How to avoid battery sulphation

Is your battery failing you? Longer charging times, overheating, shorter running times and so on? Sulphation may be the cause. To help you, we will briefly explain the principle, how to treat it and, more importantly, how to prevent it from happening in the future.

Battery sulphation: the principle

A traction cell is composed of positive and negative plates. These plates are separated from each other by a microporous separator that stops them from touching each other and short-circuiting. During battery discharge, an insoluble layer of sulphate crystals forms on these plates. When charging, the sulphate crystals are converted back into sulphuric acid. Sometimes, this layer of sulphate crystals is not adequately converted back into sulphuric acid. This is called sulphation

Consequences of battery sulphation

Sulphate crystals are not electrically conductive. As such, the resistance in the battery increases, the current drops and the battery is not able to deliver its full electrical charge. In turn, the charger is no longer able to completely charge the battery.

Treating & avoiding battery sulphation

Fortunately, it is possible to keep sulphation under control and even reduce it. This is done by sending short pulses of high currents through the battery. This process is also called regenerating.

A battery regenerator can remove sulphation, analyse your battery and restore its capacity in a fully automated process. Do you want to prevent sulphation? You can do this by performing a desulphation charge once a year.

Check our battery maintenance guide to learn more

Professional battery maintenance keeps your battery performing better for longer. It saves you time, money and a lot of unnecessary frustration. In this guide you’ll find all the information to help you perform your battery maintenance. At the end, you can find a checklist to help you stay on top of all your weekly, monthly and quarterly battery maintenance tasks.