Battery Sulfation

What is battery sulfation?

When lead-acid batteries are in a discharged state for any length of time, sulfation will build and will decrease the battery’s capacity. If left unused and discharged for enough time, sulfation will eventually render a battery useless. This is often demonstrated in vehicles driven periodically, which may include a sports car only driven during summer months.

During battery use, lead sulfate will form on the negative battery plates, and then return to active material again when a charge is applied. This is normal, and does not cause long-term damage if the recharge is applied soon after the discharge.

During long period of discharge and disuse, the lead sulfate will convert into stable crystalline and leave deposits on the negative plates. As the sulfation becomes more pronounced, the affected battery’s capacity, performance, and run time will be reduced. It also will experience lower charge acceptance rates, and longer charging times due to the increased internal resistance. With time, the battery may ultimately become rendered useless, which is why battery sulfation is the leading cause to battery failure.

How to desulfate your battery.

There are two basic methods for desulfating your lead-acid battery. Genius chargers feature Recovery Mode (see user guides for all Genius charging steps), which is our built-in automatic pulsing technology. Recovery Mode is an automatic step within the charging cycle, and will become activated during the normal charge cycle, when there is sulfation detected in the battery.

The Recovery Mode step is a great solution for removing soft sulfation, but for hard sulfation, a stronger desulfation technology is needed. Repair Mode (see Genius Charger interface) desulfates a battery by applying a controlled charge to a fully charged battery by applying highly regulated low currents combined with high voltages. NOCO G7200, G15000 and G26000 chargers all feature our advanced 16V Repair Mode technology.

This advanced desulfation technique dissolves the crystalized sulfation and turns it back into active materials again. Hard sulfation is typically permanent battery damage. At this point, recovery of the battery may be minimal, even when utilizing the Repair Mode.