Glossary
Sulphation
What is Sulphation?
The formation of coarse lead sulphate crystals on the plates of a lead-acid battery that no longer dissolve during charging. It results from prolonged partial charge or standing in a discharged state.
What matters about Sulphation in practice?
The most common cause is a system that never gets the battery bank completely full — such as a standard alternator with a simple regulator that effectively stops at around 80 percent. The damage is not caused by one event but builds up over months.
It only becomes visible with amp-hour counting: if you can see that full charge is never reached, you know the cause before the capacity drops noticeably.
Related terms
Still unclear?
We are happy to explain it for your specific case.