new battery charger

[terry & diane skinner]

Below is an advertisement for the "batteryMINDer" offered by Jacobs
electronics at
http://www.jacobselectronics.com/NewProducts.htm

Charger/Maintainer/Conditioner is the first of a new generation of
"Computer-on-a-chip" unit which automatically charges any type 12 volts
storage battery, without ever overcharging, while conditioning "sulfated"
batteries. Dubbed the "charger with a brain", it is believed to be the first
charger of its kind to reverse the primary cause of early battery failure
known as "sulfation". Batteries that were considered unrecoverable, can now
be brought back to long term useful condition

Sure sounds good, and I would not mind paying $ 60.oo for a charger if it
will do all that. Has anyone out there seen anything similar?? Does it
work??

Terry & Diane Skinner
Webfooted in Washington

 

[henry davis]

> Below is an advertisement for the "batteryMINDer" offered by Jacobs
>electronics at
>http://www.jacobselectronics.com/NewProducts.htm
>
>Sure sounds good, and I would not mind paying $ 60.oo for a charger if it
>will do all that. Has anyone out there seen anything similar?? Does it
>work??

Hi Terry,

The charger does work according to some tests. The charger is actually
manufactured by VDC Electronics. http://vdcelectronics.com/desulf.htm has a
good description of the functioning of the unit. Part of the research into
this type of charger was funded by NASA with reports made available under
the Freedom of Information Act.

Pulsed chargers do attack plate sulphation pretty effectively. OTOH, the
charger portion of the circuit is not very effective as a bulk charger (it
takes a fairly long time to charge). The trick is in the maintainer portion
of the charger. I don't know the relative advantage over a smart charger
like a TrueCharge on battery life and capacity. The smart chargers also
de-sulphate batteries pretty well - but I don't know if they're as
effective as the pulsed technology.

One thing to keep in mind about the battery capacity claims that some
marketers credit to the pulsed technology - the discharge rates used in the
test are very high (200 AMPs) when compared to typical RV usage, so there
isn't the same degree of sulphation taking place in the RV.

Still, for $60 it is probably a good investment for those who use older
charger technology.

Henry