Battery reconditioners

[speedfiend]

Hi all,
recently in MBY Hugo reviewed a battery reconditioner.
Has anyone got one/tried one and do they also charge batteries normally?
Any idea of cost v replacement battery as I need to replace at least one battery.
thanks
S

 

[pappaecho]

Read same article. Had to buy a small battery charger for the boat and found on in Lidl a couple of weeks ago. This product claimed to recondition batteries as well using pulse charging.
Last week we dug out my deceased mother in laws mobility scooter, whose 2 x 12 v gel batteries were reading about 6 volts having not been charged for 14 months. Tried the mobility scooter charger which had no effect.
Broke open the battery compartment and tried charing with the Lidl unit. When attached the gren led blinked regularily indicating that it was pulse charging, and this stopped at 11 v and went to a straight charge leaving the batteries both at about 12.6 volts.

The answer to your question is yes it appeared to revive a dead battery whereas a normal charger would not do anything. What is not clear is whehther the capacity is near what was delivered when new.

 

[DavidJ]

A couple of years ago I bought a pulsing kit from this fella http://www.courtiestown.co.uk/ and it worked.
A half dead battery returned to 3/4 power (measured by voltage after charging and relaxing for 24 hrs)
It took about a week to work and I applied trickle charge at the same time.

 

[PaulGooch]

As with other chargers mentioned here, an Optimate will sometimes bring a dead battery back to life. I've used them to keep motor cycle and jet ski batteries charged and in tip top condition over Winter and i've used them to revive batteries on cars that have stood around, with the batteries going totally flat and not taking any charge at all from a conventional battery charger or the alternator. It doesn't work every time though and i've no idea if it restores the battery to 100% as new, 90% or any other %, they have been OK in use on the cars though.

Not sure i'd want to risk reviving a boat battery though. I like to think my engine will start when i want to pull the anchor and head for home. I also like to think my nav gear, VHF etc will work all day, while i'm at anchor.

What boat do you have ? Current battery setup ? Current charging systems ?

 

[stuartw]

I can recommend CTEK, a Swedish company who do a large range of intelligent chargers, for a variety of different voltages. In fact I believe Halfords sell one of theirs @ £99.

I bought 2 some 2 years ago, 1 large 24V - 15A for my main battery bank and a small 5A one for the generator battery. The big one is a fit & forget with battery temperature sensing. I can leave it connected permanentlyr, as it goes into a float mode, and never overcharges.

CTEK's conditioning cycle, starts off by pulsing at high voltage ( Typ 18V on a 12v batt) and low current. This has the action of stirring up the sulphate sludge at the bottom of the cell, untill such time as the cell starts to recover, before it goes into pulsed constant current mode.

The're not cheap but I think worth it.

Another agent is http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/ctek.aspx

Stuart

 

[speedfiend]

many thanks all.
I have a princess V42, now 7 years old still fitted with the same batteries from new and the standard fit princess charger. Had no issues until now so never paid attention to charger make.
certainly looks worth pursuing.
Thanks again.
S

 

[PaulGooch]

many thanks all.
I have a princess V42, now 7 years old still fitted with the same batteries from new and the standard fit princess charger. Had no issues until now so never paid attention to charger make.
certainly looks worth pursuing.
Thanks again.
S

If i had 7 year old batteries that were failing, i'd just buy new ones.

 

[stuartw]

If i had 7 year old batteries that were failing, i'd just buy new ones.

Totally agree. 7 years is far too long for battery life. Even if they can be recharged , their capacity will be significantly lower than new.

I went thro this painfull process some years ago. Bought new Elecsol batteries, which unfortunately got knackered by my old Cetek semi intelligent, analogue charger - by overcharging them. So 4 years ago, bit the bullet, bought new batteries and the CTEK charger, so I am now very happy. In fact, with careful charging, I am anticipating the batteries will last in excess of 5 years, maybe even 7.
In fact I had long email discusions with CTEK in Sweden, as I have a 24V system, with the normal big selector switch. In the end, we decided that the best way of preserving each bank of 2 x 12V, was connect them, via the switch as one big bank. This way all 4 batteries are monitored in float mode. I mounted the charger in the switch cupboard, so I can monitor the various lights on it. I keep both banks connected together, until such time, say at anchor, when I will switch to one bank to run fridge, pumps etc. Thus I will always have another fully charged bank as a backup, even though I have a generator.

So go on, give your boat a late Christmas present.

Stuart

 

[rafiki_]

I would give the Battery Megastore a call at Tewkesbury. They supply lots of stuff at very good prices, and appear to know what they are doing. Sorry, do not have the number, but it will come up with a quick Google.

 

[boatingdave]

Stuart, rather than a switch why not automate it? I have used voltage sensing relays (no voltage drop like you get with split charging diodes) and I have also automated the mains side too so the power input is connected in priority order I.e shore power charges everything and generator power takes over whilst the ups/charger keeps the supply constant on the vessel. If the worst happens and there is no mains power at all the generator battery and engine start batteries are isolated from the rest of the domestic supply when the voltage drops below 13.6. The current system is probably best suited to a mobo but most electrical systems are common sense to scale accordingly. The only items I had to purchase to automate this was a power master type inverter/charger, voltage sensing relay and some heavy duty cables, battery clamps and isolating switches. The only thing I haven't sorted yet is the auto start for my old panda generator and have to switch between shore power and generator but as soon as I finish building the electronic start unit for the generator I can use the voltage sensing switched outputs from the inverter/charger to fully automate the entire power on the vessel. This set up also provides good battery utilisation so on the whole they are not used to their extremes on usage or charging. This isn't a one size fits all but works well for me. If I can do anything to help with ideas etc over and above the just 'shall I replace my batteries' argument' happy to share my thoughts and logic. I'm sure there are many who will have opinion so you can see what is best for you and how simple or complicated you want it to be. This all started when someone who cannot be named switched the battery selector when the one set of domestic batteries went flat so I ended up with six totally flat batteries. Luckily only on the Thames at the time so managed to use a small portable generator to charge the internal generator battery. I have now removed the human element and have had no problems since. As I'm now Coastal the options are more limited especially if at anchor although I still carry the small portable generator 'just in case' lol.

 

[boatingdave]

Speed fiend, forgot to mention that I also have a Princess (although older than yours) and the standard of wiring/charging tends to be of higher quality than most (particularly with the way it handles the charge from the engines I.e either engine running charges the engine start batteries and with the relay also the domestic batteries. I have left in the manual by pass switches as a back up. I think you have done quite well to have had the batteries for seven years, you and the built in systems must be kind to your batteries. ;-) there are many types of batteries out there and many are misleading with the way they are labelled and marketed. I use electronic battery testers to test such things as CCA and condition to see how it compares to the label. Have come across some brands which are closer than others when you compare the label to the test results. If you don't have access to any test equipment suggest rule of thumb that if they are cheap and/or light then the quality probably isn't there although they may be cheap enough that it is viable to change them every year although this has other implications. Good luck with whatever you decide.