Conditioning Your Battery

In my quest to cure the lazy cold start-up on my F250 , I layed down $50.00 for the Battery Minder by VDC Electronics and hooked it about for about 2 weeks. If you have ever wondered why the battery you purchased less than 2 years ago has already puked, the reason is likely due to sulfation. The Battery Minder conditions "sulfated" batteries as well as charges any lead acid 12 volt battery without over-charging.

About Sulfation
You may or may not be asking yourself what sulfation is and how does it affect a car battery's performance. The following excerpt from an article in MOA Pilot Magazine explains it best...

During the normal discharge cycle of a lead-acid battery, lead sulfate forms on the battery's plates. When recharged, this soft spongy material is converted back into the battery's electrolyte solution of sulfuric acid. If left unattended long enough and when this material fails to release from the battery's plates, it begins to harden and crystalize onto the surface of the plates. The layer of cystalline lead sulfate acts as an "insulator" preventing the battery from obtaining a full charge.

Read more about sulfation at wikipedia

How the Battery Minder Works
The Battery Minder is different than a normal battery charger or a trickle charger in that it "conditions" lead acid batteries with pulse desulfation to rid the plates of crystalline lead sulfate. VDC Electronics, Inc. created a simple method of generating the required resonant frequency (3.26 megahertz pulse) to breakdown the lead sulfate crystals, allowing the molecules to return to the battery's electrolyte solution. By creating a wave form with the required 3.26 Mhz frequency, coupled with a very fast rise time and a high amplitude pulse, more energy in developed to breakdown sulfation than by any other method believed to exist.


The Battery Minder does not look like your usual car battery charger in that it's small in size. The unit comes with a quick disconnect which I made good use of here.


Easy enough. The red ring terminal on the quick disconnect harness attaches permanently to the positive post on your battery and the black ring terminal to a good chassis ground.


I strung the main unit's power cord through a hole in my garage's foundation vent.


Then I connected the main unit's power cord to the quick disconnect.


Connected power with an extension cord. There is one button on the face of the charger. When the green light begins to flash, that means the battery has reached a full charge. Pressing the button at that point starts the de-sulfation pulse.


This shot shows how the truck looks when it's not running. Parked adjacent to the garage with the Battery Minder hooked up. Very convenient.


This short video will demonstrate the quick start-up after having the Battery Minder "de-sulfating" for a couple weeks.


The Battery Minder can be purchased through Amazon for about $50.00

Y a I have used 1 for many differnt batterys. It has brought many dead ones back to life. I works wonders on deep cycle baterys.. Just my 2 cents.

I'm prolly gunner have ta get me one of them there battery thingies!

Good post Jon!

Would this thing work for this scenario or are these things toast?

I have two deep cycle RV batteries for my travel trailer. Summer time camping I go to RV parks and plug the trailer in, so the batteries aren't used but they are wired into the trailer. The batteries are removed from the trailer when not in use.

When hunting season comes along I use my generator to charge the batteries and run the power when the generator is off. The batteries are about 2 or 3 years old and no longer hold a charge for very long.

The batteries spend more time out of the trailer than in it.

Any ideas if this battery minder would bring them back to life so they hold a charge?

Pete

Originally Posted by 351bolt

Would this thing work for this scenario or are these things toast?

I have two deep cycle RV batteries for my travel trailer. Summer time camping I go to RV parks and plug the trailer in, so the batteries aren't used but they are wired into the trailer. The batteries are removed from the trailer when not in use.

When hunting season comes along I use my generator to charge the batteries and run the power when the generator is off. The batteries are about 2 or 3 years old and no longer hold a charge for very long.

The batteries spend more time out of the trailer than in it.

Any ideas if this battery minder would bring them back to life so they hold a charge?

Pete

Worked for my deep cycle boat batteries

sweet write up!
would that one you listed help one of these?
Dry Cell Batteries
i think it has gel inside. it is dry cell whatever that means! they sell a battery minder... but not sure if its the same is this one on amzon. is it?

^?^

Originally Posted by trukstopcowboy

sweet write up!
would that one you listed help one of these?
Dry Cell Batteries
i think it has gel inside. it is dry cell whatever that means! they sell a battery minder... but not sure if its the same is this one on amzon. is it?

Yes, that's the same one as the one on Amazon. Based on the link, PD says it'll work on the DYNA-BATT.

Thanks for the write-up! I'm a little confused, and have a few questions:

1. Is the Battery Minder the only battery servicing you are doing, or is the de-sulfation conditioning being done in conjunction with the use of traditional battery charging equipment say, a 3-level smart charger?

2. How long does a typical de-sulfation conditioning procedure take? (The article's text states your results were obtained in two weeks, but I presume your battery was not connected to the Battery Minder continuously for the whole two weeks.) A couple hours, overnight, or a 24 hour day, or ?

3. Out of curiosity, do you obtain an accurate voltage reading when the battery is fully charged by the Battery Minder - 12.6, 13.2, 14.4 or ?(measurement taken by a volt meter or digital multimeter - not by the vehicle's voltage gauge...)

Thanks in advance for clarifying the issue!