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neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 12:11am 10 Jan 2012
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I just bought a CTeck desulphater/charger and am giving it a thorough work out.
1. Put it on a sealed 100AHr deep cycle battery that had been flat for at least 4 years. After about 5 resets using the mode (switch) BUTTON it appears that i have it operating again. I won't know till I get a battery for my multimeter to test it.
In the meantime, I now have it on an unsealed 80AHr car battery and on its second reset decided to check the acid level. Well, I couldn't see any so topped up the 6 cells with almost a litre and a half of water!
Questions.
1. The battery had been operating when removed from a vehicle, so would any sulphation have occurred towards the bottom of the plates as the H20 evaorated?
2. Would using the charger on near empty cells have a damaging effect? Or not?
_____________________
I have a third (newer) battery that is probably also lacking in charge that is lined up next. I'll check its acid level first!Edited by neil0mac 2012-01-11
yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166
Posted: 08:35am 10 Jan 2012
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Hi Nielomac,
First things first, check the fancy joiner in the battery clip lines, this has given me trouble on almost every CTEK I have purchased, straight out of the box, without an amp meter it is almost impossible to tell if it is charging correctly. bend the electrical connections till you get a good contact or cut the joiner out and solder the wires.
Sulphation is how a battery converts chemistry to electricity, anytime the battery is not fully charged the positive plate is covered in a thick layer of the stuff, the problem is, given any time H2SO4 will start to crystallize and harden.
If all your batteries can be charged to the same voltage, join the lot together (even the good ones) with battery cables and jumper leads and finish them as a group (don't discharge them as a group, in case one has a fault). This helps keep the voltage low enough to stop the charger switching to float. A 3 amp charger should handle 5 to 10 batteries.
It is common for a battery to need 2 or three topups with water as it rejuvenates, it pays to check the water level every day for the first 10 days or so. if the plates are exposed to air they can oxidise very quickly.
Any battery that you bring back from the dead is a bonus. The real payoff is having batteries you are still using fully charged all the time. I have most machines that will be parked for more than two weeks on a trickle charger. I buy 5 batteries a year now instead of 16.
regards yahoo I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...
neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 09:55am 10 Jan 2012
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Thanks for that info, yahoo.
Will watch the connection. BTW, this is a new model so maybe the connector problem may be a thing of the past. Here'hoping!
Why do you say that it is necessary to 'keep the voltage low enough to stop the charger switching to float" - I thought that the 'float cycle was meant to be used on (single) batteries that are in use to supply small amounts of power - for an average of 12 hours a day.??
yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166
Posted: 11:59am 10 Jan 2012
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I only picked the cable connector not making good contact because I had a multimeter on the battery and clamp meter on the charger as it switched to float and thought "wait a minute, that voltage is to low!" So I swapped it out for another identical charger, wow big difference.some you can wriggle the connector and make them charge others are just stuffed.
Batteries with hard sulphation are a real pain. the layer of hard un-reacted material causes resistance that pushes the voltage above 14.8. the charges see's this as fully charged so switches to float 13.6 to 13.8 volts. At this voltage the charging reaction is extremely slow almost non existent.
If a manual charger is used then the battery will climb above 15 volts and then react the water into hydrogen and oxygen gas and still not charge, the harder a battery is pushed the more it resists.
A CTEK charger monitors the current and when it drops to a certain point switches to float. in float mode if the current rises above a limit the charger goes back to charging.
if the charger is small enough this will happen automatically, battery will charge, then rest for a while in float, do some pulsing, some more sulphate will soften, current rises and the charger will kick back to charge and the process will repeat.
BUT the float current limit is to high for this to happen with a 3 Amp charger on a sulphated car or light truck battery, you will get one cycle and then it will just sit there.
the other benefit of doing multiple batteries at once is that one battery will accept charge while another will start to charge then "stick" refusing to cooperate for a day or two then come good. This wont happen if they are charged individually.
yahoo
Edited by yahoo2 2012-01-11 I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...
yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166
Posted: 01:45pm 10 Jan 2012
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In the fine print CTEK say do not float charge a car battery for more than 3 weeks with a 7 Amp or larger charger. They can lose fluid and become too strongly acid and start to rust the positive plates.
batteries can be floated permanently with big chargers if they have temperature compensation and fine tuning adjustment.
I use 0.6 Amp or 3 Amp CTEK chargers and leave them on. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...
neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 10:52pm 10 Jan 2012
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yahoo. To get us on the same page, the model I have is CTek MXS 5.0 replacing the mxs 4003 model.
yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166
Posted: 12:31am 11 Jan 2012
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I had a look at the manual it has the same functions as my mxs 7000 chargers, model 1007.
Perhaps they have tweaked the software settings for the 5 amp model, I don't know. Mine is fairly aggressive.
the recon setting is called equalisation and is used to balance cell voltage in good batteries.
I think if you get it into step 8 pulse with a few batteries hooked up, it will work well I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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