Battery storage over the winter

[DaveD(MI)]

I took my 18 month old battery out about a week ago to check the voltage and trickle charge. I have not rode sine around the 1st week of November. Voltmeter said 11.85. Put it on the battery tender overnight (inside the house) and it read 11.82. Left it on for 3 more days and it read 11.81. I thought they should read around 13 - 13.5 when fully charged. Should I consider a cheap Voltmeter for the bike or just run with it?

[Joe Hummer]

Do you have the Battery Tender Jr?  I have had similar results from the Jr.  I ended up throwing the damn thing away and never replaced it.  I guess I should get something new...one of these days. 

Joe

[DaveD(MI)]

Joe, it is the JR. From all I read, I thought these were supposed to be half way decent. My old trickle charger got hot and boiled it if I wasn’t careful. What do you use now for long term maintenance?

[fudgie]

Mine never leaves the bike. Put away in nov and doesnt rise till late march early april. Never had it on a tender in my 10 yrs of owning her. It has always fired.

[Joe Hummer]

Joe, it is the JR. From all I read, I thought these were supposed to be half way decent. My old trickle charger got hot and boiled it if I wasn’t careful. What do you use now for long term maintenance?

I try to start the bikes every week or so.  If I forget or it doesn't start, I will throw my regular charger on the bike and let it charge for an hour or so.  I have had this battery since June 2006.  Hopefully, I will have it for a while longer. 

I will probably get the next model up from the Jr...probably the Waterproof 800. 

Joe

[Ricky-D]

I took my 18 month old battery out about a week ago to check the voltage and trickle charge. I have not rode sine around the 1st week of November. Voltmeter said 11.85. Put it on the battery tender overnight (inside the house) and it read 11.82. Left it on for 3 more days and it read 11.81. I thought they should read around 13 - 13.5 when fully charged. Should I consider a cheap Voltmeter for the bike or just run with it?

Using battery tender and trickle charger interchangeably is indicative of the many battery problems we all are exposed to.

Unless a battery tender is designed for use as a battery charger you should not expect the battery tender to charge a battery. A battery tender is designed to maintain a float charge in a charged battery.

A trickle charger on the other hand is a battery charger, and is not designed to have any other function than to pump amps into the battery. When the battery is fully charged the trickle charger will continue to pump in the amps causing the battery to "cook" and self destruct.

A fully charged battery should be in the neighborhood of 12.8 to 12.9 volts but that is not the full picture. There are procedures to follow to check for a just charged battery. First off, the surface charge needs to be removed in order to get a correct reading.

Here is a link to a lot of good information about batteries:

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

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[DaveD(MI)]

and the link Ricky. I found your information useful. My I/S is a 99 new in 01 and this is only the second battery. First was OEM Yuasa and this is a Wallyworld one, so Im not expecting the same results

[Challenger]

Just a reminder and I learned the hard way. The I/S has a clock and radio memory that will draw on the battery where the Std & Tourer do not. Have never had the Std battery go down from setting, but have had the I/S drain off.

[sandy]

RJ wil confirm this. www.ctek.com I have the 3300 with 2 pigtails so both bikes can be hooked up quickly. It charges and maintains too. It brought my F150 up from completely dead overnight. (left the dome light on)

[John U.]

+ 1 on the Cteck chargers. They are multistage chargers that will also desulphate which (sulphation) is one of the main reasons batteries get weaker as they age.