Reconditioning/equalizing your 993 battery
04-07-2006, 04:07 PM
#1
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Reconditioning/equalizing your 993 battery
Hi all - just purchased a fancy shmancy battery charger which has a battery reconditioning feature. According to the manual, reconditioning is supposed to reduce sulfide? residues in the battery and help restore the battery back to original capacity.
Since my battery is used infrequently (I keep it on a battery maintainer). Im wondering if this would be good to occasionally to "exercise" it more and keep it fresh. The only thing I could find after googling is a recommendation to boat owners to recondition their batteries (start and deep cycle) in winter storage.
I was wondering if any rennlisters had any more information or experiences with reconditioning car batteries? Theoretically, its supposed to bring marginal batteries back to life. I wish I had this charger a month ago - I just replaced my Montero battery because it was dropping to 9-10 volts during starting. Then I would have real world experience with this charger.
There is also another feature that "equalizes" the battery after filling it with more distilled water to equalize the amount of charge each cell can produce. I assume you do this if you ever have to add water to the battery...
Since my battery is used infrequently (I keep it on a battery maintainer). Im wondering if this would be good to occasionally to "exercise" it more and keep it fresh. The only thing I could find after googling is a recommendation to boat owners to recondition their batteries (start and deep cycle) in winter storage.
I was wondering if any rennlisters had any more information or experiences with reconditioning car batteries? Theoretically, its supposed to bring marginal batteries back to life. I wish I had this charger a month ago - I just replaced my Montero battery because it was dropping to 9-10 volts during starting. Then I would have real world experience with this charger.
There is also another feature that "equalizes" the battery after filling it with more distilled water to equalize the amount of charge each cell can produce. I assume you do this if you ever have to add water to the battery...
04-07-2006, 07:45 PM
#2
Passed On
Rennlist Member
Rennlist Member
Think it does the same as a battery maintainer; the sulfides came about because the battery charge wasn't maintained.
I think they have some good saleswriters for that beast.
I think they have some good saleswriters for that beast.
04-07-2006, 08:50 PM
#3
I run conditioners on my 356's. I am a great believer in de-sulfating. The sulfates slowly cover your plates and reduce the amount of plate available to take and keep a charge. Lead-sulfate crystals will still form, but this will slow that down and actually make them form in a more orderly fashion once again leaving more plate available for charging.
All maintainers are not conditioners. You can tell I believe in conditioners, especially for cars that are not used on a regular basis.
All maintainers are not conditioners. You can tell I believe in conditioners, especially for cars that are not used on a regular basis.
04-07-2006, 08:56 PM
#4
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
TROOS:
How often do you do recondition? Do you believe that this is a good receipe?. My maintainer is a $12 walmart special that tops off the battery as it slowly drains. I know its not reconditioning anything, just preventing it to go to 10V or something.
The charger is really nice - documentation is poor so excuse my questions.
The charger manual says that the reconditioning process can take up to 24 hours so I would imagine its something you would do 1 or 2x a year....
Sites on the web seem to claim that you can reverse the reduced capacity of an old battery. That is why I wish I did not buy a new battery for the montero to see if it was true. It seems like Im averaging a new battery every 3-4 years or so. I would think if you accidently drain a battery, after recharging, a good recondition could not hurt as well...
How often do you do recondition? Do you believe that this is a good receipe?. My maintainer is a $12 walmart special that tops off the battery as it slowly drains. I know its not reconditioning anything, just preventing it to go to 10V or something.
The charger is really nice - documentation is poor so excuse my questions.
The charger manual says that the reconditioning process can take up to 24 hours so I would imagine its something you would do 1 or 2x a year....
Sites on the web seem to claim that you can reverse the reduced capacity of an old battery. That is why I wish I did not buy a new battery for the montero to see if it was true. It seems like Im averaging a new battery every 3-4 years or so. I would think if you accidently drain a battery, after recharging, a good recondition could not hurt as well...
04-07-2006, 09:33 PM
#5
tj,
If you really love your battery, I'd buy a Battery MINDer (Caps their's). It's about $60, but it charges, maintains, and conditions. Your maintainer is just keeping a trickle charge going on the batteries so they don't lose too much of the charge over time. You really need to be cautious of cheap trickle chargers as they don't know when to stop charging.
The best value I get out of my unit is the conditioning. It will actually lengthen the life of the battery. According to what I've read, you can run the conditioner almost constantly. It is actually running a small pulse thru the battery to keep it active. Some good info is on the Pulse Tech web site. They sell units to condition. Not what I'm using or recommending, but good info. All that being said, I only own 6 volt units as those cars and their batteries are used the least
If you really love your battery, I'd buy a Battery MINDer (Caps their's). It's about $60, but it charges, maintains, and conditions. Your maintainer is just keeping a trickle charge going on the batteries so they don't lose too much of the charge over time. You really need to be cautious of cheap trickle chargers as they don't know when to stop charging.
The best value I get out of my unit is the conditioning. It will actually lengthen the life of the battery. According to what I've read, you can run the conditioner almost constantly. It is actually running a small pulse thru the battery to keep it active. Some good info is on the Pulse Tech web site. They sell units to condition. Not what I'm using or recommending, but good info. All that being said, I only own 6 volt units as those cars and their batteries are used the least
04-08-2006, 01:14 AM
#6
Three Wheelin'
Thread Starter
Thanks for the info. My maintainer tops off the battery and automatically shuts off to brevent boiling. It is a little more advanced than what you describe, but nothing like the battery minder.
The literature that came with the charger mentioned something about sending pulses thru the battery like you describe. I will check out the pulse tech website. Sounds like it is more educational than the short paragraph in the charger. Nothing more frustrating that giving an engineer dumbed down product manual cause some marketing manager made a decision that "consumers just are not interested in this level of detail"! Sorry for being presumptious, but I suspect that is the case.
The literature that came with the charger mentioned something about sending pulses thru the battery like you describe. I will check out the pulse tech website. Sounds like it is more educational than the short paragraph in the charger. Nothing more frustrating that giving an engineer dumbed down product manual cause some marketing manager made a decision that "consumers just are not interested in this level of detail"! Sorry for being presumptious, but I suspect that is the case.
