Ebay "Pulse Battery Chargers" CTEK replacement?

[JC220]

Hi all,

I have a few cars and most have large expensive batteries and unfortunately sit around quite a lot each year. I don't have ready access to power sockets all the time depending on where the car(s) are parked so inevitably they get deeply discharged from time to time.....

I have 2no CTEKs and some other brand name trickle chargers.



My CTEK models are my go to favourites to date. BUT I killed one once before by charging big AGM 019 batteries on it regular. And I noticed recently that my larger CTEK was struggling with the S600's battery



(The one on the right)

The CTEK 6 amp was getting scary hot in use for the first hour or so of charging so I turned it off before damage could have been done. I have other battery chargers too but they lack control or repair modes. They are big "dumb" chargers that I would not trust to leave connected for long periods of time.

Also the draw back of thr CTEK is that it needs to run for a full week before it goes into pulse repair mode which is a bit of a pain to wait on when you want to use the car! (By pulse repair I mean a desulphation mode)

So I was going to spend £££ on another larger 8 amp Noco or CTEK charger and came across the others available on Ebay.

Such as the FBC122408D. I am particularly interested because it is 8 amps, has a selectable Pulse / repair mode and is fan cooled. And very reasonably priced so I got it today in the mail and will try it out

 

[JC220]

This is the one I bought on ebay UK

8 Amp Intelligent LCD Car Smart Battery Charger Pulse Repair Starter 12V/24V | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 8 Amp Intelligent LCD Car Smart Battery Charger Pulse Repair Starter 12V/24V at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

I will be testing this out the next week or so and let you guys know what I think. I want to see if it can keep cool and put up decent charging and also that it drops off to low levels as a trickle charge type deal. I also want to see how long the pulse repair process takes on a low charge 019 battery. And I have a drop tester to confrim pre and post charge results.

Not saying this is better than a CTEK just that it might be another alternative and if its fan cooled and can force pulse repair mode then these in my eyes are clear advantages without having to splash out quite alot of coin up front. (Not even sure if CTEK offer a charger that can force desulphate right away)

Are any members using similar Ebay chargers with good or bad results?

 

[ace10]

You've got more guts than I. They're not even putting any fake NRTL marks on the device.

 

[JC220]

You've got more guts than I. They're not even putting any fake NRTL marks on the device.

Wrong region.

Any item sold in Europe must have CE approval. Which the unit I purchased does have yes.

As for you guys over there, yes check what you buy!!

 

[gsxr]

Joe, see my comments at the thread linked below. One of the reasons I like the Pulse Tech and BatteryMINDer units is they desfulate continuously, no need to select this mode manually, or wait a week before it begins:

Battery maintainer recommendations | Electrical, CAN and Wiring

Admin edit: Moved these posts to a new thread, originally from the COVID discussion here. I might just remind everyone that your DD is used to being driven regularly. Especially if your car is newer you might consider putting a tender or smart charger on it to prevent premature deadness...

www.500eboard.co

I would not use cheap / no-name units on $200 batteries, but that's just me...

 

[ace10]

Wrong region.

Any item sold in Europe must have CE approval. Which the unit I purchased does have yes.

As for you guys over there, yes check what you buy!!

NRTL is just the umbrella term (in USA) for UL/ETL/CE.

Where does it say CE and how do you know it's an authentic mark? I scanned the ebay ad and didn't see anything.

Disclaimer: I don't trust cheap Chinese goods. So I have a bias coming into anything like this.

 

[JC220]

NRTL is just the umbrella term (in USA) for UL/ETL/CE.

Where does it say CE and how do you know it's an authentic mark? I scanned the ebay ad and didn't see anything.

Disclaimer: I don't trust cheap Chinese goods. So I have a bias coming into anything like this.

Here are the markings on the charger I got today



VS the CTEK



Note that the CTEK is Assembled in China - not made in China - Phew!! Wait, hold on a minute

 

[northNH]

FWIW...I have been using a NOCO Genius G3500 (3.5A) charger/maintainer for ~6 months, purchased as a result of info gleaned from several posts here and an attractive sale price on Amazon.

Has performed flawlessly, including bring back to full strength over 3 days a fully discharged 100A diesel tractor battery.
Never hotter than warm, automatically finishes with desulfating repair. Normal car batteries revived in ~24 hours, topped up in ~8.
6V/12V/AGM/Lithium, or just desulfation, all individually selectable. Excellent cables, clamps and mode/progress indicator lights.

Meets all my needs, and would only need adding recording volt/amp metering display (like my Fluke) to be perfect (i.e. more entertaining).
Designed in USA, Made in China, nothing cheapish about it.

 

[JC220]

FWIW...I have been using a NOCO Genius G3500 (3.5A) charger/maintainer for ~6 months, purchased as a result of info gleaned from several posts here and an attractive sale price on Amazon.

Has performed flawlessly, including bring back to full strength over 3 days a fully discharged 100A diesel tractor battery.
Never hotter than warm, automatically finishes with desulfating repair. Normal car batteries revived in ~24 hours, topped up in ~8.
6V/12V/AGM/Lithium, or just desulfation, all individually selectable. Excellent cables, clamps and mode/progress indicator lights.

Meets all my needs, and would only need adding recording volt/amp metering display (like my Fluke) to be perfect (i.e. more entertaining).
Designed in USA, Made in China, nothing cheapish about it.

Thanks for that - looked that Noco up looks decent for sure. I really need another 3 or 4 chargers so interested in what is found to be good and what is available over here too.

I like Dave's suggestions too but none of those desulphators are available this side of the pond. Would mean shipping + import duties exceed the value of the charger!

The one I just got today appears to be doing just fine. On the S600 battery on repair mode. Can hear the soft pulsing noises when you put your ear to the unit. I have about 5x batteries that need a decent charging up so it will be put through its paces this week. Should be done with desulphating the S600s battery by tomorrow but it is a big battery and has never in my ownership been put through this so who knows.

FWIW I intend to only ever use this latest charger outside of a car. Aka with the battery on a bench. Whilst I trust the CTEKs & Nocos on the car I wouldn't trust anything else just yet.

 

[JC220]

Havent got to mess much with this Ebay charger. So far it seems AOK and stays nice and cool on the couple of batteries I've had it on.

However- today I picked up a 019 battery at a junk yard to put this charger to the test!!





Was buying other w220 Parts so they just gave me this for about £3 knowing it may be dead. It was still installed in the trunk of a frontal damaged w211 and the battery itself looks fresh enough but sat in this wrecked car for a couple months.

Pretty much zero chooch in it. 1.8v. Ebay charger and CTEK will not turn on to charge it as voltage is too low.

This is why everyone needs the old school "dumb" chargers to get such batteries started off again. I'll give this one about 6 - 8 hours on the little 4 amp cheapie dumb charger then swap to the ebay pulse repair mode and see what happens. Would be sweet if this new looking battery comes back to life. Such a new battery is about £125 here so would be handy to have sitting on a trickle charger spare

 

[JC220]

The small charger did the trick to get enough chooch that the other chargers operate.

The fleabay one is on it now per below. Will take 24 hrs or so to see if it comes around fully. I suspect this battery is only a year old or less so it should be OK I hope.

Hear the "pulse" on the + battery post during repair mode. I'll keep an eye on the voltage in this mode to ensure it doesn't get too high. (It displays battery V on all other modes but not repair mode)

The fan in the unit is a little noisy but is effective at keeping the charger cool so I dont mind that at all.

 

[JC220]

One thing that is definitely unclear in the destructions of the fleabay charger is if you are supposed to use the repair mode before or after charging..... or if that function charges too.

After about 6 hours initial pulse repair mode it hadn't went above 20% charge. May swap to charge mode now and leave overnight to see what % it gets to by morning.

It does also suck that the pulse mode changes status on screen to 100% so you really don't know how the progress is going.

Whereas the Cetek recond mode is just like regular charging with LEDs showing the stage / progress at any given time.

I guess if this fleabay one was left to do its thing however long that takes it would change to "off" mode when complete. The manual says very little about repair mode other than that it takes 18 hours. That kind of suggets it doesn't charge the battery since there are so many variables to charge a battery how could that be pegged at 18hrs.

 

[JC220]

Hmmm it is 4.30am roughly and I went down to check on the battery charging. It was at 80% charge stage but worryingly at 14.9V. The charger was putting out 2 amps and likely would have been done within the hour but that felt a little high to me.....

Looking up online here are recommended max voltages for a 12v lead acid battery:



On a 6 cell battery it was at 2.48v per cell. Again that seems a tad high for my liking.... so I swapped to the Ctek now the battery has a decent charge put back into it. Charge voltage dropped to 13.8 or so on recon mode with Ctek. That makes me happier!

So at the moment I may need to look for a Noco or Ctek heavier duty charger. (My Ctek gets hot pulling full charge on flat 019s)

Yes the China one works for what it is and certainly for someone not too fussy it would certainly be "awesome" for whacking a charge into a battery but for me it's a tad heavy handed on the voltages and I would only trust it whilst I can keep an eye on it

 

[JC220]

This morning the Ctek was fully completed its recon cycle and green light on.

Took the battery off the charger for a couple hours then drop tested it. Holy crap I havent seen another battery giving such a strong drop test before:

Whatever the case for £3 I am super happy with this 019 battery which I do suspect is less than a year old

We don't have Napa stores over here so I have not seen a Napa battery before. No idea where this one came from must have been mailed ordered by someone. But they appear good quality and made in USA

 

[JC220]

After a bit of research this is the next charger I want to get to cover for all batteries in the fleet and use the Cteks still as top up / recon / trickle chargers. But for all around flat batteries this one will cover all bases

NOCO - 10-Amp Smart Battery Charger - GENIUS10

The GENIUS10 is a 10-amp battery charger, battery maintainer, and battery desulfator for 6-volt and 12-volt batteries.

no.co

 

[LWB250]

This morning the Ctek was fully completed its recon cycle and green light on.

Took the battery off the charger for a couple hours then drop tested it. Holy crap I havent seen another battery giving such a strong drop test before:

Whatever the case for £3 I am super happy with this 019 battery which I do suspect is less than a year old

We don't have Napa stores over here so I have not seen a Napa battery before. No idea where this one came from must have been mailed ordered by someone. But they appear good quality and made in USA

NAPA batteries are made by Deka, I believe. They used to be made by Exide, but from what I recall there were quality issues with those.

Dan

 

[gsxr]

Joe, any chance you could get a 500A carbon-pile load tester? The 100A gives a decent result, but the 500A makes the battery work really hard.

The NOCO looks decent, just the usual issue where it doesn't continually desulfate. IIRC you said the BatteryMINDer 128CEC1 is not available on your side of the pond?

Another option is to use a separate desulfator, like the PowerPulse unit (click here). Just put the ring terminals under the charger clamps. I have a bunch of these, some are permanently installed in daily-driver cars, and I have a couple attached to loose batteries on solar chargers. The PowerPulse draws a small amount of current so it can't be left on a battery for more than 3-4 weeks without a maintainer, or the vehicle being driven enough to ch arge the battery. PulseTech support said it's fine to have the PowerPulse run simultaneously with a desulfation charger (NOCO, CTEK, etc).

 

[JC220]

Joe, any chance you could get a 500A carbon-pile load tester? The 100A gives a decent result, but the 500A makes the battery work really hard.

The NOCO looks decent, just the usual issue where it doesn't continually desulfate. IIRC you said the BatteryMINDer 128CEC1 is not available on your side of the pond?

Another option is to use a separate desulfator, like the PowerPulse unit (click here). Just put the ring terminals under the charger clamps. I have a bunch of these, some are permanently installed in daily-driver cars, and I have a couple attached to loose batteries on solar chargers. The PowerPulse draws a small amount of current so it can't be left on a battery for more than 3-4 weeks without a maintainer, or the vehicle being driven enough to ch arge the battery. PulseTech support said it's fine to have the PowerPulse run simultaneously with a desulfation charger (NOCO, CTEK, etc).

Thanks for that info Dave! I would like to get a stronger load tester as you suggest and will look into getting one of those recommended desulphators

 

[JC220]

I think that big S600 Varta is in trouble

It's a 2019 battery and was let go flat in the S600 for a couple of weeks. Fully charged on CTEK and China repair modes and it still seems to be low on amps. Drop tester function was borderline into weak zone.

The S600 is turning over noticeably slower now when I swapped out the temporary AGM 019 I had in it and put the varta back in. Sigh.... just as well I got this extra 019 at the weekend.

I'll swap things around and give the S600 a couple month old 100ah 920cca AGM battery from 500E, give the 500E the Napa battery and see what else I can do to try and revive the big Varta.

(The varta only fits the S600 tray and maybe the S430)

 

[JC220]

@gsxr I might give one of these a go for a month or so on the S600 Varta

battery reconditioner, desulfator,restorer for any 12 volt lead acid batteries | eBay

Will it work?. So you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. How well will it work?. To be truly effective a desulfator need to combine a high power output with the ability to produce a wide range of frequencies.

www.ebay.co.uk

I think its along the same lines of what you suggest but readily available here this side of the pond and not too pricey. (The China cheap ones I'll avoid)

 

[gsxr]

For a questionable / weak battery, it may take weeks, or months, of desulfation to fully recover it. And that's if it can be helped... sometimes they are beyond help. If you get a PowerPulse unit, leave that connected with a maintainer for a couple of months and see how it does.

 

[gsxr]

@gsxr I might give one of these a go for a month or so on the S600 Varta

I think its along the same lines of what you suggest but readily available here this side of the pond and not too pricey. (The China cheap ones I'll avoid)

It may work ok, or it may not... hard to say. Looks like an expensive China unit with no pedigree.

The PowerPulse units are from a company that has been around for decades, and supplies a lot of military and commercial fleets... I trust their stuff:

PulseTech

PulseTech

www.pulsetech.net

Battery Extra appears to be a small outfit with no "About Us" information... hmmm....

Best Selling Battery Reconditioner Rejuvinator Desulfator

The Battery Extra restores and recovers battery performance in lead acid batteries. For solar battery banks, golf buggies, fork-trucks, RV’s, cars and trucks. Fully automatic operation and very simple to set up. WITH A 100% 90 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Extend your battery life and save money

www.recovermybatteries.com

 

[JC220]

It may work ok, or it may not... hard to say. Looks like an expensive China unit with no pedigree.

The PowerPulse units are from a company that has been around for decades, and supplies a lot of military and commercial fleets... I trust their stuff:

PulseTech

PulseTech

www.pulsetech.net

Battery Extra appears to be a small outfit with no "About Us" information... hmmm....

Best Selling Battery Reconditioner Rejuvinator Desulfator

The Battery Extra restores and recovers battery performance in lead acid batteries. For solar battery banks, golf buggies, fork-trucks, RV’s, cars and trucks. Fully automatic operation and very simple to set up. WITH A 100% 90 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Extend your battery life and save money

www.recovermybatteries.com

Thanks Dave I appreciate your opinion and will go with a powerpulse unit. It will take a while to get here so I'll take the carts back out and leave on a noco trickle charger for now to keep the voltage up.

 

[JC220]

For the other type you suggest @gsxr does it really matter what version?

Eg would this one be OK? I can get it for a decent price new via fleabay

 

[gsxr]

For the other type you suggest @gsxr does it really matter what version?

Eg would this one be OK? I can get it for a decent price new via fleabay

Joe, that is one of the ones I had my eye on... the BatteryMINDer 2012 has excellent reviews (link). The catch is it's "only" rated at 2A output, so it may take a couple days to fully charge a totally dead battery. And I don't think that particular model likes certain gel-cel batteries like Optima (the 2012-AGM is for those, I don't understand why it doesn't autoselect like their other models?). But otherwise, it should do anything else you want. I have one of the smaller units (#1510) and really like it, desulfates all the time. Their high-output model (128CEC1) is twice the price, ouch!

 

[gerryvz]

First we had oil geeks here on the forum. Now we have battery charger geeks.
DITBG?

 

[alabbasi]

I have about 10 viking 4 amp battery chargers hooked up. For $22.99, you can't beat them. I'm going to try the Noco on one of my cars that seems to like to fake the charger into thinking it's fully charged.

 

[JC220]

Joe, that is one of the ones I had my eye on... the BatteryMINDer 2012 has excellent reviews (link). The catch is it's "only" rated at 2A output, so it may take a couple days to fully charge a totally dead battery. And I don't think that particular model likes certain gel-cel batteries like Optima (the 2012-AGM is for those, I don't understand why it doesn't autoselect like their other models?). But otherwise, it should do anything else you want. I have one of the smaller units (#1510) and really like it, desulfates all the time. Their high-output model (128CEC1) is twice the price, ouch!

Thanks again Dave the 2012 one will be a good starting point for me. If it is good then I can always get the agm version later and it more or less works out the same price having both VS buying the larger more expensive unit of theirs.

I do also like the idea of being able to have ul to 6x batteries on the one desulfator.

So I bought the 2012 one from Amazon just now and paid import fee deposit etc up front. Works out about £94 delivered to UK for anyone curious.

I have a battery tester coming too that can give digital readout of a car battery internal resistance and cranking amps available.

TOPDON 2000A Car Jump Starter Booster Jumper Pack Power Bank Battery Charger UK | eBay UK

TOPDON VS2000Plus, When Getting Stuck is Not an Option. A 2000A Peak Current Jump Starter;. A built-in Bluetooth module supports12V battery tests by pairing anAPP with Bluetooth. This providescranking, and battery test reports to let you replace a battery before it dies.

www.ebay.co.uk

It will be interesting to do a week or so first on a regular trickle charger then do a week on the desulfator and compare readings. I understand the S600 battery will take weeks to maybe come around on a desulfator and that's AOK

 

[TerryA]

Being battery charger ignorant I have only my 1st Battery Tender I purchased at Costco for about $30.00 a year ago. It's doing a fine job of keeping up my 500E Interstate acid battery full charge and I am happy. Before that I just had a battery charger that worked fine except that the rubber wiring was starting to rot and was becoming a 110V hazard.

My only complaint about the Battery Tender is that the "Full Charge" green light burned out almost immediately,

My ignorance pertains to the "desulfator" ? What is this for? Is it something that I need?

As I have said I'm perfectly happy with the performance of my Battery Tender.

 

[gsxr]

My ignorance pertains to the "desulfator" ? What is this for? Is it something that I need?

Terry, the desulfation process keeps a battery closer to 100% efficiency, and can extend battery life 2x-3x. Read more at the links below:

Pulse Technology

PulseTech

www.pulsetech.net

https://www.pulsetech.net/media/wysiwyg/Pulsetech/etc/Our_Technology_White_Paper.pdf

You can either have a maintainer with full-time desulfation, or for a (mostly) daily-driven vehicle, you can install a desulfation unit (PowerPulse™) that stays attached to the battery at all times. If you install a PowerPulse unit on your car, it MUST have a maintainer attached if the car is not driven for more than 2-3 weeks, or it will eventually drain the battery. This is why it's generally better on daily drivers. I assume that if a car is not daily driven, it's already connected to a maintainer of some sort (desulfating type preferred).

 

[TerryA]

Terry, the desulfation process keeps a battery closer to 100% efficiency, and can extend battery life 2x-3x. Read more at the links below:

Pulse Technology

PulseTech

www.pulsetech.net

https://www.pulsetech.net/media/wysiwyg/Pulsetech/etc/Our_Technology_White_Paper.pdf

You can either have a maintainer with full-time desulfation, or for a (mostly) daily-driven vehicle, you can install a desulfation unit (PowerPulse™) that stays attached to the battery at all times. If you install a PowerPulse unit on your car, it MUST have a maintainer attached if the car is not driven for more than 2-3 weeks, or it will eventually drain the battery. This is why it's generally better on daily drivers. I assume that if a car is not daily driven, it's already connected to a maintainer of some sort (desulfating type preferred).

Thanks Dave for the prompt explanation. I will check this out further.

lol

 

[ace10]

...

My only complaint about the Battery Tender is that the "Full Charge" green light burned out almost immediately,


...

Deltran has a good warranty. Up to ten years on some models. Tell them about your problem.

 

[ace10]

When a car battery is giving me trouble, I introduce it to this guy.


As analog as it gets, straight from circa 1980.

 

[LWB250]

When a car battery is giving me trouble, I introduce it to this guy.
View attachment 106883

As analog as it gets, straight from circa 1980.

I have one like that, too, only it's a 10 amp. I refer to it as my "brute force" charger. I bring it out when batteries are unresponsive...

-D

 

[gerryvz]

The Deltran Battery Tender Junior models (the ones that you plug the plastic body of directly into the wall) last 2-3 years, at best, before they fail. The units that have metal cases and have a cord that goes into the wall, are MUCH more reliable. I owned three Battery Tender Junior models and none of them lasted more than three years.

Other units with the metal casing are providing excellent service, and continue to.

I have an even earlier Sears charger than yours, ace. I'll have to take a photo of it for you. Got it from my dad. It's slower than the Second Coming as far as charging batteries, but it will charge almost anything, eventually.

 

[TerryA]

When a car battery is giving me trouble, I introduce it to this guy.
View attachment 106883

As analog as it gets, straight from circa 1980.

Ace,

That looks like the one I tossed in favor of the "Battery Tender". It was just to old and tired and I didn't want to take the time to replace the rotted wire insulation. Not sorry it's gone.

 

[LWB250]

Ace,

That looks like the one I tossed in favor of the "Battery Tender". It was just to old and tired and I didn't want to take the time to replace the rotted wire insulation. Not sorry it's gone.

Your mistake. Sometimes, with batteries that have been totally discharged, you need a Robert Mitchum sort of charger to slap it around.

Dan

 

[northNH]

...or just connect it up to a fully charged auto battery for anywhere from 5-30 minutes, checking progress with VOM.
Will almost always raise the dead one high enough (~6v) to proceed to routine charging, unless bad (i.e. broken) cell(s).

 

[JC220]

I got the new battery tester and I'm actually pleasantly surprised at how decent it appears!

The Napa JY battery is in my daily driver for a month or two to test it out and get some regular use back into it.



The Napa 019 appears in rude health

Now to test the tester on my other batteries that I know well and the S600s failing Varta. Then fully charge the Varta on the Ctek, test again and trickle charge until the desulphator gets here then I'll.do a long term test including:

Standing Voltage
Amp capacity per reader
Internal resistance
Drop testing before and after

And see what (if any) measurable benefits there are in desulphating a car battery.

It is interesting for me to be able to read internal resistance of a car battery now. I believe this value will climb as the battery ages. And to get a digital readout of the CCA available is neat.

I have about a dozen 019 car batteries to maintain so I am going to number each battery and produce a wall chart. I can keep that updated with the CCA & Resistance values for example and when they were last fully charged and / or desulphated and for how long. Simple to do and a nice easy resource to look at and when any battery problems arise.

 

[JC220]

For sharts and giggles some other batteries I have around:

About 4 year old small battery for parts cars. Gets abused to be fair....


(Candidate for desulphator)

Next-

About 2 year old AGM 019


About 1 year old 019:


About 3 year old 019:


Known scrap battery out of a 124 I parted out, drop tester goes straight to zero even though somehow a year outside it's still over 12 volts. Bad cell I know it's done:



So the tester isn't infallible of course the drop tester is still key. This unit does also have a starting test so that may be more useful. But this is still a nice tool for the price and tests alternator diodes etc as a live ripple waveform too.

 

[JC220]

So this thread was about the Ebay "pulse repair" charger... sorry for all the updates!

S600 Battery in a real bad way now:



Tried adding 2 tablets per cell of this snake oil in tablet format:



Photo of a cell now:



Ebay "pulse repair" charger now running its repair mode so I'll leave that alone now for a day or two until it says "Off" meaning it should have done its thing.

Then let's test again and look back into a cell

 

[TerryA]

First we had oil geeks here on the forum. Now we have battery charger geeks.
DITBG?

I agree w/ Gerry. You Guys are becoming “Battery Geeks”. I’m glad that I only have one battery to worry about er; for the 500E. I do have two other cars. My theory is when a battery quits. BUY a NEW ONE! (The best one I can find and be done with it).

lol

 

[gerryvz]

Just like with oil, there comes a point of diminishing returns when it comes to batteries.

Buy and use a name-brand motor oil of the appropriate viscosity (and additives, if needed) for your application, and you're good.

Buy and use a name-brand battery. Put it on a simple battery tender, or disconnect it, if you don't use it often. If you get 5-8 years out of it, WONDERFUL.

All of this desulfating crap, special battery chargers, etc. is great and all. But maybe you'll get an extra year or two out of the battery. So you go from a 7 year battery to 9 years.

For all of the money you spent on special de-sulfating and does-everything maintainers, is squeezing an extra year or two really worth it?

I've gotten plenty of years out of batteries that I've done nothing to. Just drove the car with regularity. As a general rule, I found that Texas is harsher on batteries than the Pacific Northwest and the Mid-Atlantic area.

All of this ultra geeking-out on this stuff is for naught, IMHO. I mean, spending $200 every 6-7 years on a new battery is the least of my worries. It's a "wear" item....like tires and brake pads. If a battery cost $1,000, then I could see the need to prolong it. But $150 (on sale) to $200 is not a big purchase.

Seems more like a bragging rights exercise ("I got 13 whole years out of my Interstate AGM!!") than anything else.

 

[JC220]

OK yes of course you both are right. Buy new batteries is the best method of all! since I have alot more batteries to maintain than most folks here I am interested to learn more myself and that's what I'll do

 

[gsxr]

I've gotten 12-15 years of life from multiple batteries, both flooded/wet and AGM. These all had a PowerPulse desulfation box attached. If it was only squeezing another 10-20% of lifespan out, yeah, why bother. But it's probably closer to 100% (double), assuming you have a quality battery to begin with, and it's maintained properly. With Group 49's in the $150-$200 range now, I'm all for twice the life! Especially with over a dozen batteries that I need to keep healthy. I'd have to do some load tests again, but I think my record lifespans are 15 and 17 years, respectively, for two OE MB dealer AGM's still in service. (!)

FWIW, almost all the battery failures I've had in the past ~2 decades have been Interstates, usually shorted cell with no warning. Interstate is the one brand I refuse to buy now.

 

[gerryvz]

You see? It’s like oil.

“I got 15,000 miles out of my RedLine synthetic oil!!” (Double the typical life of motor oil)

“I got 17 years out of my desulfated MB AGM battery!” (Double the typical battery lifespan)



OK, I’ll let it go. It’s just something I choose not to pursue to the ends of the earth. It is possible to over-think these things.

 

[JC220]

OK well points taken on board and I will not take up any more of your time with this anymore so consider this one case closed. For good.

 

[gerryvz]

No need to get butt-hurt. Nobody is squelching anyone's right to express their opinion and be a battery or oil geek. After all, hearty dialogue and (always respectfully) expressing ideas and opinions is what this forum is all about.

To me, it's more about amusement than anything else. I'm sure many forum members are learning a lot through this thread, and making up their own opinions [when the time comes] as to whether to buy new batteries, or to find the means to keep their existing batteries on indefinite life support ... kind of like what they do with Ozzy Ozbourne and Mick Jagger.

Maybe we have a new title for the @gsxr ... "Master Desulfator" — ?

 

[LWB250]

I will say that at one time the factory batteries appeared to be quite robust. I replaced a Mercedes AGM battery with a 2003 date code in my S210 a year ago. I was stunned, to say the least. That being said, it was as dead as a doornail, nothing I did to it would bring it back.

As a rule I figure most batteries will last 4-5 years. If I get a four year old battery that starts to act up, I replace it. The cost is minor compared to the inconvenience of having a no-start condition somewhere away from home.

Dan

 

[gerryvz]

I will say that at one time the factory batteries appeared to be quite robust. I replaced a Mercedes AGM battery with a 2003 date code in my S210 a year ago. I was stunned, to say the least. That being said, it was as dead as a doornail, nothing I did to it would bring it back.

As a rule I figure most batteries will last 4-5 years. If I get a four year old battery that starts to act up, I replace it. The cost is minor compared to the inconvenience of having a no-start condition somewhere away from home.

Dan

@LWB250 — per my earlier statement about Texas' climate and battery life, have you found that the Florida climate is any harsher on batteries than other parts of the country you've lived in, in terms of length of typical battery service?