Wise to check battery?

[Arctic Fox]

I have this battery in my Nevada:


And I bought this ''genuine'' battery charger:


Now my bike is in warm garage (for winter season). Bike will stand there until middle of May 2021 (''half year''). I removed battery by myself  .

Would it make good for battery (lifetime) to charge it time to time now? Or will it be ok and enough to charge it just before put it back to bike?

[guzzisteve]

Plug it in 1 day a month, most recommend this schedule.

[jwinwi]

Depends how many amps your charger has...
With a 1 amp charger I charge mine on for about 1 day every month.
The closer to fully charged a battery is, the longer it will last. So best to keep it as fully charged as possible. Make sure to keep the fluid level up with distilled water. 

[Tom]

Both previous posts.   

[Arctic Fox]

I found this about that charger:

''BENTON BX-1 is a smart, 5-step fully automatic switch mode battery charger and maintainer, designed for charging a variety of SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries, widely used in motorcycles, cars, boats, ATVs, trucks, Jet Skis and Snowmobiles. The batteries may be of various types i.e. WET/Flooded, GEL, AGM batteries capacity from 12V/1.2 Ah to 12V/120 Ah. The BX-1 also charges batteries in cold conditions, recovers slightly sulfated batteries and rescues drained batteries. It provides trickle charge & maintenance charging to increase battery life and gives superb performance.''

[lucky phil]

I have this battery in my Nevada:


And I bought this ''genuine'' battery charger:


Now my bike is in warm garage (for winter season). Bike will stand there until middle of May 2021 (''half year''). I removed battery by myself  .

Would it make good for battery (lifetime) to charge it time to time now? Or will it be ok and enough to charge it just before put it back to bike?

If you want the gold standard way to treat a battery not in service it would be to get yourself an old taillight/stoplight bulb and solder a couple of leads to it and once a week hook it up to the battery and leave it on until the battery voltage drops to 12.4 and then charge it up again to full voltage at a low charge rate, (starting around 2-3 amps/hr) on a bench charger. Repeat the process weekly or maybe fortnightly. Batteries like to be used, even sitting around on a trickle charger/maintainer isn't the best for them it's just the most convenient for the user.

Ciao   

[Guzzistajohn]

If you want the gold standard way to treat a battery not in service it would be to get yourself an old taillight/stoplight bulb and solder a couple of leads to it and once a week hook it up to the battery and leave it on until the battery voltage drops to 12.4 and then charge it up again to full voltage at a low charge rate, (starting around 2-3 amps/hr) on a bench charger. Repeat the process weekly or maybe fortnightly. Batteries like to be used, even sitting around on a trickle charger/maintainer isn't the best for them it's just the most convenient for the user.

Ciao   

Good advice, ^^^ never thought of that!

[Tom]

Some guys plug the charger into their garage door opener. 

[lucky phil]

Some guys plug the charger into their garage door opener.

Do you mean run the garage door opener off the battery to use it during storage?

Ciao

[lucky phil]

Good advice, ^^^ never thought of that!

I'm in the process of trying to recover a battery at the moment by running it totally down and fully charging it. I have 4 bikes and 3 of them rarely get ridden ( track bikes) and I'm sick of buying expensive batteries because although they are kept on dedicated maintenance chargers they only last 2 or 3 years. They just sulphate up. I'm going to create a little dedicated battery service and maintenance spot in the workshop to exercise batteries and keep them healthy by exercising them. The things are too expensive these days to only get a few years out of them.

Ciao

[Tom]

Do you mean run the garage door opener off the battery to use it during storage?

Ciao

To periodically run the charger to the battery on full charge rather than a maintainer charger or you could run a timer to a charger to do a daily blast.

[lucky phil]

To periodically run the charger to the battery on full charge rather than a maintainer charger or you could run a timer to a charger to do a daily blast.

Oh ok. The problem is though you need to actually load and drain the battery to a significant degree then bring it back up to full charge. Sitting at full charge doesnt do them any favours and if they are hit with the charger at full capacity a modern charger will almost instantly sense the charge status and either disconnect or just go into trickle/float mode.
Hooking the battery up to the garage door opener and onto the charger may be an idea though.

Ciao

[Guzzistajohn]

 I’ve used this resistor to apply a lode and recharge too.

[zebraranger]

Smart battery maintainers (not battery chargers) are designed for long term use (months). I've been using them for over ten years (Schumacher 2 amp) and they not only extend the life of the battery, but pretty much eliminate battery problems. I usually have six of them going at a time between the bikes, riding mower, emergency home generator & wifes scooter. All the batteries have the permanent tender plugs attached to them.

[moto-uno]

  Heaven forbid anyone would simply go on the manufacturers website and follow their suggestions .
  (It's been a while since I've seen a non-AGM battery for a motorcycle .)  Peter

[guzziart]

  Heaven forbid anyone would simply go on the manufacturers website and follow their suggestions .
  (It's been a while since I've seen a non-AGM battery for a motorcycle .)  Peter

Yeah, no more conventional lead acid batteries for me...only maintenance free/agm's and more recently I put a Truegel "gel" sealed battery into my '72 Honda CL350...we'll see how that works out. 

And, FWIW, I use a Battery Tender Jr on all of them...the oldest battery I have in service is a 10 yo Odyssey.

Just sayin', don't mean to start a debate.

Art

[Lannis]

Yeah, no more conventional lead acid batteries for me...only maintenance free/agm's and more recently I put a Truegel "gel" sealed battery into my '72 Honda CL350...we'll see how that works out. 

And, FWIW, I use a Battery Tender Jr on all of them...the oldest battery I have in service is a 10 yo Odyssey.

Just sayin', don't mean to start a debate.

Art

Same for me.   No more open buckets of sulfuric acid splashing around under my motorcycle seat, like the batteries on a U-boat.   Sealed, gel, or AGM for me from now on.

And a battery load tester.   The amount of frustration, expense, and wasted labor that I've seen over the years on these lists, Guzzi and British, that could have been avoided if people would JUST invest in a battery load tester ...

Lannis

[Wayne Orwig]

Would it make good for battery (lifetime) to charge it time to time now? Or will it be ok and enough to charge it just before put it back to bike?

I have often read that a lead acid battery can self discharge by as much as 1% per day. 3 months and it is dead. (though a good AGM does not discharge that fast)
It is also common to see references that discharging below 50%, will cause sulfation that can't be reversed. And one month might be as much as 30% discharge.
So from that bit of info, the "charge it at least once a month" is a pretty safe plan. With a smart charger that you trust of course.

[Ncdan]

Two questions
Is all this charging info and suggestions Noll and void if the bike is regularly ridden year around?
And is this still recommended for a sealed battery ( which Ive read and been told is the best battery)

[Wayne Orwig]

Two questions
Is all this charging info and suggestions Noll and void if the bike is regularly ridden year around?
And is this still recommended for a sealed battery ( which Ive read and been told is the best battery)

Back when I would commute daily I seldom charged the bike. (the bike charger would charge at 14.3V or so) Though I occasionally did use a charger, just because the charger I used claimed to desulfate the battery. I would generally get a very long battery life, so that 'formula' worked well for me.

Sealed batteries are usually better, but if the charging system ever over charges, the battery will lose water and die quickly. An old wet cell that gets a bit of overcharge often just needs topped off with water. I prefer sealed batteries, just so I don't have to deal with acid corrosion and spills.

[davedude]

 https://www.batterystuff.com/powersports-batteries/sYTX14AHL-BS.html
I don't know if they're available to you, but these have been great for our Nevada (for next time).
DB

[lucky phil]

Same for me.   No more open buckets of sulfuric acid splashing around under my motorcycle seat, like the batteries on a U-boat.   Sealed, gel, or AGM for me from now on.

And a battery load tester.   The amount of frustration, expense, and wasted labor that I've seen over the years on these lists, Guzzi and British, that could have been avoided if people would JUST invest in a battery load tester ...

Lannis

I've thought of a load tester but a recent experience has made me pause. I had a battery load tested and it passed fine but was still no good. The battery failed suddenly and would only register 10.4 volts so it got pulled. I re tested the voltage and its back to 12.7 or so. Off to the battery shop and load tested and its passed. Bought a new battery anyway (the car was 3 years old on its original battery) Fitted the new battery and all good. Put the original on the bench and topped it off with the bench charger to 13 or so volts. Next day its 10.4 volts again. What happened? Well I think what's happened is the battery has shed material from the plates as they do and eventually that material builds up in the bottom of the case and shorts out a cell. Removing the battery shakes it up a little and the material goes back into suspension for a while and the battery recovers its voltage and passes the load test. Sitting overnight everything settles again and your back to a shorted cell and 10.4 volts.
Modern cars with all the electronics and accessories and auto start/stop are very hard on batteries. 4 years of suburban driving is about all you can expect. When they fail the car doesn't even recognise the low voltage, the electronics just go crazy with all sorts of spurious warnings, that's a good indication the battery is toast. BTW I also invested in a cable clamp load tester to check the parasitic consumption and was surprised to learn that before you can do this check on the cars electrical system you need to wait at least 45 minutes. That's how long all the on board electronics take to fully shut down after you turn the ignition off. And it's right they do.

Ciao 

[lucky phil]

Two questions
Is all this charging info and suggestions Noll and void if the bike is regularly ridden year around?
And is this still recommended for a sealed battery ( which Ive read and been told is the best battery)

The best battery life is obtained by regular use. If the vehicle is used every day or every second day and is driven for at least say 10klm each time its started to fully recharge the battery after the high current draw from starting then that's about perfect for the battery. Add to that stable ambient temperature around 20-25 deg C and no deep cycling and the battery will be very happy with a long life.
Since the battery failed after 3 years in my car I have disabled the " lights on" for 30 seconds after stopping the engine option. My battery may just have been a less than optimal one but i'd like to get better than 3 years from a battery. I also have the city start/stop function turned off and have never used it since the car was new so that wasn't a n influence on the battery life.

Ciao

[kingoffleece]

I'm always curious reading reports about battery tender type product use.  It almost never mirrors our experience.
We have 2 or so always going at our sh0p for various things".  Summer only cars, sleds, mowers, all kinds of stuff, including plow trucks (plowing is murder on a battery).  Since 2001 we have never had a dead battery on anything ever.  We use high quality CTEK and Optimate maintainers.

As an aside, those who use Odessay AGM's should look at the tech section.  According to the OEM, that product requires a specific "tender" and also requires a higher output than many motorcycles put out.  Will they work otherwise?  Yes, according to the tech help line, but they will not deliver full life if not treated properly during their expected life use.  As you may expect, this seems to contradict empirical evidence from some inmates.  YMMV.

[lucky phil]

I'm always curious reading reports about battery tender type product use.  It almost never mirrors our experience.
We have 2 or so always going at our sh0p for various things".  Summer only cars, sleds, mowers, all kinds of stuff, including plow trucks (plowing is murder on a battery).  Since 2001 we have never had a dead battery on anything ever.  We use high quality CTEK and Optimate maintainers.

As an aside, those who use Odessay AGM's should look at the tech section.  According to the OEM, that product requires a specific "tender" and also requires a higher output than many motorcycles put out.  Will they work otherwise?  Yes, according to the tech help line, but they will not deliver full life if not treated properly during their expected life use.  As you may expect, this seems to contradict empirical evidence from some inmates.  YMMV.

I think there's a difference for batteries that go on the tender for 3-5 months and ones that might spend 12-24 months or more on a tender. There's also the question of what its going to start. I'm sure a battery that's going to be required to start a Japanese in line 4 isn't going to be under as much duress as one that's asked to start a Big V twin Ducati or a Guzzi twin so any loss of capacity is more greatly felt.
It also seems larger batteries like trucks use tend to last longer anyway.

Ciao

[lucky phil]

I'm always curious reading reports about battery tender type product use.  It almost never mirrors our experience.
We have 2 or so always going at our sh0p for various things".  Summer only cars, sleds, mowers, all kinds of stuff, including plow trucks (plowing is murder on a battery).  Since 2001 we have never had a dead battery on anything ever.  We use high quality CTEK and Optimate maintainers.

As an aside, those who use Odessay AGM's should look at the tech section.  According to the OEM, that product requires a specific "tender" and also requires a higher output than many motorcycles put out.  Will they work otherwise?  Yes, according to the tech help line, but they will not deliver full life if not treated properly during their expected life use.  As you may expect, this seems to contradict empirical evidence from some inmates.  YMMV.

I think there's a difference for batteries that go on the tender for 3-5 months and ones that might spend 12-24 months or more on a tender. There's also the question of what its going to start. I'm sure a battery that's going to be required to start a Japanese in line 4 isn't going to be under as much duress as one that's asked to start a Big V twin Ducati or a Guzzi twin so any loss of capacity is more greatly felt.
It also seems larger batteries like trucks use tend to last longer anyway.

Ciao

[Tom H]

I've thought of a load tester but a recent experience has made me pause. I had a battery load tested and it passed fine but was still no good. The battery failed suddenly and would only register 10.4 volts so it got pulled. I re tested the voltage and its back to 12.7 or so. Off to the battery shop and load tested and its passed. Bought a new battery anyway (the car was 3 years old on its original battery) Fitted the new battery and all good. Put the original on the bench and topped it off with the bench charger to 13 or so volts. Next day its 10.4 volts again. What happened? Well I think what's happened is the battery has shed material from the plates as they do and eventually that material builds up in the bottom of the case and shorts out a cell. Removing the battery shakes it up a little and the material goes back into suspension for a while and the battery recovers its voltage and passes the load test. Sitting overnight everything settles again and your back to a shorted cell and 10.4 volts.
Modern cars with all the electronics and accessories and auto start/stop are very hard on batteries. 4 years of suburban driving is about all you can expect. When they fail the car doesn't even recognise the low voltage, the electronics just go crazy with all sorts of spurious warnings, that's a good indication the battery is toast. BTW I also invested in a cable clamp load tester to check the parasitic consumption and was surprised to learn that before you can do this check on the cars electrical system you need to wait at least 45 minutes. That's how long all the on board electronics take to fully shut down after you turn the ignition off. And it's right they do.

Ciao

I had the same experience with my truck. I kept getting a low battery warning. 2 places said the battery was fine. I replaced it even though they said it was good.

Some years ago, a car started fine. Stopped at the grocery store for about an hour. Tried to start it and the dash lights went crazy, just like you said. New vehicles have issues with low battery.

Tom

[Arctic Fox]

I have this battery in my Nevada:


And I bought this ''genuine'' battery charger:


Now my bike is in warm garage (for winter season). Bike will stand there until middle of May 2021 (''half year''). I removed battery by myself  .

Would it make good for battery (lifetime) to charge it time to time now? Or will it be ok and enough to charge it just before put it back to bike?

Is it sure that my battery is a type to which batter water can be added (if needed)?

[lucky phil]

Yes.

Ciao

[kingoffleece]

There might be a difference but I'd have to see data that supports it.  I'm sure I don't know empirically.