EDTA - Inverter batteries.

Rocky

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We have read in some previous posts about EDTA restoring inverter batteries to an "almost new" state.
After reading clinical studies from the links that were posted, we ordered some EDTA (photographic quality) from the US.
Here are the results so far.
1) My friend has 2 Trace inverters with 12 batteries apiece that, although only a couple of years old, were in a mess, probably from not equalizing them on a monthly basis.
10 of the 24 batteries were completely useless and would not accept or hold a charge, and the other 14 were running hot and about to give up the ghost.
After treating all the batteries with EDTA, with approx a double dose, (2 tablespoons per cell), and operating them for less than a week, they now are running cool, accepting and holding their charge like new, or nearly new batteries. (Cost to fix, approx. $70 US for the whole job)
2) My mechanic has a cheapo inverter with 8 batteries and he complained that they did not last as long as when they were new. As his inverter has no equalize feature, I'm not surprised. We treated them also with a double dose and although not a clinical observation, he tells me now that they used to last him 6 hours and now last 11. (Cost to fix, $14 US)
3) A friend dropped off 4 Trace batteries that he had lying around and although we did not know what condition they were in in, we went ahead and gave them all a double dose treatment. After hooking them up to my Trace 3.6, along with my other batteries, 3 of them looked promising and the other one was still not accepting the charge, so I added another single dose to the 3, and another double dose to the bad one. They are, after being hooked up for less than a week, all running cool and accepting and holding their charge. (cost to fix, approx. $20 US)
CONCLUSIONS...
As the cost for experiment number 1 is the same or less than the cost of buying one single battery, the results are outstanding.
I believe that adding a single does per year to one's batteries would maintain them, and this would cost only approx. $5 US per bank of 4 batteries.
I don't know just how many years one can make "treated batteries" last, but I did read about a fellow who was still running his "treated batteries" after 18 years.
If you have any doubts or don't believe the results, bring me your old batteries. Maybe I'll go into the used battery business.
PS: If you are now operating with some old "hard to charge" batteries, you have to consider how much extra you are paying for electricity to try to charge batteries that don't want to take the charge. This alone justifies the cost of adding in the EDTA.
PPS: We plan to experiment with car batteries as well.
 

juanita

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Buy it in Santo Domingo!

Hello Boys!

I myself have tried the magic powder and it is amazing how it works...and I bought it here in Santo Domingo for 300 pesos/kilo! Here is the place:

Distribudora de Quimicos IMP
Prof. A Gomez 111
Villa Juana
472-2215

The only thing is, if the owner see all these gringos buying his powder he will probably put the price way up, so boys, wear your dark glasses and speak your best Dominican Slang!! :cool:
 

debajoelsol

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Jan 23, 2003
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Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is a synthetic amino acid first used in the 1940's for treatment of heavy metal poisoning. It is widely recognized as effective for that use as well as certain others, including emergency treatment of hypercalcemia and the control of ventricular arrhythmias associated with digitalis toxicity. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council in the late 1960's indicated that EDTA was considered possibly effective in the treatment of occlusive vascular disorders caused by arteriosclerosis.

Is this the same acid ?
 

debajoelsol

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Jan 23, 2003
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EDTA ( Ethylenediaminetetraaceticacid-tetrasodium salt ) is used to dissolve sulfate deposits from lead acid batteries. The net effect is to lower the cost of battery based electricity by recovering otherwise unuseable batteries thus preventing the purchase of new batteries.
The EDTA is a dry powder. Use one tablespoon per cell for golf cart batteries such as a Trojan T-105 type battery and twice as much for larger batteries. The EDTA must first be dissolved in water before adding it to the battery. EDTA does not dissolve in battery acid, but will mix with battery acid if it is first dissolved in water.
 

Coastal

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Very interesting Rocky !!

Since I have been using only generator / inverter at home for a couple of years now, my batteries are starting to slowly die. If you don't mind, what is the actual process that you use to treat the batteries? Do you simply mix the powder with water and add it to the battery? When you ordered the powder, did they ship it here? This is great info, and very timely for me!!
Thanks,
Greg
 

Robert

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Jan 2, 1999
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juanita said:
Hello Boys!

I myself have tried the magic powder and it is amazing how it works...and I bought it here in Santo Domingo for 300 pesos/kilo! Here is the place:

Distribudora de Quimicos IMP
Prof. A Gomez 111
Villa Juana
472-2215

The only thing is, if the owner see all these gringos buying his powder he will probably put the price way up, so boys, wear your dark glasses and speak your best Dominican Slang!! :cool:

Info from Distribudora de Quimicos IMP:

Price: RD$240 per kilo (it comes in 25 kilo bags)

The guy you need to speak to is Julio Ramirez (jarmas23@hotmail.com)

I'm willing to go in and get a bag and split it with a few people that have inverters here.

Email or PM me if interested.

Or...

Maybe Mr. Mike or Coastal wants to buy some and we buy it off them :)
 

Camachosoft

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Nov 18, 2003
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I bough a DESULTAFOR 2 months ago

"The desulfator connect directly to the battery. They then emit a pulsating dc current that removes the sulfate deposits from the plates and returns them to the battery acid as active electrolyte. When installed permanently, the desulfator also help keep sulfates from building up again so your battery is in peak condition all the time. In most cases, some of the tesulfators products can even help renew dead batteries already suffering from sulfation buildup and help bring them back to life."

"The desulfator works with all types of lead-acid batteries including sealed, gel cell & AGM. By keeping the plates "clean", batteries charge faster and deeper so they work harder and last longer than you ever thought possible. They also have greater charge acceptance so your battery will recharge faster and release all of its stored energy. With more available energy so your vehicles last longer between recharges and your electronic accessories work better."

http://www.pulsetech.com

In 2 Inverters = WORKED
In my car = TESTING IT

:)
 

juanita

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Apr 22, 2004
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windeguy said:
Can anyone tell me how much EDTA can be dissolved in a cup of distilled water?



I have purchased a chemical at a Santiago chemical supply house that is supposed to be the correct one, but I fear it is not dissolving as readliy as Tetrasodium EDTA should. Thanks.

To treat a battery with EDTA you add about a rounded teaspoonful of the powder to each cell - this assumes an average sized battery, but the exact amount is in no way critical. The amount of water is not critical either, you should use just enough to mix the powder, a cup would be way to much as a cup of liquid would not fit into each battery cell!
 

Rocky

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The right stuff?

juanita said:
Hello Boys!

I myself have tried the magic powder and it is amazing how it works...and I bought it here in Santo Domingo for 300 pesos/kilo! Here is the place:

Distribudora de Quimicos IMP
Prof. A Gomez 111
Villa Juana
472-2215

The only thing is, if the owner see all these gringos buying his powder he will probably put the price way up, so boys, wear your dark glasses and speak your best Dominican Slang!! :cool:
I would love to find out that this is the same photographic quality EDTA as I have purchsed, as the savings are great.
In the previous EDTA post, here on DR1, there were links to studies and there were stern warnings about using anything but photographic quality EDTA.
As I am not willing to throw any old junk into my good batteries for maintenance, I would not take the chance.
I would do it on an old junk battery, just to see, but I would always be suspicious that other chemicals were going in ther and reducing the capacity and longevity of my batteries.
I am interested to know how long you have been using the product on your batteries.
 

Rocky

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Coastal said:
Since I have been using only generator / inverter at home for a couple of years now, my batteries are starting to slowly die. If you don't mind, what is the actual process that you use to treat the batteries? Do you simply mix the powder with water and add it to the battery? When you ordered the powder, did they ship it here? This is great info, and very timely for me!!
Thanks,
Greg
EDTA has to be mixed with distilled water first, then added to the batteries and if necessary, you may have to remove some of the acid to fit the new solution in.
Keep the acid for filling up at a later date.
Do NOT try to add the powder straight in.
Btw: we used a huge syringe to insert and remove the liquids.
We brought ours in ourselves, as the transport costs were very restrictive.
 

Rocky

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Camachosoft said:
I bough a DESULTAFOR 2 months ago

"The desulfator connect directly to the battery. They then emit a pulsating dc current that removes the sulfate deposits from the plates and returns them to the battery acid as active electrolyte. When installed permanently, the desulfator also help keep sulfates from building up again so your battery is in peak condition all the time. In most cases, some of the tesulfators products can even help renew dead batteries already suffering from sulfation buildup and help bring them back to life."

"The desulfator works with all types of lead-acid batteries including sealed, gel cell & AGM. By keeping the plates "clean", batteries charge faster and deeper so they work harder and last longer than you ever thought possible. They also have greater charge acceptance so your battery will recharge faster and release all of its stored energy. With more available energy so your vehicles last longer between recharges and your electronic accessories work better."

http://www.pulsetech.com

In 2 Inverters = WORKED
In my car = TESTING IT

:)
I may be wrong, but I believe that these devices are equal to using the equalize feature on a Trace inverter and are only useful to people who have other brands that lack the feature.
In the case of massive phosphate buildup, I believe that EDTA is the only solution.
This is of course only IMHO.
 

Rocky

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juanita said:
To treat a battery with EDTA you add about a rounded teaspoonful of the powder to each cell - this assumes an average sized battery, but the exact amount is in no way critical. The amount of water is not critical either, you should use just enough to mix the powder, a cup would be way to much as a cup of liquid would not fit into each battery cell!
One tablespoon of the EDTA we are using can easily be disolved into 2 ounces of distilled water.
I am told by others who bought the locally sold product mentioned above, that they are having trouble disolving 1 teaspoon into a cup of water.
 

Buzzard

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Feb 28, 2004
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EDTA Warning

After emailing Robert my request re ordering some EDTA, I found that one of the links supplied by another poster speaks of a "bad batch" of what appears to be psuedo EDTA and a subsequent recall by the seller! Since it is usually true that you get what you pay for, and the price in the US is significantly greater than $6/lb, perhaps we need some more data on the SD batch before someone drops 'big coin' on a 100kg bag.
 

Robert

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Jan 2, 1999
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I'm with Rocky on this, looks like the local stuff could be very low grade.

After reading some of the posts I'm reluctant to touch the local brew :)

If I buy enough ribs, do I get a few free teaspoons.
I'll even trade you t-shirts :)

I have a friend in the chemical business here, I'll ask her what the story is locally, she imports lots of various chemicals etc.
 

juanita

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Apr 22, 2004
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Rocky said:
I would love to find out that this is the same photographic quality EDTA as I have purchsed, as the savings are great.
In the previous EDTA post, here on DR1, there were links to studies and there were stern warnings about using anything but photographic quality EDTA.
As I am not willing to throw any old junk into my good batteries for maintenance, I would not take the chance.
I would do it on an old junk battery, just to see, but I would always be suspicious that other chemicals were going in ther and reducing the capacity and longevity of my batteries.
I am interested to know how long you have been using the product on your batteries.

I got together with neighbors and friends to share the kilo and we all put it in our batteries about a month ago, so far, all batteries are better then what they were; some were almost dead and came back to life and the other now last longer. These are all batteries that we use for our invertors. With a good shake the power mixed pretty well with the distilled water. For us, so far, this has been a magic powder! :)