interesting discussion on EDTA and desulfators

[mobile_bob]

i ran across this discussion on another forum
and thought it might be useful to include a link here.

there are those that believe in this stuff and those that do not

either way i think there are good points made about both in the discussion

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?2930-EDTA-a-Battery-Preserving-Agent

bob g

[Randybee1]

Put me in the camp that does not believe. I've used it twice now and neither battery came back to life.

Randy B

[vdubnut62]

My impression is "preservative" is the operative word. I don't think it will resurrect a dead battery, nor will anything else that comes to mind.
Ron.

[Tom Reed]

I've seen them restore a dead telco agm battery. It sat on a charger for over a month and would not take a charge, 0 amps. A desulfator was added with the charger and it started to take a charge. After 1 month floating with the desulfator the battery was restored to 90% and I used it in an RV trailer for several years. It was still going strong when the RV went away. This was done with another one of the same batteries so it was not just a 1 time deal.

[vdubnut62]

Tom, what sort of desulfator?  Chemical or electrical?  If electrical, I figure that there are as many brands/types as there are soda.
Ron.

[mobile_bob]

Tom

if the battery was dead, or nearly so, many chargers today will not start to charge them
no matter how long they are connected.

my little charger is like that, the only way i can get it to kick in and start charging is to hit boost, or attach another battery in parallel to the dead one long enough to get the charger tricked into starting a charge.

what type of battery were the telecom batteries? flooded, valve regulated, agm, gell, or?

thanks
bob g

[Tom Reed]

The batteries were AGM batteries. And the desulfator was a Solargizer.