29.06.2009

Thermoil takes off

Several visitors to Vertikal Days last week were extolling the virtues of Thermoil, which claims to both extend battery life while reducing maintenance times.

The products almost seem too good to be true, however Aerial Platforms of Leigh, Lancashire has been trialing Thermoil’s De mister battery additive over the past few weeks and director Jason Seddon told Vertikal.net that the results with significant and immediate. He claims that a typical electric scissor lift is now taking up to two hours less time to recharge, while the requirement to top-up has all but vanished.

Seddon took time at Vertikal Days to meet up with Terry Fellner, president of Thermoil Inc of Appleton, Wisconsin, USA which was exhibiting. Speaking to Fellner he said: “ We have noticed from the start of treatment that the units with the additive, charge more quickly than the untreated units and maintain their water levels completely. We are delighted with the results and see it as a standard part of our maintenance management or all our future fleet”.
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Terry Fellner, Jason Seddon and Martin Davies at Vertikal Days

Another visitor from a midlands based access rental company, claimed that having purchased £2,000 worth of Turmoil’s De-sulfater treatment, he has already “rescued” around £3,000 worth of batteries from its scrap area, and put them back into service.

In a statement Thermoil Europe said that Vertikal Days proved a very busy event for with good traffic to its stand and “a large number of very strong enquiries along with immediate orders”.

Vertikal Comment

While we were convinced that the two Thermoil products had some merit, the almost over enthusiastic response from those UK companies that have tried the product is a surprise and almost as 'unreal' as the product claims themselves.

However, unless this is some massive highly organised scam, which to be fair is highly unlikely, the potential benefits from these products appear to be so strong that any company looking to cut costs and improve reliability ought to conduct their own trials.

If those we spoke to are to be believed, the results show up very rapidly and will save electricity usage, through faster recharges and improved battery life between recharges, eliminate topping up time and servicing time and for the longer term extend the battery's working life.

We understand that Thermoil is also looking for dealers throughout Europe.

If you have or are planning to evaluate these products in your fleet, please do let us know how it goes - good, bad or indifferent.