i've used this method on 3 batteries so far, and so far, i am 3 for 3. one of them is a motorcraft that was in the ford since 2002. it is still functioning well enough for use as a trolling motor battery. the other was a marine battery bought in 2004 (likely made in 2004) that took to it, and is still in service for starting and running the boat. all of them stopped working because they were sitting around. none of them were caused by alternator issues, so i suppose that the chemical reaction and metal deposition were still somewhat reversible. ymmv, though, as you live in a much colder place, and might have a steeper hill to climb.
i am using this item here
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN
i thought that it was a relic of the 80s, but apparently the snap-on store still sells them. i would think that any hand-held carbon pile would work.
i use a 10 amp automatic, that seems to be sufficient power to get them up again. i would think that you would need to get the battery in room temperature for this to work best. i wouldn't do this with vehicle battery leads attached to the car, that only simulates the parasitic load that killed it in the first place.
after putting the battery on automatic, you'll find that they generally recharge and (the charger) shuts off quickly, because of the battery's issues. at this point, disconnect from the charger, and hit for one cycle of the pile. if it isn't a harbor freight pile, hit it again, minding the temperature of the pile. wait for it to cool down, and hit it a third time. i have had success with 3 hits of the pile initially, and i would suggest that you try the same. i don't know which pile/tester you might be using, so i don't know how long a cycle is for you.
reconnect to the charger. let it automatically fill it back up. disconnect it, and hit it twice with the pile before reconnecting it to the charger. let the charger fill it back up. you should note an increasing amount of time for the charger to replenish the battery as you go along. hit it twice.
reconnect to the charger. this time, however, put the battery on the manual setting (ie, it will keep dumping current into the battery). if your charger doesn't have a manual setting, the marine/deep cycle setting will work for this. leave the battery on for about 2 hours. hit it with the pile twice. reconnect it to the battery charger, but put it on automatic.
repeat the automatic charging procedure with two hits of the pile for every disconnect for about 48 hours. the charge time will increase, then level off if the battery is still serviceable.
the only part of this that you need to babysit is the the manual charge phase. it would probably be prudent to observe the battery temperature with your hands in between cycles. if you start doing this on a friday night, you could probably schedule the hits so that one occurs friday night, saturday morning, saturday at lunchtime (on manual) saturday evening, and sunday morning, and achieve satisfactory results. if you have nothing better to do on sunday, hit it again at lunch and before you go to bed. the automatic helps in this regard, you can leave it hooked up while you sleep that way. this may seem time consuming, but a battery is a tangible amount of money, and this costs you nothing, other than about 30 minutes of your time. it only takes me about 3-5 minutes to complete a cycle, so, at worst, if the battery is completely dead, i've only lost about 1/2 hour out of my life. like i said, ymmv, though i've always had this work.
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4 Grand Master
Originally Posted by ryan roopnarine
"The gas pedal wouldn't go to the floor if it weren't meant to be there"
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