Maximizing Battery Life

[pboggini]

The desulfation process is slow, but it is steady. I only remove mine from the car when I sell it, and it goes on the new replacement. It shuts down when the charge voltage drops to static battery voltage. The desulfator will not drain your battery.

It will take time to see a change with just daily driving. I start a one time process whenever I buy a new car or install a new battery. I install the desulfator. I then attach a trickle charger on the car for a month whenever it is not being driven, esp over night. The desulfator when do it's thing. Use toy favorite battery tester and write down the details. Come back after a month and test the battery state to obtain the delta from your baseline measurement. Then forget about it and drive it. Come back in 6 months to a year, and you'll see the improvement. My batteries last at least 9-10 years on unless the alternator dies on a trip and I drain the battery totallly dead trying to reach the next town to get a replacement. This has happened only one and that battery probably would have last another 3-4 years. It lasted 9 years. That is the shortest battery life that I have had.

The shortest method to simply install and forget about it, then check the battery 12 months later. You'll see a difference.

I put my NOCO Genius 5 on it and the desulfating light wasn't on until the green light saying it was charged came on. Then, about an hour later, the desulfating light was back to being off. I suppose it's because this charger floats below the 13.5volts it takes for the desulfating to happen? I'll put the charger back on it tomorrow and see what happens.

My gut is telling me that it's working since when turning off the truck it stays at 13 volts a bit longer but since I've only had it for a few days I'm sure it's not made much of a difference.

I'll continue to play around with it. I also have a really old battery charger but it's from before there were AGM batteries. Not sure how wise it is to put that on?

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[TJC]

I have it installed on both standard wet cell and AGM batteries

 

[pboggini]

I have it installed on both standard wet cell and AGM batteries

Oh yea, I was referring to my old battery charger. I did charge this AGM battery up last January when everything would turn off when I turned the truck off. Just not sure if using that charger is right for an AGM battery. But it seemed odd that with the NOCO saying the battery was fully charged that the desulfating light was not flashing.

 

[TJC]

Oh yea, I was referring to my old battery charger. I did charge this AGM battery up last January when everything would turn off when I turned the truck off. Just not sure if using that charger is right for an AGM battery. But it seemed odd that with the NOCO saying the battery was fully charged that the desulfating light was not flashing.

Maybe the NOCO stops sending a charge voltage to the battery when it is fully charged. A fully charged battery at rest is at 12.65v - 12.85v. Charging voltages start at >=13V volts for a 12v battery. The desulfator operates only with charge voltages, and does not have any parasitic load on a battery.

 

[pboggini]

Maybe the NOCO stops sending a charge voltage to the battery when it is fully charged. A fully charged battery at rest is at 12.65v - 12.85v. Charging voltages start at >=13V volts for a 12v battery. The desulfator operates only with charge voltages, and does not have any parasitic load on a battery.

It claims to be smart enough to:

"The GENIUS5 automatically detects sulfation/acid stratification. If any is found, the GENIUS5 will automatically repair and reverse the damage done to the battery, extending the usable life and increasing the performance."

Shrug. I read, I think in the manual, that when it finishes charging if you leave it connected it will somehow do some repairing. But, it's also got a repair mode that I've used a few times that seems to have helped but back when I still had SOC less than 95% the battery seemed to lose some health after a while.

I'm sure to find out as time goes on though. Like I said earlier, it does seem to be doing something since when I turn the truck off now it does stay at 13 volts longer than it ever did before. Well, I didn't always have the USB port/voltage display in the truck but ever since I did put that in. I'll continue to do tests in the morning to see if it gets better over time which is the goal.

 

[airline tech]

I am actually looking and comparing battery charges in my 40 years of turning wrenches I have never owned one, I have used them but never owned.
I am looking at the Noco 10 or Schumacher(?)- I mainly am looking for something to also desulfate along with the Batt Minder

 

[TJC]

I have a "powerful" (one paper) Schumacher and absolutely hate it. It simply fails me all the time.
Its extremely small noisy high speed fan went out in the first year. I expanded the fan opening and replaced with a 2x larger lower rpm fan that moved more air. I added a larger heat sink to keep it cooler as well. It works, but it is extremely finicky. It will signal a battery as bad when it is 60%-80% complete while my BatteryMinder fully charges and corrects the issue. My BatteryMinder has the ability to charge up to 8 batteries at a time with "Y" connectors. Two at a time without the "Y" connectors. The BatteryMinder is very expensive ($188) compared to the Noco 10 and I hear good things about the Nocos, but have no personal experience with them.

The NOCO GENIUS2X4 is the nearest model to the BatteryMinder at $199.

I have used my BatteryMinder to charge both vehicles in the garage at once a few times. It simply works. The Desulfator algorithms differ from brand to brand. I think BatteryMinder has the best, but I am biased. BatteryMinder patented their Desulafor designs and SW.

I'd caution you about Schumacher, but the Noco's seem to have a large following.

Best of luck in your hunt!

 

[pboggini]

I am actually looking and comparing battery charges in my 40 years of turning wrenches I have never owned one, I have used them but never owned.
I am looking at the Noco 10 or Schumacher(?)- I mainly am looking for something to also desulfate along with the Batt Minder

My NOCO 5 works well for me. I've used the repair mode a number of times and it does indeed seem to help. I got it when I found out my battery was an AGM and I likely shouldn't have been using my 40 year old charger on it.

 

[airline tech]

I have a "powerful" (one paper) Schumacher and absolutely hate it. It simply fails me all the time.
Its extremely small noisy high speed fan went out in the first year. I expanded the fan opening and replaced with a 2x larger lower rpm fan that moved more air. I added a larger heat sink to keep it cooler as well. It works, but it is extremely finicky. It will signal a battery as bad when it is 60%-80% complete while my BatteryMinder fully charges and corrects the issue. My BatteryMinder has the ability to charge up to 8 batteries at a time with "Y" connectors. Two at a time without the "Y" connectors. The BatteryMinder is very expensive ($188) compared to the Noco 10 and I hear good things about the Nocos, but have no personal experience with them.

The NOCO GENIUS2X4 is the nearest model to the BatteryMinder at $199.

I have used my BatteryMinder to charge both vehicles in the garage at once a few times. It simply works. The Desulfator algorithms differ from brand to brand. I think BatteryMinder has the best, but I am biased. BatteryMinder patented their Desulafor designs and SW.

I'd caution you about Schumacher, but the Noco's seem to have a large following.

Best of luck in your hunt

I have a question that I cannot find a clear answer,

The Battminder 128CEC2, does it have a seperate desulf mode, or does it do it automatically while charging?

The NOCO Genius 10, I am looking at, appears to have a repair mode for it, but you have to select it, and from what I can tell, it bumps up the charge rate to desulf

Basically, I am looking at a charger/desulphator combo that I can plug in and let it do its thing vs the On-Board BattMinder I have, that requires to have engine running and over 13.5 volts.

The instructions for these are not clear

 

[dtech]

A few observations I'll pass along, I research (overesearch) purchases of many items:

I bought what appears to be a total chinese knock off of a noco charger, IIRC it was $29. It has 7 charge modes include a repair mode (desulfator) It works well.

Many chargers now feature a repair mode - however only a select few models like the battery minder the TJC recommends have a higher level of desulfation - which produces pulses of higher voltage and frequencies to be effective on highly sulfated batteries. These models of course cost more.

My lower cost charger did some good for the Ranger battery - which after 2 yrs of bms operation with mostly short trip deteriorated the battery, it continues to work in the Ranger but I attribute much of that to allowing a 100% SOC.

On the 5 yr old battery in my 2013 Hyundai the repair mode was more effective - this auto doesn't have anything like a BMS so likely it's sulfation was less severe than that of the Ranger.

 

[pboggini]

I have a question that I cannot find a clear answer,

The Battminder 128CEC2, does it have a seperate desulf mode, or does it do it automatically while charging?

The NOCO Genius 10, I am looking at, appears to have a repair mode for it, but you have to select it, and from what I can tell, it bumps up the charge rate to desulf

Basically, I am looking at a charger/desulphator combo that I can plug in and let it do its thing vs the On-Board BattMinder I have, that requires to have engine running and over 13.5 volts.

The instructions for these are not clear

Reading the NOCO 5 manual I'm lead to believe that if I just leave it connected it will do some sort of repair but then there is also repair mode. I think I posted about me taking voltage measurements when my NOCO 5 was running thru the 4 hour repair mode. It does indeed bump up the voltage (highest I saw was 14.9) and it does go up and down as I assume that's part of their repair/desulf algorithm. I have not checked voltage when I've just had it connected to charge and left it connected when the green light is on (that indicates it's done). But, since my onboard desulfator wasn't blinking when I took the NOCO 5 off, I don't think it had bumped up the voltage so I'm not sure what sort of repairing it's doing when it's connected like that. Maybe it's a cycle? Dunno.

I did email support asking about the desulfate process and was told it was proprietary and that it always takes right around 4 hours. So, that process does not vary based on battery condition. What I posted earlier suggests that NOCO makes it sound like the charger can detect sulfation and can work to counter act it. No idea how it knows or what it does about it.

 

[dtech]

I have a question that I cannot find a clear answer,

The NOCO Genius 10, I am looking at, appears to have a repair mode for it, but you have to select it, and from what I can tell, it bumps up the charge rate to desulf

What it most likely does is send pulses at higher voltage in the repair mode - this is what mine does.

 

[pboggini]

What it most likely does is send pulses at higher voltage in the repair mode - this is what mine does.

Based on my experience with the NOCO 5 I think this is correct.

 

[dtech]

I did email support asking about the desulfate process and was told it was proprietary and that it always takes right around 4 hours. So, that process does not vary based on battery condition. What I posted earlier suggests that NOCO makes it sound like the charger can detect sulfation and can work to counter act it. No idea how it knows or what it does about it.

Well I'm somewhat skeptical regards what NOCO is saying, I believe it's mostly marketing, in particular the "always takes" 4 hrs , does the NOCO "genius" have separate functions for repair mode ? If so I'm kind of skeptical regards detecting sulfation as anything unique to NOCO, a tell tale sign of a sulfated battery is higher internal resistance and hence longer charge times, but most any modern battery charge measures this in order to apply the proper charging.

 

[pboggini]

Well I'm somewhat skeptical regards what NOCO is saying, I believe it's mostly marketing, in particular the "always takes" 4 hrs , does the NOCO "genius" have separate functions for repair mode ? If so I'm kind of skeptical regards detecting sulfation as anything unique to NOCO, a tell tale sign of a sulfated battery is higher internal resistance and hence longer charge times, but most any modern battery charge measures this in order to apply the proper charging.

My NOCO 5 does have a separate repair mode function. I too as skeptical and maybe what they refer to as detecting sulfation is indeed checking resistance and just applying the right charge current. If I get a chance this weekend I'll put it back on and watch the voltage as it charges and see what happens when it gets to fully charged.

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