here’s a lot of talk going around about this or that battery-charging device that will reverse the ravages of battery sulfation, magically returning an otherwise useless battery to full service. Battery sulfation, if you don’t know, is the destructive chemical process that goes on inside a battery that’s left undercharged. Lead-sulfates normally in solution with the battery acid drop to the bottom of the battery case where they build up in layers and eventually erode the paste material right off the battery plates themselves. They can even form bridges of sulfate crystals between the plates causing a short. It’d be nice to think that some magic box could be hooked up to that battery and cure all this, but here’s the cold, hard truth: once a battery has become sulfated, that’s it. It’s game over, time for a replacement.
     Now, technically, it might be possible to remove some of that sulfation. Apply a strong enough charging voltage to a damaged battery and “pulse” or “spike” the voltage in cycles and you could stir things up enough to dislodge the sulfation from the plates. But what are you left with? That “pulse charge” in no way rebuilds any damage that’s been done. A good analogy is removing rust from a fender. You might be able to cut out the rust, but if you don’t replace it with something just as strong all you’ll end up with is a bigger, rusty hole. Same with a battery. Conceivably you could remove the sulfation, but the battery’s capacity will be reduced accordingly. Battery manufacturers all say the same thing: “Once the battery becomes sulfated buy a new one.” In the marine industry when a battery falls to 60-percent capacity that’s it. In telecommunications the threshold is even higher. Any battery at less than 80-percent power is automatically replaced. Want to try anything less in a motorcycle?
     What’s the cure to sulfation? Simple. Don’t let it happen in the first place. Make sure the battery is kept in tip-top, fully charged condition at all times. That’s easy to do. Get in the habit of hooking up a Deltran Battery Tender every time you pull your bike, ATV or whatever into the garage and your sulfation worries are gone. When the machine’s charging system isn’t maintaining the battery at full-charge the Battery Tender is. There are plenty of Battery Tenders to choose from and they come in all sizes and in prices to fit all budgets. There’s the Battery Tender Plus, the Battery Tender Jr., the Waterproof Battery Tender, the 4-, 5- and 10-Bank Battery Tenders and the big 5-Amp Power Tender. They all include quick-connect leads that make the plug-in a snap, literally. Hook up any one of those Battery Tenders every time you turn the key off for the night, the week or the month and you’ve just done the only real thing you can do to combat battery sulfation.
     It didn’t take a “spike.” It didn’t take a “wave.” It didn’t take a “pulse.” All it took was a Battery Tender, properly applied, and Parts Unlimited carries them all. Make sure your customers have one of them, and get them in the habit of using it.

Deltran's 5.0 Amp Power Tender Plus is a powerful and versatile battery charger which can charge everything batteries up to the largest, such as those found in cars and boats, by automatically dialing its power output up or down accordingly.