I remember a little more now, I THINK I read Cadillac was using zener diodes in the alternator. Not sure how they would do that, though that would be charging with more of a square wave rather than a series of brief pulses I would think. Pulses may be better?

Captain Obvious, I will keep an open mind on the subject of unusual ways to charge batteries, not ready to give up yet.

Mike

I bought a desulfator called an Infinitum on line. It is intended to remove sulfate crystals that deposit on the lead plates. I have brought back a few batteries that would no longer take a charge. However there have also been some that I could not revive. The sulfating begins when the battery voltage drops below around 12.5. This is why it is important to maintain a charge. The desulfator emits a high frequency pulse that breaks up the crystals and puts them back into solution. It is designed to work either with a charger or when the car is running/charging with the alternator. For me it was worth the $49.00.

I have one on my mower and one on our family boat, they came from Interstate Batteries and work great.

Don't get me wrong... My snake oil detector has a hair trigger, and I'm not calling snake oil on this one yet. I can't tell you why it wouldn't work.

Haha! Of course, I can't tell you why it SHOULD work either, but that's the point.

The best strike I can come up with AGAINST the concept is the lack of expert consensus and the slow adoption in the market. Theory being that when something really, truly, really proves itself to be a better mouse trap, then the hype factor kicks in and market adoption is strong and rapid. That has not happened in this case.

Best strike I can come up with FOR it is that fact that the concept has been around for so long and nobody has been able to refute the claims. The "where there's smoke there's fire" defense.

I chose to get the CTEK MULTI US 3300, as my research showed a high approval rating. I've used it for several months now and am very pleased with the results. Search Amazon, eBay, etc. and you can find cheaper prices. I paid $53.49 with free shipping.

You can check them out here.....

http://smartercharger.com/products/batterychargers/ctek-multi-us-3300/

Two things

1. Some of my cars sit for months between use and when I wanted to use them, the battery was dead.

2. Batteries in cars that sit for months - were lasting at most 3 1/2 years

About 20 years ago, I got tired of both 1 & 2 above. Started hooking the cars up to battery tenders {float chargers} that I got at the Marine Supply Store. They were broadly used by boat owners here in Clearwater to maintain the charge in stored boats.

Bottom line - all of my cars now start whenever I want to use them and battery life cycle has increased to over 7 years.

FWIW,

Carl B.