John, Just purchased a BatterMinder 12248 form ebay for $110. The jury is still out, haven't decided if it is a good one or not. Instructions said it may take up to 3 months to desulfate a battery. Had I know that, I may have kept looking.
From what I've read, equalizing is best done manually. Not really sure if it can be done automatically or by the BatteryMinder.
I've been experimenting with bringing batteries back from the dead. Have had some success.
What I can say for sure is that open batteries are junk. You can determine a battery has an open very easily. Cells are in series. Most old Christmas lights are wired in series and when one bulb goes out every thing stops. Batteries with an open produces no voltage and takes no charge.
A battery still takes a charge and produces voltage when one cell is shorted. However, the acid in that cell is reduced to water and that can easily be determined with a hydrometer. I don't think there is any hope for shorted cells either.
Before I purchased a BatteryMinder, I tried to make my own battery conditioner from a 40 year old 12 amp manual charger. I would first connect a battery to a smart charger and charge it as much as possible. The specific gravity of some cells were less than the others. I removed one diode from my manual charge and connected it to a 24 hour timer, which I purchased from Menards. Set the timer to be on for 30 minutes and off for 30 minutes. The peak voltage from my old charger is 19 volts. This equalized all but one battery, which ended up having a dead cell. I have a total of 14 batteries, 7 are mower batteries, 2 marine batteries, and 5 car/truck/tractor batteries. I would monitor the specific gravity during equaliation and stopped when the weak cells came up, usually in 24 to 48 hours.
Hope I've done you some good. Let me know what you buy and how well it works.
2 of my car batteries are AGM's, so I have no way to measure the specific gravity. Only thing I can do is use a load tester to measure the progress.
Only time will tell how much good I did. I'm keeping an eye on my batteries making sure they don't run out of water, load testing and using a smart charger or the BatteryMinder to keep them up to full charge over the winter.
Hope you are enjoying Florida's warm temps:). Think we may be warmer in Indiana.
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