Pulse De-sulfation Technology White Paper
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Field Tests To Examine The Effectiveness Of Pulse Technology

When it comes to lead-acid batteries, there are several ways to determine the effectiveness of one charging methodology over another.  One way is to examine the specific gravity of the acid before and then after the charging process.  The other way is to create a method of measuring the performance or the battery electronically both before and then after treatment or charging method.

Specific Gravity Comparison

With any given 12v battery the following specific gravity readings are typical as relative to levels of charge.

Typical Voltages and Specific Gravity (s.g.) Readings Of Automotive Batteries At Various Levels Of Charge

When verifying the effectiveness of pulse charging methodology on your battery we recommend you first charge the battery using a typical steady state charger, and then let it “rest” for 24 hours to help eliminate the “surface charge” effect prior to checking the specific gravity with a typical 4-ball hydrometer. Typically a battery evidencing a moderate amount of sulfation will not float all 4 balls (indicating full charge) no matter how aggressive or how long the (normal) steady state charging is employed. 

We then recommend you pulse de-sulfate the battery for a minimum of 5 days to several weeks using the appropriate Aero Bat Pac electronic pulse de-sulfator unit.  Then take another hydrometer reading again after you have given the battery 24 hours to “rest”.  Generally, if sulfation was the cause of the lack of capacity prior, less than full charge hydrometer reading would have been possible.  After pulse treatment you should see all 4 balls floating or the fourth ball float or at least “trying to float” on most cells indicating a noticeably better hydrometer reading than previously attainable with using a common  steady-state charger.  

Electronic Load-Testing

Electronic load testing can be effective if done both “before" and then "after” de-sulfation Treatments

Again, after charging your battery for a period of time with a normal charger and allowing it to “rest” 24 hours, you can perform this electronic performance test using a digital voltmeter and a 10 ohm 25 Watt resistor. 

Specifically, to see if your battery has benefited from pulse de-sulfating, measure the open circuit battery voltage with a digital voltmeter connected across the battery, then momentarily connect the 10 ohm resistor across the battery and monitor the loaded battery voltage. If the meter reads (say) 12.50 volts DC before the resistor is connected, and (say) 11.80 volts after it is connected, the source impedance of the subject battery would be (12.5 volts minus 11.7 volts) divided by the battery current which would be 11.7 volts /10 ohms or 1.17 amps.  Therefore 0.70 volts divided by 1.17 amps equal 0.59 ohms. 

Perform this same test after 2 weeks of electronic pulse treatment/charging using the appropriate volt Aero Bat Pack De-sulfator.  The drop in battery voltage when the 10 ohm resistor is now connected should be noticeably smaller say 12.50 V to 12.0V indicating a smaller battery source impedance. This smaller source impedance indicates improved battery capacity due to the reduction of the sulfated battery plate area.

Summing It Up
It has been our experience that when sulfation is present in its crystalline form on battery plates and proper electronic pulse de-sulfation treatment is employed, marked improvements can be measured in battery capacity after such de-sulfation treatment VS normal steady state charging.  In fact according to BCI, excessive sulfation is a prime cause for batteries failing to accept a charge from normal chargers.  When attempting to de-sulfate, we recommend using quality “square wave” type pulse charging units with measurable pulse characteristic as can be observed via oscilloscope examinations.  The units which use slightly varying pulse frequencies typically centered around the 3.26 Mhz molecular frequency of sulphur molecule crystals such as typically found in lead-acid batteries, have proven to provide the best results.  

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