The XC100: What Legends Are Made Of

The XC100-P can be used on motorcycle batteries, boats and yachts, RV’s and automobiles, solar systems—if it uses a lead acid battery the XC100 should be used to extend the batteries useful life. Depending on the size of your battery bank it can be used as your primary charger or as the systems desulfating maintainer. We have been singing its praises for years and it is the subject for this month’s Pulse Talk.

This Pulse Talk edition has a link to an article originally published August 2008 in Wing World Magazine. The article found on page 42-43 is titled: Xtreme Charge 5-Stage Battery Maintenance Charger and is written by Stu Oltman. Towards the middle of the article Stu made mention of a charger test he had completed in 2002 of five leading charger brands. I have not looked up that article, but I am going to assume that he too tested the Battery Tender Jr. and or the Battery Tender Plus (PN 021-0128). What I found so interesting is that his results mirrored what I had discovered during a charger test I conducted several years back.

My Layman’s Smart Charger Test

There were several chargers and brands used in my testing. In a nut shell, the well-funded and widely marketed Battery Tender chargers would indeed charge the batteries leaving them with about 12.8 to 12.9 volts (in my case, I was using sealed AGM lead acid batteries). But after a couple days the voltages on those batteries would drop back down to pre-charge levels ranging from 12.4 to 12.7 volts.

The interesting part was that the batteries where the XC100 was used, the voltages climbed to 13.0 to 13.4 volts. More enlightening was the fact that after a couple days the voltages were still sitting above 13 volts. In fact, after several weeks those battery voltages still had not fallen back to pre-charge levels and were maintaining their voltage beyond thirteen! Aside from the XC100, there was another charger that did not fall back quite as low; the Noco Genius 1100. It was able to get the peak voltage into the 13 volt range and the drop in voltage left those batteries at around 12.8 to 12.9 volts.
My curiosity was peaked and I decided to use the XC100 on the batteries I originally had the Battery Tender Plus and Battery Tender Junior attached to. Every single battery achieved 13+ volts and maintained those levels for weeks following the initial charge!

Real World Charger Testing

Around the same time my local search and rescue maintenance chief asked me what to make of them constantly needing to replace or work on their vehicles batteries. They were using several Battery Tender Jr. and Battery Tender Plus chargers. Their routine was to simply grab an available charging unit and place it on the target vehicle. I advised them to test each battery to create a baseline for which we could work from. Then I asked them to take note specifically which charger was on which vehicle and for how long. After some time a pattern developed. Those vehicles where the Battery Tender Jr was used had the worst issues. We introduced the XC100 into the mix and continued to use the Battery Tender Plus chargers. This new rotation solved the battery related issues and saved them money and wasted man hours.

Battery Warranties

As a battery company it is our duty to oversee warranties. As part of our due diligence when processing a warranty, we ask the user what, if any, charger was used. And if one was used, how often and how was it employed. The number one answer we receive is that they used a Battery Tender product. Of the users that indicated a charger was used, greater than 40% used a Battery Tender Jr. at some point during the life of the battery. Now that is extremely subjective and could simply be a testament to Deltran doing an amazing job at marketing and distributing their brand. Or related to that, it could be name recognition where people use ‘Battery Tender’ generically like you say Kleenex when referring to facial tissue. After all, they did invent the smart microprocessor controlled charger a couple decades ago. However, these customer statements also seem to support or at the very least add credence to the previous three stories.

I am fully aware these customer statements and the mentioned tests are not exactly scientific and are very much laymen. But as an industry insider hearing and seeing these repeated comments and results helps to form my opinion. There is no reason to doubt that in the court of public opinion this information would not be damning for the Battery Tender Junior. As a consumer, it would certainly aid me in my buying behavior.

Contenders to Replace the Battery Tender Jr.

For those of you that do not want to or perhaps do not have the funds to invest $75 in the XC100-P (PN 100x010) we have taken the time to search out and test other maintainer chargers. As mentioned earlier the Genius 1100 did a good job, but it falls in a midrange price compared to the XC100 and the charger mentioned next. The smart maintainer charger candidate that rises to the top as our Battery Tender Jr. replacement is the Schauer Charge Master CM1A. This 900mAh charger delivers results, looks similar in design, specs out near the same levels and is in the same $30 price range. It has done well for us on power sport sized batteries used in motorcycles, ATVs, scooters, lawn tractors or any Off Road Vehicle (ORVs). It is not a true desulfating charger like the XC100 and is a little more limited in battery sizes it can handle, but it certainly gets the task done and is extremely affordable. It is our Battery Tender Jr. (PN 021-0123) replacement charger of choice if you are not convinced the XC100-P is your go to charger desulfator.

The SC-12, SC-6, SC-2 Suitcase Chargers

To help clear the air right from the start, this Pulse Talk feature is not talking about built in smart phone charging packs found in newer luggage (although the idea is pretty ingenious). The recovery chargers we will be discussing today are the PulseTech commercial grade charging platforms build into convenient portable hard HPX plastic suitcases. These incredible desulfating chargers not only charge and maintain your existing batteries they will recover batteries that once were destined for or adorned the scrap pile!

The Doubters, Naysayers and Ill-informed

I have been told many times over that it can’t be done. Once a battery is sitting at an abnormally low voltage it cannot be brought back. Or once the capacity is gone the battery is trash; it has a memory and will be right back where it started within days. As with everything in life, there does come a point when it is time to throw in the towel. But all too often we give up to early. And the reason? We have not been using the right tool for the job.

Before I move forward to sharing the details of what every municipality, commercial fleet operator and companies operating heavy equipment should have in their workshop, let me direct your attention to the PDF attached to this post (clicking the image will make it much larger and easier to see). In the lower right quadrant you will see a chart representing the condition of some batteries. These 11 batteries were discarded by a large city in Texas and deemed useless. The SC-6 Recovery Charger was then attached and the results illustrated.

You will notice that 7 of the 11 batteries had starting voltages between 9V and 12V. The remaining 4 batteries had voltages in the low 12V range. Now remember the naysayers say batteries in this condition have dead cells and are trash. What did our test determine?
The Cold Cranking Amp (CCA) was also recorded to better represent the overall health of the battery. Several had single digit readings. Now those interested in making battery sales would tell you that there is no chance of recovering a battery in such a condition. Did the condition of these sample batteries change?

The Proof is in The Puddin’

In this case, 100% of the batteries were recovered! Batteries incorrectly diagnosed with a dead cell now maintain strong voltage. Batteries that barely moved the dial on the CCA test now appear healthy and ready to contribute.

Now will every stock pile of dead and dying batteries produce a 100% recovery rate? No, we definitely beat the odds on this one. Normally we get 7 or 8 out of 10 recovered and on rare occasion have seen only 3 to 5 recovered. When the latter occurs it is usually from an educated battery specialist of some sort utilizing best practices. They generally hand pick batteries they were positive would fail the testing vs. most shops that do not truly know how to properly take care of and diagnose their batteries and simply hand over the first 10 on the stack. So even when the cards are seemingly stacked against the suitcase charger, it still delivers impressive results.

Can the PulseTech Recovery Charger Really be That Good?

Yes it can. And yes it is.

The biggest objection I get from prospective buyers of the patented SC-2, SC-6 and especially the SC-12 Recovery Charger is the price. It always amazes me how narrow-minded we can get as consumers. If a product has a lofty price tag it most assuredly must be evaluated to determine if the price justifies the return on investment.

The questions to ask your self are:

• How many lead acid batteries do we currently purchase each year?
• What is the average cost of each battery?
• How much time do we spend troubleshooting battery related issues?
• What is the labor cost involved?
• How can we reduce our overall cost?

Asking your battery sales man for better pricing will only get you so far and ultimately will barely put a dent in the cash you spend each year replacing batteries. STOP the INSANITY. Someone once told me the definition of insane is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

What if you could spend a little more cash up front in order to recoup that investment and add dollars to the bottom line well within a year?

You can! We offer a program called the Battery Management System (BMS) that we can tailor to your company’s specific requirements. In all honesty, some of you have large enough fleets that you could invest $20,000 or $50,000 or more to fully implement this program that utilizes the Pulse Recovery Chargers. That is not meant to scare the smaller entities away. Purchasing the right combination of tools for $700-$5,000 could be all you need to start saving thousands more over the next few months.

Depending on how extensive and quickly a company roles out the BMS, most will recoup their investment within the first year. Everything after that is gravy! Call us and ask how we can help you break free from the insanity.

I enjoy reading stories about how battery desulfators have saved users hundreds of dollars in replacement costs. It is worth spending the time reading blogs and other articles to keep up on what works and what is marketing hype. Every now and then I come across a person that has had a bad experience. It catches my interest, since I know desulfators work and have written extensively about it over the years. I am always curious as to what device they were using and the circumstances around what made the battery defective.

This past weekend I came across a guy going by the handle “johnk” that posted his thoughts on riceball.com back on January 28^th 2015. He purchased a WizBang Plus unit from eBay and after messing around with it for a while determined it did not work. He felted duped. So comically, he lists it on eBay to continue the circle of un-trust. It ended up being re-purchased by a gentleman claiming to be an electrician by trade who also felt he got scammed and reiterated it didn’t work since it didn’t make any noise. (Although I wasn’t aware that the level of sound an item produced was a criterion for if it worked. So hopefully there was a little more analysis then just sound. Personally I would prefer quite or silent over an annoying hum or buzz. I digress...back to the topic at hand!)

I have never actually tested one of these WizBang Plus units and cannot say definitively whether or not they DO or DO NOT work. I know the PulseTech desulfators like the XC100-P work. But that is not where I want to focus today. And I certainly don’t want to get sidetracked talking about how loud something should be.

The Internal Battery Desulfator Hypothesis

Johnk made a statement that jumped out at me. On the surface his logic sounds reasonable and the argument sounds compelling. However, I believe his conclusion is wrong. Here is what he said:

His conclusion is that battery companies would be adding desulfators to their batteries to save on warranties and thus lower costs. Again it sounds logical, until we dig deeper into the realm of batteries.

Aspect #1

First let me start with this fact: lead acid batteries must maintain a standardized group sizing, for example group 27. This designation keeps things uniform the world over and allows users to compare apples to apples and ensures your battery will physically fit.

There really is not room inside the battery to include circuitry. The space is maxed out to include as much lead as possible to provide the best possible power metrics. If you reduce lead content you will lower output.

If you could fit a desulfator circuit into the battery you would then need to find a way to seal it off from the interior of the battery where you have corrosive gasses and acid. If this can be accomplished the manufacturer would also need to find a way to properly ventilate the heat generated from desulfating.

Assuming all this could be accomplished, the manufacturer would need to spend millions of dollars to retool their factories and create new battery molds. This expenditure would not be feasible. Then there is the issue of electronics inside the battery. Electronics have a tendency to fail more so than simple battery physics. A failure in electronics could render a perfectly healthy battery useless.

Aspect #2

Aspect #2 is probably the driving force why battery companies do not promote desulfators. They will lose money. The selling and manufacturing of aftermarket batteries is highly profitable.

The average user does not properly take care of his or her battery. When the slightest hint of failure is in the wind many will go out and buy a new battery. Or they will take the battery to a technician who will feed on their fear and indicate they require a new battery. A small fraction will pursue a warranty. Upon which over 50% are misdiagnosed and very well could have been salvaged.

Do you remember the core charge many of you paid when you purchased your first battery? Aside from that being another way to make money, those cores are valuable. The lead in old batteries is cheaper to process and place in a smelter than to dig deep into the earth and mine for the raw material. If you reduce the amount of material going to the smelter because your battery is lasting longer you in turn increase the demand for lead. Simple supply and demand dictates that lead prices will go up; battery costs will go up; consumers will find ways to make their battery last longer. It will create a self-fulling prophecy of higher prices.

What incentive is there for the battery company to promote or install desulfators? There isn’t one! The time and money spent on R&D to come up with a concept design, is high. The cost to build or retool a factory and generate the new molds is high. The risk of overpricing the new high-tech battery may scare customers to purchase less expensive alternatives. The extended use and thus cannibalization of the raw material to produce the product drives your material costs through the roof. The loss of sales due to batteries not being purchased as frequently will severely dampen profits. Factories not running at full capacity means overhead skyrockets and people may get laid off.

Sulfation Is Real. You Need to Decide How to Respond

Having learned this dirty secret, what should you do? The incentive is for the newly educated to take action and take advantage of this rigged system. Use the ignorance of the masses and those content to follow the system blindly to aid your success.

We have written numerous education pieces, real world testimonials and FAQs on the topic of sulfation and best desulfators in the market. Read them, educate yourself. Ask us questions. Share your results. That is how we as a community grow and learn and save each other time and money.

To purchase a desulfator product visit our dedicated sulfation page in the Impact Battery store.

To learn more visit our FAQs or read some of our sulfation related blog posts including our PulseTalk series by following the links herein.

The other day my neighbor asked if I could recycle an old car battery they had sitting around. It had been left out to bake in direct sunlight and freeze in the winter snows. She indicated the car battery was brand new but never installed. Turns out the, Everstart 75-3N battery was left sitting outside their garage for over three years. I of course said we could recycle it and then I wondered if this starting battery could be restored? Despite the obvious 'abuse' and lack of use, would we be able to revive a battery that was severely discharged and had sulfated for 3 straight years?

Setting the Stage

About the same time as we took possession of this dead car battery an industry friend called and asked if we would be willing to test a new battery conditioner produced by Battery Preserver. I said sure, I would give it an honest assessment and had just the battery to test it out on! I had never heard of BatteryPreserver.com before and tried to do a little research into there products as I waited for the BP-APD1 to arrive. My first impression was that the site was a little lacking, but I am biased when it comes to analyzing websites. More about this device later...

When we got the battery back to our facility we were surprised to see that the electrolyte had not evaporated. The acid mixture still covered the plates; definitely not what we were expecting after sitting in the blazing sun for 3 years! The voltage reading on 10-10-16 was 8.6V which is about what we expected. Oddly, nine days later, after sitting in our climate controlled building prior to being charged for the first time, it read 8.28 volts. The only difference was that we had lead lugs screwed on the front mounted terminals vs. sticking the prongs in the threaded holes previously. In spite of this modest detail, the variance did strike me as rather odd.

The Everstart 75-3N is rated for 750CCA at 32 degrees and 600 CCA at 0 degrees. We were not able to find accurate amp hour capacity numbers for this BCI Group 75 battery which measures 9.10 x 7.10 x 7.30 inches. However, when we compared it to other batteries in this physical size and or quality range we determined it cannot be below 25Ah or above 48Ah. The high end of 44-48Ah coming from premium sealed AGM starting batteries such as Optima's 8022-091 RedTop. Also, for comparison, a similar sized sealed lead acid or deep cycle battery (not designed for starting) comes in at around 50Ah (UB12500-L2 measuring 7.72 x 6.50 x 7.17).

Charger of Choice: The Charge Master CM6A

To charge this Walmart battery for the first time we decided to use the Charge Master CM6A made by Schauer. This brand of charger has a really good low voltage detection that seems to consistently beat competitors claims. We decided to remove the lead based side mount auto stud posts once the initial charge sequence was completed. We would replace them with The Battery Doctor solid brass dual threaded extenders. The idea was that this should help us later when we attached the desulfator which has eyelets.

At 10:59AM we connected the CM6A to the battery. We took regular voltage readings the rest of the day and monitored a steady increase in voltage. The voltage stayed below 13V until almost 2:00PM. Within an hour it had gone up another half volt and read 14.30 at 6:00PM when we left for the evening.

When we arrived back Monday the 31st we disconnected the charger and recorded a reading of 13.30 volts. We used PulseTech's 390PT Battery Analyzer to garner a simulated Cold Crank of 642 CCA. We were not expecting this initial reading to be so high! In any case we switched out the posts and attached the Battery Preserver BP-APD1.

Desulfator of Choice: The Battery Preserver BP-APD1

The dual threaded brass bolt we used was a standard power hookup for most all "GM" style side post batteries. They are 5/16" thread (8mm). The Battery Preserver eyelet is the exact same size--5/16" internal and 9/16" external dimension when measured with a ruler. To the unassuming person life should move forward without issue, right? Wrong! We could not get the eyelets to thread onto or fit around the brass studs threads. As long as no one touched them, we were barely able to get the eyelets to catch on the outer edge. This was not a confidence builder.

The BP-APD1 is an auto sensing 12-48V onboard battery desulfator. It measures 88 x 56 x 23mm and utilizes 20mA max working amps. Peak voltage is said to be between 60V and 100V with a frequency pulse of 10,000HZ. The auto cutoff for 12V batteries is set to 11.0 volts.

The desulfator correctly detected the presence of the 12V battery and indicated so by displaying the code C12. Within moments the unit started beeping while a red LED light flashed. The beeps seemed to follow a consistent pattern of 16 beeps at 1 second intervals before pausing for 4 seconds. I will be the first to express my displeasure with the high-pitched beeping. I could not stay and work in the same room.

The starting voltage when the BP-APD1 was attached was 12.95 volts. It was left on for a period of 3 days, which may not have been long enough when we consider other on-board desulfators take between 1-8 weeks to achieve noticeable results. During this time the battery dropped to 12.55 volts.

Did We Restore the Old Car Battery?

This is where things got interesting. The following morning we measured 194 CCA with the PulseTech 390PT Battery Analyzer. That is a 70% drop in cranking power! Thinking that can't be right I pulled out our 500A Carbon Pile load tester made by Universal Power Group. To use this device you have to dial in an amperage number that is 1/3 of the batteries known cold cranking amp or 3x the amp capacity. I selected 250 and 200 (one third of 750 and 600). The load voltages were 9.2V and 9.5V respectively. An automotive battery of this size should be coming in at a value well north of 10.0 volts under load.

The battery was placed back on the CM6A charger for about 5 hours and then retested. Even starting at full a 13.2 volts the CCA reading came in at 235 and the load voltages remained the same at 9.2V and 9.5V.

I was now getting concerned. Could this Battery Preserver have actually just destroyed the battery? It was time to dig deeper. I know that using only voltage and CCA is not the most effective measure of a batteries health. To gauge total health you need to evaluate the capacity.

To do this we used Pro Charging Systems BD6812 Battery Discharger. It can drain 6V, 8V and 12V automotive and deep cycle batteries. It records the starting voltage, time it took to fully discharge the battery to 10.5V, and total amps removed. Our first attempt at the end of the day November 4th took 30 minutes and 49 seconds and recorded 17 amps removed.

The Everstart battery was placed back on one of our favorite desulfating chargers, the XC100-P by PulseTech. Five days later we disconnected the charger and measured a voltage reading of 13.35V. The battery again loaded well below what we measured days earlier! The carbon pile loads came in at 9.2V and 9.6V while the digital version read 331 CCA.

It was at this point one of our newer employees walked by and suggested taking the brass lugs off and try taking a reading with the lead lugs. My initial thought was to chuckle, thinking the outcome should be about the same. But for the sake of consistency we did just that.

The brass terminal lugs were very warm to the touch. I would suggest much warmer than what I am used to working with. Moments after installing the lead threaded terminals we took some voltage readings. I couldn't believe my eyes! The carbon pile load numbers suddenly jumped to 10.2V and 10.4V while the digital reading indicated the battery now had 635 CCA. These numbers were consistent with what we recorded after the CM6A charged the battery for the first time.

The terminal type just opened up a whole new can of warms! We have touched on the importance of keeping your wiring uniform when paralleling batteries together because you don't want to create different resistance levels. I would have never imagined the terminal style would have such a major impact! The testing devices all reacted the same. The battery and testers did not change. The only difference was a few minutes of lost time and the brass/lead terminals. That raised a question of mechanic shops telling people there battery is bad when it may actually be fine. If the type of terminal interferes with the testers ability to accurately diagnose the battery then we have a huge problem on our hands! People are getting ripped off! We will have to investigate this further...

Back to the battery, we will continue to work with it to see if we can improve upon our initial findings. At this point the battery appears to be revived or at least on its way to being, dare I say, [fully] restored. We will put it in a vehicle and play around with the terminal type to see if we can determine if they have an impact in real life situations and not just on testing equipment. Stay tuned!