Schumacher does make one now. I have two of the CTEK Multi US 7002 chargers. They're okay - nothing special. I had one on my Scag mower and it cooked the battery over one off-season, but that was because I had it on the wrong setting (I think).
I think this battery is toast
- Thread starter MountaineerTom
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Schumacher does make one now. I have two of the CTEK Multi US 7002 chargers. They're okay - nothing special. I had one on my Scag mower and it cooked the battery over one off-season, but that was because I had it on the wrong setting (I think).
Coming from an industrial setting our 48volt forklift batteries got desulfated on a weekly schedule. We had fortY or so battery forklifts so it was a full time job locking them out and leaving them on the charger for an eight hour period. Always had to add water at the end of the cycle.
CreepinDeth
TJ Addict
That's not a negative review on my part. They do the job. Like most chargers, though, it lacks feedback. With a sophisticated charger like that, it would be nice to have a bit more information as it's charging. Current voltage and current would be nice, for starters, and to get really fancy, it would be nice to see what stage in the charging cycle is running currently. I'd also like a bit more technical detail in the manual, but that's asking a lot, I know. The do show the charge cycles (8 stages), but there are no values for the time axis or the voltage/current axes, for instance.
What happened with my mower battery is that it's a sealed lead acid battery, and some references call it an AGM battery. However, some don't. I had it on the AGM setting when it cooked the battery. I'm not sure it's actually an AGM battery, so with the new one, I gave it a good charge, and then set it to the SUPPLY setting, which outputs a constant 13.6V instead of 14.7V.
Schumacher makes one. NOCO makes one. Here's a review (don't know if it's legit or not, just found it with a quick Google search):
https://www.thedrive.com/reviews/31119/best-battery-desulfator
Harbor Freight also sells one under their Viking brand name.
And don't forget the two mentioned above - the one MountaineerTom bought and the CTEK that I have two of and BlueC is looking at.
One other note - the CTEK chargers have good accessories you can buy. One of them is a rubber-bumper cover that gives it soft edges and some impact protection. My second one keeps my LJ topped off through the cigarette lighter port with another of their accessories.
I switched to that connection method because I had put the pigtail on the battery and ran that out under the hood. Of course, the battery is on the passenger side, so the charger was out of sight to the driver. One day, I went to move the LJ, and forgot to disconnect the charger. ..and that is how I ended up with two of them.
I thought I had destroyed it because the power cord pulled out of the body. I ordered a new one to maintain the LJ battery, and then later, when my blood pressure dropped back to normal, I took it apart to survey the damage. Besides the power leads pulling out at the circuit board, one of the capacitors was damaged, so I desoldered it and matched it by part number with a replacement I ordered. I soldered the new cap in, soldered the power leads back on, tested voltage output in the various settings, and now it charges the Scag. So, I guess you could say I idiot-tested it!
I think it's CTEK that allows multiple batteries on one machine, which is something I'm interested in since I have cars parked side by side that might not move for a few months. It'd be nice to plug them up and forget about them knowing everything is going. Right now I have a whiteboard with all vehicles and machines listed and the last date I started, drove, or charged them. It's a full time job that doesn't pay.
TNHEADDUCK
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MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
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MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Still in Desulfation. 
The manual says “ Battery Desulfation time up to 24 hours and ”Battery Failure” will be reported if it fails after 24 hours. This mode will automatically skip and switch to the next stage if your battery does not need to be desulfated.”
24 hours should be coming up within this hour.
The manual says “ Battery Desulfation time up to 24 hours and ”Battery Failure” will be reported if it fails after 24 hours. This mode will automatically skip and switch to the next stage if your battery does not need to be desulfated.”
24 hours should be coming up within this hour.
TNHEADDUCK
TJ Enthusiast
I would set the charger on 15 amps for a overnight charge, then load test it with a proper load tester. That will tell you the condition of your battery.Still in Desulfation.
The manual says “ Battery Desulfation time up to 24 hours and ”Battery Failure” will be reported if it fails after 24 hours. This mode will automatically skip and switch to the next stage if your battery does not need to be desulfated.”
24 hours should be coming up within this hour.
View attachment 445471
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
At 10:00 pm it was still in Desulfation. Letting it sit there for now. Got to get to sleep for work tomorrow. I may get It load tested after this, but I can’t do that until at least Monday.
Yea, yea - and you probably just read Playboy for the articles...I just bought it for the terminals.
More seriously:
Will one of these fancy-scmancy chargers do anything with a regular flooded battery? Its a rule of thumb that once you discharge a conventional battery, its life is severely shortened even if it "comes back". I haven't messed with AGM batteries in automotive use, so I don't have a fancy charger - just this old reliable which wouldn't work for AGM:
Selenium rectifier and all!
Last edited:
CreepinDeth
TJ Addict
Thanks for the feedback
As for Harbor Freight electronics, I will share an expereince a deployed Army friend had. His Harley was kept on a HF trickle charger while deployed years ago. It nearly caught fire and was smoking in his garage. Luckily one of us caught it
Tools?? Sometimes you get lucky
Electronics, dont buy from HF…esp unsupervised ones
CreepinDeth
TJ Addict
Still in Desulfation.
The manual says “ Battery Desulfation time up to 24 hours and ”Battery Failure” will be reported if it fails after 24 hours. This mode will automatically skip and switch to the next stage if your battery does not need to be desulfated.”
24 hours should be coming up within this hour.
View attachment 445471
Ive expereinced rhis myself a few times
After 24 hours or whatever your limit is, you can just stop the desulfation and start the charging process and HOPE for the best. Sometimes ya get lucky, and other times its a blown cell fault
I typically do low and slow recharging on the lower settings. I have 3 motorcycles and 2 classic cars in the garage I maintain annually plus all our DDs
If you get a fault, try it one more time. Again, sometimes ya get lucky.
Yes, all the fancy stuff works with those, too.
According to the battery charger companies, that is old thinking. Apparently, the reason for the life being shortened is the formation of lead sulfate crystals on the surface of the plates, preventing electron transfer. They claim that applying pulses of high current to the battery will break the crystals from the surface of the plates, allowing electron transfer to occur. Here's the charge profile from my CTEK charger's manual (note the current pulses during the desulfation stage):
This fancy charger is not a dumb device. It's controlling current and/or voltage at various stages to put the most charge on the battery and then maintain the battery in good shape.
I'm still a bit skeptical about it because it's been very hard to confirm what the charger is actually doing. It has a limited number of LEDs, and I've never seen some of them lit, so I don't know if it's really doing what it's supposed to. Of course, I could put a voltage/current logger on it and review that data, but I have too many other projects...
Yea, yea - and you probably just read Playboy for the articles...
More seriously:
Will one of these fancy-scmancy chargers do anything with a regular flooded battery? Its a rule of thumb that once you discharge a conventional battery, its life is severely shortened even if it "comes back". I haven't messed with AGM batteries in automotive use, so I don't have a fancy charger - just this old reliable which wouldn't work for AGM:
View attachment 445501
Selenium rectifier and all!
I have been using the CTEK 7002 for at least 10 years. Recovered several batteries I thought were toast. Recovered one that was at 5v and that battery is still going strong months later. Both regular flooded and AGM. The CTEK is also the most recommended charger in the Porsche and BMW groups (AMG batteries with heavy loads from those German car electronics).
NOCO does multiples. If I was to replace my CTEK, I would buy a NOCO (costs a lot less).
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FYS6CL8/?tag=wranglerorg-20
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