| Author | Message | ||
     Uly_man |
To test the condition of your battery. It should hold a charge of no less that 13.2 volts about 90 seconds after charging and hold a static charge of about 12.9 volts after that. If it does NOT then you need to re-condition your battery, with the right charger, for the best battery output. Max volt charge is 14.4 volts and a standby/tender voltage is 13.7 volts. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Uly_man... do you know what the battery reconditioners actually do, and how they do it? | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I used to be able to recondition old dead batteries sometimes. Like 60% success rate. This is with old fashioned liquid acid batteries though. They would be sulfated inside. A non-conductive coating surrounds the plates. They wouldn't even draw current when I applied a charger at first. I would apply a large voltage like 30V in series with a bank of power resistors. The battery wouldn't draw any current really at first but after a while, would "take the bait" and draw current. The resistors were there to ensure that once that happened, the battery wouldn't actually get the 30V. Periodically, I would thump the battery on the ground to shake crap off of the plates. After the battery started to accept current, I would charge it at .5A for a long period of time, say two or three days with the supply set to 14.5-15V. Obviously, I had all the time in the world and not enough money to buy a new battery since I was out of a job. With this method, I got another year out of that battery in my civic. It also worked on my ironhead's battery for another season. I don't think this method would work with AGM batteries. I even experimented by adding fresh acid to a dead AGM battery but it did only two things: #1: JACK #2: SQUAT The price of progress, I guess  | ||
| Uly_man |
You can recondition a AGM battery to a certain extent, with the right charger, and it should be done once in a while. It needs to be done disconnected from the bike and you may need to do it a few times for best results. I did my 06 bikes battery and it will now hold a solid 12.8 volts after 48 hours. That is 0.5 volts better than it ever did before. That 0.5v may seem like nothing but it makes a BIG diff to the starting of the bike. The key thing to understand is the amount of energy the battery can hold. The more electrons the battery plates can hold, via a charge, the more power you will be able to get out of the battery. | ||
| Uly_man |
Ok. An update if of any interest. Put the battery on the charger. It adds a voltage of 14.4 V for a while and then does a test. If the battery drops below 13.2 V it will then do a recondition. I did this a number of times and in the end the battery, both 06 and 10, would hold at 13.5 V and 12.9 V after four hours standing. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Another update from me as well... the original replacement battery from HD that went to crap quickly spent several months on the battery reconditioner. When I walked by every few days, I would reboot the connection to restart the conditioning cycle. It now spins the bike better than before, though it does seem to bleed out faster. So I think I'll keep two HD AGM's, one in the bike, one on the conditioner, and just swap them every few months. | ||
| Jessemc |
So I So I think I'll keep two HD AGM's, one in the bike, one on the conditioner Bill, what conditioner (charger?) do you use? My five year old battery is starting to sound tired, very tired! | ||
| Blake |
I had a similar experience; apparently used-up battery came back to life after repeated charging off the bike. I'm really liking the LiFePO battery in the Uly. It doesn't lose charge like the Pb-AGM, especially during the hot summertime here in East Texas. I'll be replacing the old Cyclone's battery with one when the time comes. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I got one from wal-mart in a pinch, that actually turned out to be a pretty good one. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-XM1-5-Maintai ner-1.5-Amp/15140193 The status indicator is confusing, but other than that it is nice. | ||
| Blake |
Mine is a Schumacher too, a 2A model with a desulfation mode. | ||
| Jessemc |
Thanks for the Schumacher info, Bill and Blake! The Schumachers seem very capable and reasonably priced and I'll be watching out for one of the models with the 50A jump start feature to go on sale. I've got a couple of batteries that have been sitting for a long time and they don't respond at all to my trickle charger. So, I ended up buying a CTEK Multi US 4.3 based on reviews reporting batteries been revived from the grave. Hope it works for me! | ||
| Uly_man |
Although the 10 bike starts better than my 06 bike did it still spins up better with a good battery. You will always get that "stop" thing with the engine depending on what part of the stroke the engine is at but it is normal for the engine and nothing to worry about. The thing to know is that the better the condition of the battery the more power it will absorb and the more starting power you will have. My old 06 battery is still holding 12.8 V after two days standing. |
