I have several lead-acid batteries that I need to keep charged up; I heard about desulphating chargers, then found this one. I first used it on a 5-year-old car battery whose voltage indicated that it was at about 40% capacity. After following the directions (about 6 days of desulphating), the voltage jumped up to a point that indicated that the battery was now at 90%.I have a friend who had been trickle charging his older car battery and felt that he had gotten it as fully charged as he could, but then I loaned him this charger and a week later got a phone message from him indicating surprise at how much his battery had improved. He was convinced! It's very possible to double a battery's life with this charger, and so it can pay for itself quickly.
The problems with this charger are the complexity and the poor documentation. I think you can see the all the lights and buttons on the front of it somewhat bewildering to most. So you have to spend a lot of time reading the manual at first, and, I think, it could take a lot less time if they could find a competent technical writer. They KNOW their manual has problems because they added a supplement that says to ignore all the instructions in the manual and just read that one page supplement! The trouble is, even that supplement is a bit hard to understand. One example is how batteries are to treated as large, medium, or small, but they really don't tell you how to classify them. I had assumed a battery for a compact car would be considered medium, but a phone call to their support guy informed me that it was actually large. The manual just assumes that we can read their minds on things like this, but we can't, so we get confused and use the charger improperly.
Yes, I have a lot of batteries, there are 5 sitting on my work bench now on top of the one in the lawn tractor and 4 installed in vehicles. Keeping all these up to snuff is worth the effort vs replacing them. I would highly recommend this charger.
Just as a point of information, for those charging Optima batteries, Optima recommends using the wet setting, not AGM or Gel for their batteries.
Buy BatteryMINDer 12 Volt 2/4/8 Amp Wet/Gel/AGM Battery Charger Now
I use this unit EVERYDAY and have found it to be very reliable. I have owned this unit for more that 3 years. My uses are: AGM batteries in my Electric car to auto/truck lead acid batteries. Tried it on sealed lead acid gel batts. and did not see(not sure if meant for this)any improvement. The only con I have is the durability of the "button select" label cover. It had to be covered with clear moving tape because of exposure. I wonder if can get a new label? Other than label issue this is a great product! I highly recommend it. One of the things I wish Battery Minder would do is, make an onboard multibank desulfator for my electric car. 6 banks is what I need. I really can't see buying six separate desulfators when I could have one unit with six integrated.Happy De-sulfating!
Daniel
Read Best Reviews of BatteryMINDer 12 Volt 2/4/8 Amp Wet/Gel/AGM Battery Charger Here
Years ago a solid state battery charger would be ignored by most as unreliable and/or cheap. Times changed and now many solid state items represent those of the best quality. I've found this product line to be one of those lacking nothing and of the best quality. The five year warranty that comes with it helps re-enforce that idea.Yes, this product is made in China to the American (USA) VDC company technological standards. I wish everything could be made here in the US as I am USA born. That's no longer the case with many of the product names I grew up with at least VDC is still an American company based in Huntington, New York.
There-in is also something I found especially refreshing. When I opened the packaging, I wasn't greeted with instructions in some other language but in my own native English taught to every US citizen and recognized as the true one language of our country by most Americans. Seeing instructions in every language always tells me some portion of what I spent on a product went into all those other translations especially irksome when, to start with, the language is SUPPOSED to be English for every product sold in the USA. Of note, I don't know what the instructions were for this product in 2008 but VDC must have corrected any problems with them. I had no problem with the included instruction manual but I do speak fluent English like even my Russian grandfather and grandmother did when they came to America to become citizens of the US in 1912. Funny, understanding English used to be a requirement to become a citizen of this country somewhere along with being of sound mind and body, and capable of supporting one's self with some skill brought with them. Yes the small instruction manual is clear there's just 35 pages VDC would like you to look over first to improve your knowledge of this product. That's nothing excessive or unreasonable. I actually like to know the proper use of products just like I enjoy knowing the proper way to operate a vehicle I'm driving down the road. I find it safer that way, and my cars all last longer for my knowing how to drive and maintain them and I'm also sure other passengers, drivers, and pedestrians appreciate my responsibility.
I could have easily used the 12248 without the manual by just using a little common sense and knowing how batteries are sized and what type they are, but the manual does contain everything you need to know concerning the operation of the 12248. There are also printed instructions on the unit. Nothing difficult in use, and even if it was VDC provides a technical service number right on the manual. That number is also on the unit. They even answer it quickly I know, I called them to start the warranty on my purchase and to inquire about the free battery tester they will send you for registering your product.
Enough with the literature and literacy. The VDC BatteryMINDer 12248 will charge/maintain up to six batteries at a time with full-time desulfation. This is why I wanted it. It also has low amperage draw in use, and provides temperature compensation also important in my hot Southern US climate. An earlier purchase of a BatteryMINDer 12151 (engine compartment mounted style) proved to me the patented BatteryMINDer desulfation technology works and works very well (see my 12151 review here at Amazon "BatteryMinder 1.5A or BatteryMinder 1.3A? (chuckle) Like the "Tortoise and the Hare" When Compared To Some Chargers.").
The 12248 still isn't the fastest charger with only a top output of 8 Amperes, but it's not the tortoise the 12151 is either when recharging a dead battery. Is desulfation faster using the 12248 instead of the 12151? Possibly, but not necessarily. The 12151 just can't charge and desulfate more than one battery at a time, and it only charges with a reported maximum of 1.5 Amperes although I have seen a 12151 charge at 1.8A for short initial start-up periods. The 12151 is also designed to be permanently installed to a vehicle, whereas the 12248 is a "bench" charger that can either be hung from a bench or used sitting on a bench it also sits on four rubber pads for this.
This model 12248 comes with the $20 temperature compensator with ring terminal option supplied, and a ring terminal battery connector with 15 Amp fuse for a permanent charging connection to a vehicle mounted battery. All terminal connectors and fuses are also supplied with well fitted caps to prevent corrosion from moisture and to and keep out dirt. It also has the standard spring clip connector with 15 Amp fuse. Nice wire lengths have also been supplied to all cables that make connections simple in most any proper use of the unit.
The only caveat I've noticed is the temperature sender cable pins can be connected wrong if not paying close attention. If you look closely, you can see a minus and positive sign at each connection terminal that should be observed when making the electrical temperature cable connections. A red marking for positive would make this connection much easier, or pins that only fit one way.
I plan to update this review as more use is applied to the 12248 with various batteries. (chuckle) Nothing quite like an on-going accounting of product performance.
My first (far reaching) trial:
settings: 8 Amp, Standard lead-acid, temperature sensor clamped to the negative battery post
A thirteen year old, 75DG size group, Grand L 3010 HST Kubota diesel tractor standard lead acid battery that somehow still hangs on despite it would no longer start the tractor it came with. After about nine years of good service, up until it wouldn't start my Grand L, this battery was replaced with a new one and forgotten in a corner of my garage. This battery had a swollen case and plates, and had been sitting idle and untouched for roughly five years in that corner. One month back, I had put a quick charge on this battery and had it reading 12.6 volts when I immediately started using it for some very light electrical duty. Over the next several weeks I continued using it a few times to power a car radio system I was working on in my garage. It was still showing 11.4 volts when I connected the BatteryMINDer 12248 and made the proper settings. The 12248 accepted it and began charging it. After 30 minutes, I used an Amprobe digital meter to check the voltage and amperes being put out by the 12248 at the battery they were; volts@14.01-14.02, amperes@.10-.12 with a solid green charge indicator.
July 28 (eight days after connection) voltage while connected was at 13.22 volts, the same as when checked after the initial 24 hours of connection. Since day two, the voltage has remained the same and the charge indicator has been flashing. Amperes are at .16 and are the same as they were when checked on day two. Visual inspection of the plates shows the normal coloration of light and dark plates returning. The case end swelling is also diminishing. Of course, I don't expect this 13 year old battery to ever be capable of supplying the heavier amperage loads it once could without self-destruction, but it will be interesting to see what it can withstand. For my purposes, this battery will only be used in my garage for temporary power on a work bench with light loads it may even be usefull for some boost starts on equipment with weak but still marginally functioning batteries. For these purposes it should be fine, as it continues to charge and desulfate well on the 12248. A stardard charger would have simply burned and cracked all the plates, and boiled the battery acid solution away long before now leaving the battery useless with dead, shorted, and open cells. As it is, the 12248 is rebuilding a lot of capacity to this old battery.
August 5 On August 2nd I had checked this battery with the 12248 connected using my Amprobe digital meter. I noticed the voltage was varying slightly between 13.20 and 13.24. A check of the supplied amperage showed rapid changes occuring varying from .08 to .94 amperes. This peculiar amperage behavior in maintain mode is different from the 12151 BatteryMINDers I have installed to two of my vehicles. I removed the charger and checked the battery after a twelve hour "rest". The battery showed 12.70 volts. I reconnected the charger and saw the voltage initially increase to 14.5, and then begin dropping. Amps were initially steady at .10. After two hours, I checked and found the charger back in maintain mode and again at 13.20-13.24 volts and amperage varying from .08 to .94. I checked again today and saw everything the same except the case swelling now appears almost gone. During the time the charger is off this older battery, I've been putting it on a year old 78DLG Duralast Gold 800 CCA battery from Auto Zone. This battery now shows 12.88 volts after a twenty-four hour rest after each time it has been connected to the 12248. Once I'm better satisfied with the charge condition of the old Kubota battery, I plan to connect it and the Duralast battery in parallel and make use of some of the multiple battery charging capability of this 12248. Even if these two batteries do have a large difference in age, they still match in type and are close in size group.
August 23 On August 12th I finally felt secure in how stable the condition of the old battery was and connected the much newer Duralast in parallel. There had been no changes in the BatteryMINDer output on the older battery alone, the plates in the battery were looking good, and there was no longer any case swelling. Afterwards, I fairly well forgot about the two batteries connected in parallel to the BatteryMINDER 12248 until today. Again, I had checked the BatteryMINDer output when I first connected the batteries. The voltage was staying about 13.23 and amperes were steady at .10 when first checked. Today, the voltage was varying slightly between 13.21-13.23 and amperes were varying up and down between .12-.15. A look inside, to see those 13 year old Kubota battery plates, revealed plates that now look almost new in coloration and conformation. Could it be the BatteryMINDer 12248 is restoring this formerly dead and unused 13 year old battery, that lay useless for almost five years, to an almost new condition? From just looking into the cells at those plates, it appears so after a month on the BattryMINDer 12248. After a few more weeks on this BatteryMINDer, I'm going to load test this old battery out of pure curiosity. I have the thought that it would start my Kubota diesel tractor, it came new with, right now with no problems.
Update 10/24/11:
I finally got around to load testing the 13 year old Kubota battery. IT PASSED! I also used it to start my Grand L Kubota, and it started the tractor just like a brand new battery. This is an amazing recovery that makes me wonder how many "bad" batteries I could have saved and continued to use through the years, if I had only had this BatteryMINDer 12248. It's great to find a tool, and a company, that truly saves you money.
made in china
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This is my first experience with the use of desulfation. I am / will be collecting data on multiple batteries to help validate the use of this charger. This review will be edited to reflect that information as I have time.10/25/11 The Short Version: Two batteries on the recycle/core pile have been returned to "usable" status within 1 month. My ROI was less than 1 month.
