Megapulse desulphation device

[Dave_P]

http://www.actmeters.co.uk/battery-testing/megapulse-battery-rejuvenator

 

Does anyone know anything about this?  Seems like (if it works), it's a better solution for me than buying a fancy new charger, and less hassle than getting a bench charger.

[Tony Brooks]

See if you can find any research papers into them from a respected independent authority. When I tried I found two, a German one and an Australian one. One said they worked and the other said they did not. These are discussed regularly and when Gibbo was about he said he had tested them on a number of batteries and sometimes the battery dies, sometimes it seemed to work and sometimes it seemed to work for a short while and the died. The US red neck lot seem very keen on them and post to "prove" they work but as they often seem to have built their own they are hardly independent.

 

They are not going to do anything about extending a batteries cyclic life and that is what will be the final straw for the majority of batteries that have not been abused.

 

Its Gibbo's "sometimes kills them" that concerns me.

[Dave_P]

1 minute ago, Tony Brooks said:

See if you can find any research papers into them from a respected independent authority. When I tried I found two, a German one and an Australian one. One said they worked and the other said they did not. These are discussed regularly and when Gibbo was about he said he had tested them on a number of batteries and sometimes the battery dies, sometimes it seemed to work and sometimes it seemed to work for a short while and the died. The US red neck lot seem very keen on them and post to "prove" they work but as they often seem to have built their own they are hardly independent.

 

They are not going to do anything about extending a batteries cyclic life and that is what will be the final straw for the majority of batteries that have not been abused.

 

Its Gibbo's "sometimes kills them" that concerns me.

Thanks.  I'm also wondering how they work, in layman's terms.  My understanding is that they take power from the battery and 'convert' it into short bursts of high voltage current which dissolve the sulphation crystals. 

 

Is that right?

[Alan de Enfield]

Performs industry standard battery load test (12V and 24V applications only) Load Test Results displayed as GREEN LED = BATTERY/OK and RED LED = CHECK BATTERY, Load Test performed after installation and repeats the test every 2hr (12V and 24V applications only) providing the battery is not under charge

 

What is an 'industry standard' battery test load ?

 

Is it like the old 'drop-test' used on Starter batteries ?

[1st ade]

25 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

Thanks.  I'm also wondering how they work, in layman's terms.  My understanding is that they take power from the battery and 'convert' it into short bursts of high voltage current which dissolve the sulphation crystals. 

 

Is that right?

Back in days of old when NiCd cells were common, many of them died through (for want of a better phrase) Lack of Exercise. Batteries which were left unused for extended periods developed an internal short as a crystal (Nickel? Cadmium?) bridged the two electrodes.

 

A well know short term fix was to charge a honking great capacitor (100uF or so) to 5V and drop it across the affected cell. The instantaneous current literally blew the crystal away while the total energy wsan't enough to cause further damage as might happen if you just threw a 5v supply at the cell. Once the short was gone the cell could be charged normally.

 

Slightly different application; restoring an otherwise "dead" cell but same principle?

[MtB]

1 hour ago, Dave_P said:

Thanks.  I'm also wondering how they work, in layman's terms.

 

They don't.

 

There was a battery thread here a couple of years ago where a poster asked about them and received all the usual 'snake oil' comments. He stuck to his guns saying the marketing blurb was very convincing and as there was a "money back if not totally satisfied" guarantee he would order one, test it out and come back with the results.

 

He graciously came back and woke up the thread after about a year IIRC, to say the device made not a blind bit of difference to his sulphated batteries. I think he also said he had returned it and they honoured their guarantee and gave a full refund. 

[WotEver]

1 hour ago, 1st ade said:

Back in days of old when NiCd cells were common, many of them died through (for want of a better phrase) Lack of Exercise. Batteries which were left unused for extended periods developed an internal short as a crystal (Nickel? Cadmium?) bridged the two electrodes.

 

A well know short term fix was to charge a honking great capacitor (100uF or so) to 5V and drop it across the affected cell. The instantaneous current literally blew the crystal away while the total energy wsan't enough to cause further damage as might happen if you just threw a 5v supply at the cell. Once the short was gone the cell could be charged normally.

 

Slightly different application; restoring an otherwise "dead" cell but same principle?

I’ve ‘fixed’ old nicads with a similar trick. You splash the terminals with the output of an arc welder. As you say, it blows away the whiskers that grow across the cells, thereby removing the internal shorts. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Nothing lost if it doesn’t. 

 

These pulse desulphators have, to the best of my knowledge, never received a positive review from any respected source. If you adopt a decent charging regime then you’ll never need one anyway. 

[Tony Brooks]

The idea of "blowing" crystals off the plates concerns me. The question is where do they go. If they embed in the separator plate movement and vibration may cause them to push right through and allow an internal short. If they drop into the sediment rap then that OK but it s still filling the sediment traps up which will eventually cause internal shorts.

 

Unless Dave_P has some expensive wet open cell batteries I am not sure why he would need a fancy new charger or bench charger. The only reason I can see is to allow an easy equalisation charge and Gibbo, again, said, I think, that typical batteries on boats where they are in use as well as being charged do not need equalisation. I am not sure about that but as my Exide leisure batteries are now about 5 years old and still doing what is required I tend to agree with him.

[dmr]

If they worked then every battery charger would include, everybody would have one, and Sulphated batteries would be a thing of the past. I always find interesting that Sterling makes one as quite a lot of people regard them as a reputable company.

 

..............Dave

[WotEver]

14 minutes ago, dmr said:

If they worked then every battery charger would include, everybody would have one, and Sulphated batteries would be a thing of the past. I always find interesting that Sterling makes one as quite a lot of people regard them as a reputable company.

 

..............Dave

<pedant mode>

Sterling don’t ‘make’ anything. 

</pedant mode>