TOPIC:

Just picked up a 1 amp trickle charger for $9.99 brand new at Canadian Tire, regular 29.99 on sale all week in Ontario.

Be careful with those trickle chargers, if you leave them on a battery they do not shut down when the battery is fully charged....trust me I have learned by experience. The sure fire way to go is with a battery tender.....I know they are not cheap but worth every penny to me, I put a 110" motor in my custom and I plug in the tender whenever the bike is not being used. If the battery is not fully charged the motor will not turn over.


Post edited by: Night_Train01, at: 2007/10/10 19:51

Caution!

Night_Train01 has called this one right. I bought the same or similar charger last year from CTC.

I found the trickle charger to be bad for my expensive battery. It boiled off the battery fluid. On a previous post I read that one member in NJ lost his bike, garage and house to a suspected charger related fire!

I have since bought a battery tender from Z1 Enterprises and only use the trickle charger to keep my 100 AH spare car battery charged (in my tool shed 20 feet behind the house).

If I had to do it over again, I would have returned the charger and put the money towards the Battery Tender.

It may not be too late for you. By the way, where are you in Canada? Can you put your location in your signature?

Best of success and let us know what you've done!

Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/10/10 20:33

Youre right, I should have added a Cavaet Emptor.

There was a time I would rather tow my ride home than put Canadian Tire product in it.

Honestly, their batteries and chargers have made vast improvements in recent history.

I've worked with batteries and chargers for 8 years now in the electric lift truck service industry.

I'll check the specific gravity in my 4 month old Yuasa in it's 'as run' state, then perform an acid balance on the cells and monitor voltage and specific gravity on a daily basis, just to see how my knock off battery tender does.

The unit I bought has an auto off feature, did yoursÉ

Rob.

No, my trickle charger does not have an Auto-off feature. What triggers the auto-off? Time or state of charge or other?

I see that you are in Milton. You guys have a shorter milder winter and a longer riding season... good stuff!

Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/10/11 00:29

Guys I bought an automatic trickle charger from Sears about 10 years ago I think for $49.99 at the time, worked great for 7 seasons or so then trashed my Delco deep cycle battery on my 70 chevelle over the winter.
I bought a brand new Battery Tender Jr. for $25 on Ebay this spring and use it on the bike,however I'm a little nervous now about leaving something like that powered up when I'm not around. Now I hear a fellow member burned his garage down ,I'm really unsure wether I should leave this thin plugged in when theres no one home

I have a Battery Tender also, have had it for almost 10 years! Works great, however now that bike sits (since accident) I am a little worried about it hooked up and running 24/7. Before accident I was riding bike 2-3 times a week so did not need tender in between rides. Maybe I should remove battery from bike and let it "tender" off to side by itself in case of problem?

Bluemeanie wrote:

I have a Battery Tender also, have had it for almost 10 years! Works great, however now that bike sits (since accident) I am a little worried about it hooked up and running 24/7. Before accident I was riding bike 2-3 times a week so did not need tender in between rides. Maybe I should remove battery from bike and let it "tender" off to side by itself in case of problem?

Maybe I should remove battery from bike and let it "tender" off to side by itself . . . .
Thinking that's a good idea, and also makes it much easier to monitor the fluid levels in the cells of non-maintenance-free battery.

Bluemeanie - don't use your battery tender on your maintenance free battery unless they indicate it is capable of doing so.

barney - never leave any kind of battery on charge unattended, a weak connection can cause a serious fire hazard. If you need to take off for a couple of days, disconnect it and reconnect on your return. I'm sure your insurance deductable must be worth at least 10 times as much as a new battery.


Perhaps I may shed some light here.

Flooded Lead Acid and Maintenance Free batteries have different discharge curves, static voltage and Ah capacities (assuming same case size). Mixing and matching charger / battery types is an expensive mistake.

MF batteries have a higher voltage when at full charge and full discharge than FLA.

This can be advantageous but due to the non linear discharge curve can leave you with a suddenly unexpected discharged battery.

FLA batteries have a lower operating voltage, but can sustain operating voltage much deeper into the discharge curve.

In my experience a properly maintained FLA battery will actually outperform and outlast a MF battery.

In lay terms, Auto - off chargers monitor static and charging voltage as well as charging current to really center in on the internal resistance of the battery. Superposition is used to charge batteries (charger voltage output is higher than static voltage of battery, turning it from power source to consumer). Once the charging voltage and current have reached a preditermined rate, the charger will turn off. Charging rate is usually controlled by SCRs. Altering the firing angle can produce full to nominal charge with no moving parts.

A MF charger will overcharge a FLA battery, and a FLA charger will undercharge a MF battery.

IMHO, batteries should always be seperated from the bikes during storage, kept indoors and charged in a well ventilated area if possible. Keep in mind that alternators are intended to provide a maintenance type charge, not a deep cycle charge.

sorry, double post.

Post edited by: Saki Jockey, at: 2007/10/11 19:43

I never did trust leaving something plugged in all the time either. The boats I had used deep cycle and cranking batterys and I would charge them and just check the state of charge every 3 or 4 weeks during the winter. Really only had to bring them back up 2 or 3 times during the winter. I have a 1amp charger now that I will use for the bike battery. I will just charge it and check it with a voltmeter every 2 weeks or so. I prefer a manual charger since both auto chargers I had would tend to "cycle" on and off before the battery had a complete charge.

Very informative. Thanks Rob

Saki Jockey wrote:

Bluemeanie - don't use your battery tender on your maintenance free battery unless they indicate it is capable of doing so.

barney - never leave any kind of battery on charge unattended, a weak connection can cause a serious fire hazard. If you need to take off for a couple of days, disconnect it and reconnect on your return. I'm sure your insurance deductable must be worth at least 10 times as much as a new battery.


Perhaps I may shed some light here.

Flooded Lead Acid and Maintenance Free batteries have different discharge curves, static voltage and Ah capacities (assuming same case size). Mixing and matching charger / battery types is an expensive mistake.

MF batteries have a higher voltage when at full charge and full discharge than FLA.

This can be advantageous but due to the non linear discharge curve can leave you with a suddenly unexpected discharged battery.

FLA batteries have a lower operating voltage, but can sustain operating voltage much deeper into the discharge curve.

In my experience a properly maintained FLA battery will actually outperform and outlast a MF battery.

In lay terms, Auto - off chargers monitor static and charging voltage as well as charging current to really center in on the internal resistance of the battery. Superposition is used to charge batteries (charger voltage output is higher than static voltage of battery, turning it from power source to consumer). Once the charging voltage and current have reached a preditermined rate, the charger will turn off. Charging rate is usually controlled by SCRs. Altering the firing angle can produce full to nominal charge with no moving parts.

A MF charger will overcharge a FLA battery, and a FLA charger will undercharge a MF battery.

IMHO, batteries should always be seperated from the bikes during storage, kept indoors and charged in a well ventilated area if possible. Keep in mind that alternators are intended to provide a maintenance type charge, not a deep cycle charge.