DIY Cheap battery charger desulfates old lead acid batteries - $12

File this under "Don't try this at home kids" but it works. Its a very simple capacitive battery charger from scrap parts but if you have little respect for electricity or batteries its best you go buy a ChinaMart charger ... and more batteries. I have restored three batteries to service in the last week with this charger, the first was my ATV battery, took about 4 hours. My regular charger would not wake up a dead cell that refused to take a charge (notice the other cells were bubbling but #3 cell refused). 4 hours later the cell woke up after being stung by 150 volts of buzzing 120 cycle power. Second battery was my trolling motor battery, an overnight charge did the trick. Was 9.7 volts all sufated up, looked real bad. The next morning it showed 14.8 volts and all cells bubbling with a hot charge. After taking it off the charge in the morning that afternoon the voltage settled down to 12.8, a good hot battery. Third was my lawn tractor battery, took only about 6 hrs. Be damn careful, use the charger outside of your garage or shop, always hook up the battery leads BEFORE plugging it in, always unplug the charger BEFORE checking battery leads. This thing can KILL you if you are not careful. Stay away from the battery while charging. Do not charge a battery while wired in the vehicle, unless you want 150 vdc smoking your voltage regulator, alternator and electronics ...

My charger is fused to 5 amps with a neon indicator lamp to show when its hot. Its built in an Army ammo can. I use a 50 mfd ac motor run capacitor for a 2 amp current limiter, just enough juice for a slow overnight desulfating charge. I used a 25 amp/400 volt bridge rectifier. This charger will charge any lead acid battery, no matter what the battery voltage is ... 6, 12, 24 volt ... it doesn't matter. My cost to build it was $12. The problem with regular voltage limiter chargers is they cannot equalize a battery or desulfate cells. Not enough electrical pressure to bust up the lead sulfate that's insulating the cell plates. The power output is limited by capacitor size - 25 mfd per amp output. If you want

a 1/2 amp charger use a 12 mfd capacitor, if you want a 6 amp charger use (3) 50 mfd capacitors wired in parallel , ect , ect, ect ...

I have modified my desulfator and reduced the run capacitor to 25 mfd to decrease amp output to 1 amp and increase charge time. It seems a longer charge time allows the desulfator to do a better job.
NB. FOR 230 AC HALF THE CAPACITANCE 1 AMP = 12 MFD, FOR 2 AMP USE 25 MFD , FOR .5 AMP USE 6 MFD - 350 WORKING VOLTAGE THE CAP KEEPS THE CURRENT CONSTANT, THE VOLTAGE WILL VARY AND WILL EVENTUALLY SETTLE AT 12V - 14 V

The following will help to get the most out of desulfation efforts: * The chemistry of desulfation processes speeds up at higher temperatures. If possible, heat the batteries to 40-50 degrees C for best results. * If batteries are heavily sulfated, an initial treatment with EDTA is recommended, followed by pulsing. * Although gel cell batteries are apparently sealed, they still dry out with time, and must be refilled to bring them back to life. In order to rehydrate them, they must be carefully opened and distilled water dripped into the vent holes. This procedure will vary depending on battery type. On the batteries I tried (made by CSB), it took about a minute to pry off the plastic lid over the vent holes, and remove the caps. It won't take much to rehydrate the gel material, in any case standing water in the cell will eventually go away. Note Oct 2003: The consensus of opinion from the BBS postings is that these types of batteries are just not generally recoverable, and are not much helped by pulsing, especially if they are at all old. * Several cycles of pulsing, charging and discharging are needed to show results. It is recommended to try long periods of trickle charging with the desulfator, and shorter discharge periods to determine progress. * It is often the case that one cell is worse than the others. If there is a shorted cell, there is often no way to recover the battery, and charging attempts will usually just heat up the

good cells. * The fast rise time pulses that the circuits in this web site produce require that short, fairly heavy wire or shielded cable be used to connect to the battery terminals. * Multiple batteries can be desulfated in parallel, but the progress will be slower. Results can be seen in some cases in a week, but might take as long as a month for full recovery. * Excessive pulse amplitude for a given battery size can cause "shedding", or the driving off of active plate material in relatively large pieces, something to avoid. This is not likely a problem unless a small gel cell battery is used with a large pulser. * Connecting other equipment across the battery to be desulfated is not necessarily a problem, but in some cases the loads might shunt away some of the pulser's output. While most unfiltered battery chargers present a high impedance to the current pulses, such things as inverters might not. In such a case, place a choke in series with one of the inverter leads to eliminate the problem. This can be a simple ferrite toroid with one or two turns wrapped around it.

Lead acid batteries can often be a problem to dispose of. They are also costly to replace. If disposed of improperly, they can end up in the land fill or rotting away in someone's back yard. John Bedini has given a gift to the world that can restore old, discarded, sulfated lead acid batteries. If a lead acid battery is sulfated from normal use, it can usually be restored with this invention. Batteries that have physical damage or have warped plates are useless. The Bedini SSG (Simplified School Girl) motor will break up the sulfation on the battery plates and recharge the batteries. In many cases, the battery will actually gain more potential, usable energy than the day it was sold. Through normal use, a lead acid battery will slowly loose its ability to store energy. This will be seen by the requirement to charge the battery sooner each time. Conventional battery chargers actually contribute to this effect through heat. As the plates get heated up through charging, they are slowly damaged. A battery will have less energy each time it is used.

With the Bedini charger, this is not the case. I have restored

batteries that were found laying around in a dump. Two such batteries that had a charge of less than 2 volts each are now powering my electric boat motor. These batteries were not taking a charge with conventional chargers. After some time and many cycles with the Bedini charger, the batteries are now better than new. One day the boat sank in a storm in salt water and the batteries were drained to absolute zero volts. After a couple cycles on the radiant charger, they are good as new again.

The circuit itself is very simple and easy to make. Below are four schematics. The first three are the simple circuit and the last one is a more complex but higher output version.

Bedini SSG Motor Circuit

Bedini SSG Diagram Radiant Energy Battery Charger Diagram

Dual Battery Radiant Energy Charger In the very top picture of this page, you see a simple lawn mower wheel with cheap ceramic magnets hot glued onto it. A homemade coil of wire and a couple basic pieces of electronics are added to make a radiant energy generator. Below you can see closer details of the circuitry and the box made to house it. The first photo shows the whole unit housed in a homemade wooden box built with dowels and glue. No metal was used in the box in

order to reduce magnetic interference. The second photo shows the transistor, diodes and homemade coil. The third photo shows the back side of the control panel where the 5k potentiometer, jumpers and electrical connections are mounted. The last photo shows the front panel controls. A simple plastic wall cover plate was used here. Holes were drilled through the wood to the inside where all electrical connections are safely tucked away. Homemade Battery Charger Closeup View of Generator Circuitry

Radiant Energy Generator Control Panel The front panel connections allow for easy changing of batteries and monitoring of the system status. A neon lamp shows if the charging battery suddenly gets disconnected, which would destroy the transistor. A tiny grain of wheat lamp gives a visual indicator of the input trigger status. The 5k Ohm potentiometer allows fine adjustment of the input current. On the back side of the control panel is a small blue jumper which allows quick attachment of various resistors in series with the potentiometer for experimenting purposes.

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Hi, my name is Andy Sugars and for the past 4 years, Ive been running my own wildly successful battery reconditioning business, and loving every second of it. And I probably wouldnt be making 6 figures a year if it werent for my passion for alternative energy. You see, years ago I was thinking of going off-grid with solar panels. Now if you already have a solar panel system, you know how expensive battery banks get. Anywhere between $1000 to $10,000 or more. That's way more than I could afford at that time. And in all honesty, I was having trouble sleeping at night trying to figure out where to get reliable, high-capacity batteries from without breaking the bank. Until one day when Frank, the DIY veteran (and licensed electrician) next door dropped the bombshell:

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While regular batteries usually last just a couple of years Ill show you how I keep my cordless drill battery in top-shape after more than 10 years of relentless use! PLUS: The life extending secret that works wonders on Li-Ion rechargeables but can severely damage your Nicad batteries (do NOT let conventional wisdom ruin your batteries!) How to care for the 3 major types of rechargeables (Warning: they are NOT the same and doing the wrong procedure can irreversibly damage your battery or even lead to nasty explosions!)

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This 9-step process will work even with batteries that cannot be reconditioned - and will add extra months if not years to the battery you were thinking of throwing away. Also: How to test any battery type with a $10 gadget (PLUS: the $20 shopping list for everything you need to start reconditioning your batteries)

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The $30 DIY Battery Desulfator:

With these straightforward instructions & blueprints, you'll be able to reverse the annoying sulfation process with minimal investment and almost no effort so you can enjoy your lead batteries for a few extra years! Plus: The lead battery reconditioners kit: 4 essential (and inexpensive) gadgets you absolutely must have in your arsenal Old-school reconditioning: how to restore your batteries without an advanced analyzer (it's a bit tricky, but with our step by step instructions you'll be able to do it even if you can't afford the additional investment!) And a LOT more!

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