midiwall

I recently bought one of these...

(click for info)


Needed a battery charger, Got this one for $50, has a cool 100amp "engine start" mode.

Anyway... one of the features it has is a battery reconditioning mode - this is where you inject a high fequency signal into a battery to shake loose and disintegrate sulfate particles that form on the cells through normal use.

But I was wondering... Are Optima batteries any less prone to this happening in the first place? Searching around brings up some marketing babble, mostly from folks selling reconditioners, but I couldn't find any mention on Optima's site.

L33T35T 4Runner

i dont see how that works since DC signals are a straight signal, and "frequencies" are generally refered to with talking about AC signals. i hope they arent putting an AC current through a battery

midiwall

They're not... it's pulsed DC. "Frequency" in this case refers to the cycle time of the pulse. Smacking the battery with 14v DC 10,000 times/second gets you a 1/2 cycle square wave at 10Khz.

AH64ID

Another way that chargers, hi end boat inverter/chargers, condition batteries is to literally cook them, a high voltage high amp, slowly dropping to high voltage lower amp for a preset time. You then refill your batteries and you should have your plates equalized...

I dont beleive this is possible/necessary with a optima, its not a lead acid battery.

Small side not on the reliability of optimas....I have the yellow top. It is now in my 3rd rig to have it. ITS IS THE BEST BATTERY EVER. I bought it in 1999. In the spring of 04 I went to alaska for 6 weeks and left my dome light on. As you can imagine the battery was dead, .010 volts.. it took 3 battery chargers before one of them realized it was actually a battery. After 24 hours of charging it started my rig. It hasn't gone dead yet, 2 years later. This is one tough battery.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

I got the same charger Mark...for half the price at Target on sale.

Basically just a charger for my Yellow Tops to keep them fully charged, to check their charge...and for my cheap neighbors to borrow.

midiwall

Actually... it is. It's just sealed. Check the "Material Safety Data Sheet" at this link:

http://www.optimabatteries.com/publi...fety_data.html


The reason I question if sulphation is even an issue is because of the huge amount of surface area in the battery. Though, sulphation is a natural side effect of the chemical process which is generating electricity in an L/A battery, so I figure that it _will_ happen, I just don't know that it's _as much_ of an issue as with a normal "plate" battery.

midiwall

Yeah... most places want $100 for it, Dunno that it's worth that.

But I tripped over The Sportman's Guide which had (has!) it for $50 or $45 if you're a "member". It's definitely worth $50.