Hi Marvin
Most gel cells are damaged from overcharging and not
sulfating( no more water inside ). Most cases of sulfating
can be recovered with a slow, low current charge. You need
to have just enough current to overcome the normal leakage
but not enough to generate excess gas.
I've not seen, personally, enough difference between these
types of battery rejuvenators and just using a trickle current
to justify there purchase. About 5 years ago, we took two
batteries that did not recover after a trickle charge.
Neither of the two recovered after using a device, similar
to the one described with high frequency pulses. All the
other batteries recovered. These were auto sized and we used
a current of 200ma.
Dwight
From: "Marvin Johnston"
<marvin(a)rain.org>
I just found out about a new type of battery charger called the
BatteryMinder that will (it is claimed) rejuvenate Lead/Acid batteries
that are dead due to sulphating. A friend of mine used one on a battery
that had been totally discharged for too long, and was able to recover
it. He sent me a 12v one and I am looking around for some batteries to
try it out ... like a couple of dozen Sharp PC-5000 lead/acid batteries
:). If this works on *old* lead acid batteries, I will be one happy
camper :)!
If anyone is curious, their web site is at:
http://www.vdcelectronics.com/batteryminder.htm
"Joe R." wrote:
The batteries in the PP and PP+ are a pain. They're lead acid and they
are individual cylinders. So if you let them run down for very long, it
will ruin them and they're not an easy style to find. IIRC they're X size
which is slightly larger than standard D size.