years plus, even on a diesel), but try as I may, even if I pay more than a basic price, replacements never do anything like as well.

I have just had to replace the second battery fitted to a diesel Volvo V70 probably after no more than half the lifetime that the first one survived.

I may have been unlucky, but the batteries sold as replacements just don't seem as good. (This was an Exide).

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