Battery Maintainer

[dtech]

Iirc battery minder makes desulfator that is on-board the vehicle, they have been around a long while and likely actually designed devices, today there are a plethora of batt chargers with basic desulfation, they just send pulses of ~ 15.5v to the battery to dissolves the sulfite crystals, more advanced and expensive units also use high frequency pulses to desulfate more hardened crystals. I bought a low end Chinese brand which is likely little more than a knock off of brands like noco or ctek, it works well. If you put a voltmeter on it when in operation you can see the pulsed voltage.

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[TJC]

Tony, so what are you using for an on board desulfator.

BatteryMinder OBD-12V $65.95
Been using them for 20 years now on all my autos

 

[hookem57]

I have monitored and tested my battery since new. I purchased a 2020 XLT Ranger new. You really need a charger with a proven desulfator function to keep the battery in optimal condition. I have an onboard desulfator that only functions when the charger voltage is over 13v. It helps a great deal.

That said, I have a CTEK 8 stage 5amp charger. It took 3 weeks of continuous charging for that charger to reach stage 8. It went to stage 7 within 6 hours. During that 3 weeks, my onboard was constantly active, breaking down sulfur crystals that build up on the lead plates. This buildup increases the internal resistance (IR) of the battery causing increased voltage to charge the battery, and weakens the batteries ability to hold a charge. Optimal is in the 3.5 mOhm range. Above 5 mOhm and your battery has been weakened and is at risk. Above 8 and it is time to replace the battery. The low SOC Ford sets and active ASS will kill the battery prematurely. Engineers estimate active ASS systems shortens battery life by 2 years.

My battery is 6 years old now and still healthy. But it takes effort to keep a battery healthy in modern power hungry autos. I charge my battery usually once a month. I have ASS disabled, have an onboard desulfator, and set SOC to 95%. I suspect 85%-90% is probably optimal, but that is still being tested by several of us on this forum. Ford's charging system (BMS) is quite sophisticated and is tuned for EPA mileage advantage, not battery life. IMO, the ever so slight mileage improvement ( <0.1 mpg ) doesn't make up for premature battery failure. I am targeting a 10 year battery life. I have gotten that on all my previous autos, but none of them had the massive amount of electronics in them. I'm on my 3rd battery in my 2005 Ranger... going on 22 years of ownership. When my batteries do fail it has been a shorted cell.

My 2020 Ranger forced me to reevaluate and update my battery care strategy.

Thanks for that post. I needed that. You gave a wealth of info there.

 

[2021Ranger]

So I have a 20’ boat and has 2 battery‘s one is 2 years old and tested it and it’s already at 4.98% but tester says good. What can I do to help them last longer as they sit 7 months. I keep them on a trickle/maintainer charger.

 

[woodworker]

Almost 5 years on the battery plus your climate may be some of the issue , 5 years(or sooner) seems to be the number for a lot of these ...

Yes, my original battery only lasted not even three years and I’m in mid Atlantic decent climate. I keep battery tenders on both the Harley and the Kubota.

 

[TJC]

Iirc battery minder makes desulfator that is on-board the vehicle, they have been around a long while and likely actually designed devices, today there are a plethora of batt chargers with basic desulfation, they just send pulses of ~ 15.5v to the battery to dissolves the sulfite crystals, more advanced and expensive units also use high frequency pulses to desulfate more hardened crystals. I bought a low end Chinese brand which is likely little more than a knock off of brands like noco or ctek, it works well. If you put a voltmeter on it when in operation you can see the pulsed voltage.

I actually found a desulfator schematic from an electrical engineer who designed his own and I built one. I needed It to support 24v systems... They worked, but are no where near as effective as the BatteryMinder, and they do not turn off when power is removed, a big downside. I installed the home built ones on my power backup systems that support my servers, entertainment center equipment, personal computers, and the wife's automated home made quilter system. I got tired of replacing those small 12V batteries anually. They now last ~5 years.

VDC is a privately owned American company, and the BatteryMinder products are designed in house. I think that some of their proucts are built in Asia, but all Designs and QC is tightly controlled by the company in the USA. They been around since 1993. There customer support team is very good too!

There technology was/is heads above competitors... not sure if all their patents have expired, but they use various high frequency pulses (not high voltage) to desulfate batteries. (I suspect some have as high quality competitors in recent years have entered the market.)

My newer CTEK seems to do a good job, but the onboard BatteryMinder desulfater activates when I use any charger on my vehicles, even the old school analog chargers (I've got a couple of 15Amp ones that I need to use occasionally).

 

[PltFX4]

This is my approach:

My version of the plug in hybrid... lol

 

[dtech]

I actually found a desulfator schematic from an electrical engineer who designed his own and I built one. I needed It to support 24v systems... They worked, but are no where near as effective as the BatteryMinder, and they do not turn off when power is removed, a big downside. I installed the home built ones on my power backup systems that support my servers, entertainment center equipment, personal computers, and the wife's automated home made quilter system. I got tired of replacing those small 12V batteries anually. They now last ~5 years.

VDC is a privately owned American company, and the BatteryMinder products are designed in house. I think that some of their proucts are built in Asia, but all Designs and QC is tightly controlled by the company in the USA. They been around since 1993. There customer support team is very good too!

There technology was/is heads above competitors... not sure if all their patents have expired, but they use various high frequency pulses (not high voltage) to desulfate batteries. (I suspect some have as high quality competitors in recent years have entered the market.)

My newer CTEK seems to do a good job, but the onboard BatteryMinder desulfater activates when I use any charger on my vehicles, even the old school analog chargers (I've got a couple of 15Amp ones that I need to use occasionally).

BYO :

https://www.homemade-circuits.com/battery-desulfator-circuit-explained/

 

[TJC]

BYO :

https://www.homemade-circuits.com/battery-desulfator-circuit-explained/

I've seen many of those circuits but never the transformer bridge/rectifier based method. ICs have made the build process a lot simpler and much more compact.

I hadn't given thought to using the a transformer and bridge rectifier circuit to desulfate a battery... very clever! I am sure it consumes more power than the IC designs... but I still like the cleverness of the idea.

You'd need to be able to match/control the current based upon the degree of sulfation, but it is a cool idea.

To automate that process, you'd need to dynamically input the IR of the battery and use the resistance level to auto control the current level into the transformer.

Thanks for the info! There are many ways to skin a cat...

 

[dtech]

I've seen many of those circuits but never the transformer bridge/rectifier based method. ICs have made the build process a lot simpler and much more compact.

I hadn't given thought to using the a transformer and bridge rectifier circuit to desulfate a battery... very clever! I am sure it consumes more power than the IC designs... but I still like the cleverness of the idea.

You'd need to be able to match/control the current based upon the degree of sulfation, but it is a cool idea.

To automate that process, you'd need to dynamically input the IR of the battery and use the resistance level to auto control the current level into the transformer.

Thanks for the info! There are many ways to skin a cat...

Maybe I shouldn't have tossed my 50 yr old battery charger that used a transformer and plate style bridge rectifier, but I think to use it as a desulfator you'd need to figure out how to pulse the current. What the schematics show is just how simple a basic desulfation device is, just pulsing 15+ volts to the battery without altering frequencies , so no wonder how many inexpensive chargers now offer this , but I would think it only is effective for light sulfation, once those crystals harden I suspect hitting them with pulses of different frequencies would be necessary .

 

[TJC]

I use my old charger to bring back near dead batteries high enough to allow the modern chargers to do their magic. I also use it to run my transmission transfer pump. Works great for that!

 

[Rockhound]

I recently (2 weeks ago) hooked up a battery maintainer, because the truck will sit for a few months. Right after I did that it went into sleep mode within a day or two. It has done that multiple times now even after a few long drives. After which I reconnected the charger.

Maybe a coincidence that it is happening now? Before using the charger it would sit 10 to 14 days before sleep mode. Battery is just a few months short of 5 years old. While driving scan gauge shows charging at 13 to 14v. Maintainer will show charging up to around 13v then shows full. Scan gauge reads 12.8v when charger is showing full. At the same time I started charging it the SOC was changed from 75 to 90% in Forscan.

Picture below shows where the positive is connected, and ground is on the frame. The other wire below charger wire is the lead for my auxiliary switches. Also included is a picture of the charger I am using, which was bought from Costco. It is good for all types of battery including AGM and has a maintenance function.

Am I doing something wrong?

I hooked up a NOCO under hood trickle charger. I followed Makuloco's advice regarding battery charging. At 8:45 he explains how and why to place the negative clamp for the system to read charging. I have a 2020 Ford Ranger with original battery. If I don't drive it for awhile, I plug it in, it's always fully charged.

 

[got3fords]

I hooked up a NOCO under hood trickle charger. I followed Makuloco's advice regarding battery charging. At 8:45 he explains how and why to place the negative clamp for the system to read charging. I have a 2020 Ford Ranger with original battery. If I don't drive it for awhile, I plug it in, it's always fully charged.

Wow, that nut barely has a thread holding it on.

 

[Rockhound]

Wow, that nut barely has a thread holding it on.

Haha. I knew someone would mention that. As many threads as the spark plugs in my F-150 5.4.

 

[subquark]

I recently (2 weeks ago) hooked up a battery maintainer, because the truck will sit for a few months. Right after I did that it went into sleep mode within a day or two. It has done that multiple times now even after a few long drives. After which I reconnected the charger.

Maybe a coincidence that it is happening now? Before using the charger it would sit 10 to 14 days before sleep mode. Battery is just a few months short of 5 years old. While driving scan gauge shows charging at 13 to 14v. Maintainer will show charging up to around 13v then shows full. Scan gauge reads 12.8v when charger is showing full. At the same time I started charging it the SOC was changed from 75 to 90% in Forscan.

Picture below shows where the positive is connected, and ground is on the frame. The other wire below charger wire is the lead for my auxiliary switches. Also included is a picture of the charger I am using, which was bought from Costco. It is good for all types of battery including AGM and has a maintenance function.

Am I doing something wrong?

My CTEK works great on mine, but it did seem to take some time to no longer get the "turning off features" notifications.

When I first installed it, it felt like I was getting more notifications. Maybe Soupie had to relearn the charging setup? I dunno. =(

But it's been great for the last three years.

You can see where I connected mine, following @AzScorpion's advice. =)

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