Pls share your experience with EPS Power Charger

[Dmzalarm]

Do you guys have experience with EPS Power Charger? Many shops selling them these days.

 

i installed one of this in march this year because I was "convinced" that it could help to increase CCA - dealer show the reading after the installation.

 

However, my car battery die on me twice since then. First time was one wk after the install and second time today.

 

I am now having second thoughts with this "Power Charger" thing, my previous battery was 10 months old when it die and second one is barely 4 months old when it was changed today. Luckily, both were changed under warranty.

 

Both batteries were Amaron maintenance free and I thought this is a reliable brand, so it is unlikely that i had two Amaron die on me within a year.

 

Not sure whether the "power charger" is causing the damage to the battery.

 

 

[Naimed]

Why would you want to increase your CCA in the first place? If you have bought a battery that meets the car manufacturer's requirement, that should be sufficient.

[Jlch_sg]

My wife's car has a power charger (brand: Just Koh) installed. It was ok initially but once we converted the car to an OPC, we only warm-up the car once every 2 days. Our new Amaron battery died on us twice just after 6 months. We have changed to a new Bosch battery recently and removed the power charger ever since.

[Dmzalarm]

increased CCA means battery is less strained during cranking, isn't it?

 

i was hoping this could prolong battery life. :)

[Dmzalarm]

My wife's car has a power charger (brand: Just Koh) installed. It was ok initially but once we converted the car to an OPC, we only warm-up the car once every 2 days. Our new Amaron battery died on us twice just after 6 months. We have changed to a new Bosch battery recently and removed the power charger ever since.

 

similar to the my incident today, didn't drive the car on sunday and battery die this morning.

 

not sure what "power charger" does, but i hope it is not draining the battery. anyway, i have disconnected it and monitor it.

 

 

[Kb27]

Do you guys have experience with EPS Power Charger? Many shops selling them these days.

 

i installed one of this in march this year because I was "convinced" that it could help to increase CCA - dealer show the reading after the installation.

 

However, my car battery die on me twice since then. First time was one wk after the install and second time today.

 

I am now having second thoughts with this "Power Charger" thing, my previous battery was 10 months old when it die and second one is barely 4 months old when it was changed today. Luckily, both were changed under warranty.

 

Both batteries were Amaron maintenance free and I thought this is a reliable brand, so it is unlikely that i had two Amaron die on me within a year.

 

Not sure whether the "power charger" is causing the damage to the battery.

 

Power charger does NOT increase CCA.

It contains capacitors that fooled the meter into reading higher CCA.

 

CCA meter are conductance tester. The capacitors changes the impedance, phase reading, thus resulting in erroneous reading.

 

VS dealers like to use this trick to sell you snake oil.

Edited July 22, 2013 by Kb27

[Dmzalarm]

....

VS dealers like to use this trick to sell you snake oil.

 

real "expense" oil that is,

 

joke aside, i hope this device is not causing battery to fail prematurely and others exercise caution before installing it.

[Naimed]

Most OEM battery that comes with the car can last for 3-6 years with regular driving. The real issue is with daily commute over short distances where you are not able to fully re-charge the battery or you have faulty alternators or starters.

[Kb27]

real "expense" oil that is,

 

joke aside, i hope this device is not causing battery to fail prematurely and others exercise caution before installing it.

 

It depends on how much "drain" on the battery.

 

Battery life is shortened when it sits in a discharged state for prolonged period.

 

To increase your battery life:

1. Remove all electrical loads before cranking engine. That means turning off headlights, blower fans, aircon and clutching-in for manual gear.

2. Avoid discharging the battery unnecessarily, like playing your HU for hours, when washing the car and your engine is not running.

 

There's nothing you can BUY and add-on to increase battery life.

 

It's up to you getting the right habit.

[Acemundo]

Power charger does NOT increase CCA.

It contains capacitors that fooled the meter into reading higher CCA.

 

CCA meter are conductance tester. The capacitors changes the impedance, phase reading, thus resulting in erroneous reading.

 

VS dealers like to use this trick to sell you snake oil.

 

so tis is afterall a voltage stabilizer?

[Kb27]

so tis is afterall a voltage stabilizer?

 

Call it whatever name you want. You would find one or many capacitors inside these kind of box.

 

In my trade, I have to remove the battery from vehicle connection (one of the terminal disconnected) to measure the real CCA value of the battery.

 

Once it connected to the vehicle, the CCA is "masked" by whatever capacitance is present.

 

In fact, it just make the battery "looks good" but actually the battery is already bad and can't crank the engine.

[Acemundo]

Call it whatever name you want. You would find one or many capacitors inside these kind of box.

 

In my trade, I have to remove the battery from vehicle connection (one of the terminal disconnected) to measure the real CCA value of the battery.

 

Once it connected to the vehicle, the CCA is "masked" by whatever capacitance is present.

 

In fact, it just make the battery "looks good" but actually the battery is already bad and can't crank the engine.

hee......that day a was reading a free car mag taken from mobil pump station. and i saw so many customer testimony giving this product the thumbs up. i was wondering if it was a vs and also sceptical whether it is really so good.

 

so when i saw this thread, thought of coming in to clear my doubts.

 

but i used one vs before, the throttle response improved markedly not as great compared to sprint booster. so if the vs is cheap, maybe worthwhile to install. but i find the eps too expensive.

[Kb27]

Have a read at this page:

http://www.peony888.com/VS/sobogus.htm

 

Most stuffs are just some electrical components cobbled together, put in a nice box, and selling you a dream.

[Acemundo]

Have a read at this page:

http://www.peony888.com/VS/sobogus.htm

 

Most stuffs are just some electrical components cobbled together, put in a nice box, and selling you a dream.

 

actually not that I don't understand there is no real horse power gain. but my personal experience for that particular vs is that it does improves throttle response. and I was told it was because traditionally throttle need some time to get the voltage to be sent across when we depress the pedal and this cuts away this lag and therefore improved throttle response. and it coincides with my real life experience. of course I can't vouch for any other models of vs but at least the model I used before in the past works for a heavy-footed driver like me.

 

and then what about sprint booster? it also improves throttle response without increase in BHP right?

[Kb27]

actually not that I don't understand there is no real horse power gain. but my personal experience for that particular vs is that it does improves throttle response. and I was told it was because traditionally throttle need some time to get the voltage to be sent across when we depress the pedal and this cuts away this lag and therefore improved throttle response. and it coincides with my real life experience. of course I can't vouch for any other models of vs but at least the model I used before in the past works for a heavy-footed driver like me.

 

and then what about sprint booster? it also improves throttle response without increase in BHP right?

 

Well, I wouldn't summarily dismiss product ABC or XYZ, but if I were to look at it logically and technically:

 

1. If your car had a cable throttle, what the cable is doing is pulling the butterfly flap, letting in more or less air and changing the TPS resistance value. Over time, the throttle cable could have a lot of slack leading to "slow" response, bcoz it needs to pick up the slack before changing the TPS value. In this case, a simple tightening of the cable would have given you "instant" response. It doesn't cost anything, other than labour.

 

2. If your car had a drive-by-wire throttle, then the mechanical slack is not there. So we look at the rate of change of TPS value or the changing of readings picked up the ecu, which converts to how much power you require. There might be a small time delay depending on how fast the ecu is sampling the readings, which converts to how fast "instant" response. If you want more "instant" response, you probably need to overclock the cpu/ecu

 

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throttle_position_sensor

 

Now, if the TPS signal is terribly noisy leading to a confused ecu, well maybe, some capacitance may clean up the signal.

 

If you look at any black box (VS, EPS charger or any other name) that straddles the battery terminals, the only thing it can possibly do is add capacitance to filter noise.

 

It can't possibly alter the signal from TPS to the ECU, unless you splice into that signal line.

 

So if you think you get a boost from adding a box across the battery terminal, I can't logically and technically explain.

 

It's like scratching an itch that is not there, but you feel relieved.

 

Sellers who claim VS can make your lights brighter, your aircon colder, doesn't know anything about how these stuffs work and make up stories.

[Acemundo]

hee...obviously I am not as technically trained in this area as you.

 

in 1), in simple layman electrical talk, can we say longer wire higher resistance? so when we floor the pedal, it takes some time for the throttle to react and a stable charge maintained at the optima level helps to overcome this lag?

 

I wouldn't discount your idea it can be similarly achieved by tightening the wire although during that time when I bought that VS (many many year ago), never heard any mechanic suggested such a solution before

[Picanyeo]

Hi kb27, looks like you are very knowledgeable in this area. My battery died on me 2 weeks ago. I do not have any electrical devices in my engine compartment. No VS, power charger, grounding etc. On the day that the battery died, there was no weak cranking or obvious signs that the battery is failing.

 

I used to have a pivot VS that shows the minimum voltage when the battery was cranked. It gave a good idea on the condition of the battery. Do you have any idea on how to monitor the battery condition besides using voltage meters? It is certainly scary on how the battery can died on you out of a sudden.

 

Thanks!

[Kb27]

The throttle cable is like what you would see in a bicycle brake system, a steel wire pulling something at the other end.

 

Normally, the cable would be taut with a bit of slack or free play. It is usually set in place and tightened with lock nuts, so a little bit of pull (or stepping on the pedal) would almost immediately pull the throttle plate open and thus the "engine response"

 

The constant pulling and releasing of the cable, either lengthens the steel wire a bit or loosen the cable somehow..so the slack becomes longer. I've seen many older cars that has never adjusted the slack and you can see it hanging loosely. That translates to "delayed" engine response.

 

On the other hand, the cable can't be too tight either or the idling rpm will be too high. That would be the other extreme end of "immediate" response.

 

So the question, the longer the wire, the higher the resistance is quite insignificant here.

 

If you're asking about electrical wires resistance, again, it's insignificant for a short length of maybe 2m wire; used to carry low voltage (TPS signal) and not high current.