Reply To: additives or gadgets to fix or renew batteries

[retired profile of WrethaOffGrid]

I emailed the Whizbang company to ask them some questions, here is what I wrote and what they answered

Hi, I’ve been looking at your desulfator for a while and wanted to know a few things. I live off-grid, use solar panels, a charge controller and an inverter, I have no other source of power. I’ve been pretty hard on my batteries, they are 12 volt deep cycle 125 amp hour batteries, I have 4 of them, they are only a few years old but don’t hold much of a charge anymore, I need to desulfate them, they aren’t dead, just in poor shape. These are hooked up in parallel, 12 volt.

My first question is can I hook up all 4 batteries to one desulfator?

My second question is, can I still use the batteries (with the inverter) while this is going on or do I need to disconnect from the system while desulfating them? I know that when I am equalizing the batteries (using the charge controller), the inverter shuts off because of the higher voltage going into the batteries, that’s why I don’t equalize them as often as I should, I am using the batteries to live on, I will not equalize the batteries when I’m gone (and theoretically not needing to use them) because of the danger of overheating the batteries and boiling out the electrolyte, so it’s kind of a catch 22 situation.

I can separate the batteries and do one at a time, but if it would take weeks to desulfate a battery, it would certainly take quite a long time to do all 4 batteries, assuming I could hook this desulfator up to multiple batteries, I could even do 2 at a time, then switch them around… I’d prefer hooking up all 4 batteries.

I read on your website that one desulfator could handle up to 1000 amp hour battery, does it matter if it’s one battery or multiple batteries as long as it doesn’t go over the 1000 amp hour rating?

I thank you for your time on these questions. :)

Their reply:

Yes, you are correct, one desulfator will work up to about 1000 amp hours of battery storage. So for your application 4×120 amp hour 12 volters, you would only need one desulfator installed mid pack directly to the battery terminals.

Yes, clearly understand the whole equalize catch 22 issues. You can install the desulfator (1) and operate the rest of your charge and discharge devices as you would normally. Our product will not have any effect on these external devices, only the battery plates. All batteries have some internal resistance, this resistance is the path of least resistance for the pulse made from our product. ALL of this inductive energy will travel to the batteries and not the other devices.

Yes, leave all 4 batteries connected as you have them now. The desulfator will automatically adjust based on the needs of your bank. You should see the capacity slowly start to increase after the second week, and continue as more time passes. Most results will occur, in your application, within the first 6 weeks. Further “cleaning” will continue, just at a slower pace. In general if your batteries are in the 3-5 year old range it is very common to see about 90% of new capacity returned after 4-6 weeks of use. If your batteries are in the 5-7 year old range you might only see 40% of new capacity returned.

Regarding the “about” 1000 amp hour rating, it does depend on how the batteries are connected. The larger the wire connecting them the better the results. IF… you are only using 22 AWG or smaller wire to connect the batteries with alligator clip leads, then it is not going to work very well. The pulses are inductive, inductive pulses are quickly lost with smaller wire gauges, poor connections, and long distances. So if your batteries are install a mile apart from one another them you would need one desulfator per battery.

I hope this information has helped.

Best Regards,

Eric

I wrote with an additional question but I pretty much know the answer, just curious as to what they will say

Thanks for your answers Eric, it helped a lot. My battery bank is not one battery one mile apart  (LOL), they are nice and close, one next to the other, the wires connecting them are nice and big, the size of decent battery jumper cables.

I assume that if I have batteries, numbered 1-4, connected in parallel, it would be best to hook up the desulfator to the positive terminal on battery #1 and the negative terminal of battery #4? Or will that not make any difference and hook it up to battery #2 or #3?

Thanks

Wretha