Recondition Cycle on AGM Battery?

EvilRob

EvilRob

EvilRob

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My car has a 105Ah AGM battery. Battery is 3.5 years old and probably getting a bit knackered.

Recently bought a CTEK 5A charger that has AGM and recondition modes. Worth running a recondition cycle or not? Googling provides differing opinions from good idea to likely to damage battery.
 
Treat the recon mode as an "I've got nothing to lose mode" IMHO.

A couple of years back my wife's battery would go from fresh off the charger to a low battery warning on the dash in less than 2 weeks of light use. Whacked it on the recon mode and it has been perfect ever since. This was on a CTEK MXS 5.0.

It is pretty brutal though, the thing was boiling away like a kettle! As long as you have the AGM mode selected the voltages will be tailored to the battery whether it be a regular charge or a recon.
 
Recondition is just a full discharge followed by a very gradual recharge, starting off with something like 5v and working it's way up. Worked a treat resuscitating our two scooter batteries but neither are AGM so ymmv.
 
Putting on a recond cycle won't help an AGM battery.

Info from Ctek customer support:

Recond program is developed only for flooded batteries (including EFB), to remix the flooded acid inside.
The remixing/balancing is necessary to treat an already stratified battery, or to prevent severe stratification.
AGM or GEL batteries are not flooded, and therefore does not suffer from stratification. That means Recond will not help AGM or GEL.
Reconding an AGM battery does not harm the battery, but does not help either, so we cannot recommend recond program on AGM batteries either.
For GEL batteries, recond can be harmful, because using too high voltage can dry the gel inside the battery and weaken the battery instead of empowering it.
 
dale1uk said:
Putting on a recond cycle won't help an AGM battery.

Info from Ctek customer support:

Recond program is developed only for flooded batteries (including EFB), to remix the flooded acid inside.
The remixing/balancing is necessary to treat an already stratified battery, or to prevent severe stratification.
AGM or GEL batteries are not flooded, and therefore does not suffer from stratification. That means Recond will not help AGM or GEL.
Reconding an AGM battery does not harm the battery, but does not help either, so we cannot recommend recond program on AGM batteries either.
For GEL batteries, recond can be harmful, because using too high voltage can dry the gel inside the battery and weaken the battery instead of empowering it.
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Pretty strange that they have an AGM specific recon program and document it in the user manual then!
 
I know, I have the same charger and an AGM battery so it threw me too. The manual does state that it adds the extra step of the recond mode to the normal battery program, but then goes on to show the AGM recond program in the diagram explaining the different steps.
 
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Diddums said:
Recondition is just a full discharge followed by a very gradual recharge, starting off with something like 5v and working it's way up. Worked a treat resuscitating our two scooter batteries but neither are AGM so ymmv.
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I was always under the impression that the recon charge was at a higher voltage (circa 16V on a regular battery) to get the battery bubbling to redistribute the contents after they had stratified?
 
lordrobs said:
I was always under the impression that the recon charge was at a higher voltage (circa 16V on a regular battery) to get the battery bubbling to redistribute the contents after they had stratified?
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Yep the recon phase of the recon program on the CTEK is 15.8v and starts after battery is pretty much fully charged. However, the manual recommends running the recon program after a deep discharge so if you follow that advice it would work like Diddums says.
 
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