My bikes battery was at the end of its road and I just bought a new one for it. I hadn't even realized until I got it home that it comes dry/empty and you have to fill up the cells and charge it from dead yourself. I guess it makes sense, because then you know that the battery is "new" even if its been on the shelf for a long time. I've been wanting to buy a charger/tender for a while, and with winter setting in, I think I might as well get one now. I've looked at some online and I know that a bike shop near here sells one, but I'm sort of confused on the best type to get.

The "Battery Tender Junior" seems to be a really popular model, but what I've read says it only works if your battery already has a charge of 3 volts or more. If it's below this, the unit indicates an error, which I guess is some sort of safety feature, but it sounds fuckin stupid to me. Other models I've looked at are fairly vague on what current they charge at, what current they maintain at, whether they can charge a completely dead battery, and so on.
The battery I'm looking to charge is a 14 series (or level or whatever), and the manual it came with says that a 1A charger should have it fully charged in 3-8 hours, or a 1.5A will do it in 2-6. A lot of reviews on 1A and 1.5A units have people saying that they will take 24-48 hours to charge a battery from 0-100%. What gives??? Are these people referring to charging yacht batteries or something?

I want something for 20-30 $$ that will charge at 0.75-1.5 amps (I don't need to be able to adjust it in that range... I just mean a unit that has a charge rate somewhere between those 2) no matter what initial charge the battery has, and be able to properly trickle all winter long without any weird shit happening and burning down our garage while I'm away. If the BTJr is available for ~$25 and has a bunch of unnecessary safety shit programmed into it to keep it from being a flexible tool, a charger without said unnecessary safety shit must exist in this price range also.

What do you guys recommend?

Buy whatever you like and just push start it the first time.

You need to get yourself one of these (http://www.batterymate.com/150-9/) mate. They are "recommended by most motorcycle O.E.’s."

Don't be a fucking cheap cunt. Only wankers buy cheap tools/equipment.

You need to get yourself one of these (http://www.batterymate.com/150-9/) mate. They are "recommended by most motorcycle O.E.’s."

Don't be a fucking cheap cunt. Only wankers buy cheap tools/equipment.

I would say you're an idiot, but let me clarify some things first. I bought the bike for 850 dollars. I bought the new battery for 33 dollars. I'm a full time student who only has income for loose spending in the summer. Now if you still think I should get one of those, you're an idiot. If i'm going to put an additional 600-700 dollars into all this, I'll save it and use it w/what I sell my current bike for to buy a better next bike.

Comrade, are you saying that it's ok to get a new battery started in some improvised fashion? That's something I wasn't sure of... the manual insists you use some sort of controlled environment charger for the first time juicing it up. Is this an excessive precaution?

Fucked if I know. Its a battery, how else would you start it?

Its not like they're delicate.

Well my entire post talks about getting a charger/maintainer to do the job, so I'd guess that that's one other way to do it. And I don't know if the battery is "delicate" cause that term has some leg room depending on who you ask, but it's a plastic box full of sulfuric acid and lead... maybe its not delicate, but that doesn't mean it cant do something violent. I'd rather do it right than fuck the battery up and have to go buy another one. That's why I came to gearheads and asked about it while sober instead of getting stoned and asking HOW I MAKE BATTERY WORK in bad ideas. so "fucked if I know" really isn't helpful or appropriate here. If you don't know the answer, it's best for everybody to just not post one.

Well my entire post talks about getting a charger/maintainer to do the job, so I'd guess that that's one other way to do it. And I don't know if the battery is "delicate" cause that term has some leg room depending on who you ask, but it's a plastic box full of sulfuric acid and lead... maybe its not delicate, but that doesn't mean it cant do something violent. I'd rather do it right than fuck the battery up and have to go buy another one. That's why I came to gearheads and asked about it while sober instead of getting stoned and asking HOW I MAKE BATTERY WORK in bad ideas. so "fucked if I know" really isn't helpful or appropriate here. If you don't know the answer, it's best for everybody to just not post one.

Get the stick out of your arse, you might fall off your bike otherwise.

^ you asked a question and you got an answer, stop moaning.

I'd say there's nothing wrong with kick starting the bike and letting the battery charge.

^ you asked a question and you got an answer, stop moaning.

I'd say there's nothing wrong with kick starting the bike and letting the battery charge.
Actually...sorry guys...there is a lot wrong with that. And lead-acid batteries are delicate things.

You should never take a lead-acid battery down past 70% charge. It won't last long at all, maybe 10 cycles before it starts to lose capacity fast. After that, it's time for a new battery. The plates get thinner and more fragile so once chunks of lead plate start falling off, capacity goes right down.

And they also don't like being a low charge state (less than 40%) for more than a day or so. If you let your bike sit with a low battery for weeks at a time, the plates will sulphte over and...you'll lose capacity...it won't start and it'll end up being another new battery.

Buy a battery maintainer like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100610035&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=100610035&cm_mmc=1hd.com2froogle-_-product_feed-_-D25X-_-100610035

It basically trickle charges at a very low rate to make up for the self-discharge. Lead-acids can't accept charge fast. If you whack a high current into it, it will surface charge meaning only the base of the plates are saturated.

On the other hand, prolonged high current charging causes overheating.

thankyou munkeyQ. I'm no expert, but it has been my understanding since I was little that vehicle batteries aren't idiot-proof like a pack of AA's from walmart. I got myself a charger like the one you linked to

http://tinyurl.com/6nhof8

^ that one, and I have the battery on it now. It can be set to actively charge at 1 amp or 2 amps with the flick of a switch. the battery's manual advises charging at 1 or 1.5, and NEVER over 2, so I have it set for 1 just to be safe. Like I mentioned earlier, the manual says its supposed to take 3-8 hours to reach full charge if your using 1A, but I just looked at the LED indicator and it's already indicating full charge after only 2 hours. It could have switched quite a while before I had looked too. Should I change it to the 2 amp? I thought I read that as you get close to full capacity, it needs a lower current to continue making progress toward 100%, not higher. Any ideas? I don't have a volt meter right now so i can't check what's truly going on, but I'm going to try and borrow a friends later today.

The other thing is, when I filled it with the acid, I got each cell perfectly aligned with the "upper level" marker. The manual said that as you charge the level may go down in which case you should top it off with distilled water. But mine has gone up instead... 2 of the cells are now full to about a quarter inch past the upper level marker. Is this cause for concern? Should I draw some of it out with a pipette, or is it fine?

Looks like a good little thing you got there for the money.

I'm currently pretty knackered so excuse the lack of knowledge, but 2a is pretty high for a float charge. Set it to the lowest charge rate possible - you don't want to overcharge the battery and boil the electrolyte.

The acid can't evaporate from the battery. If the water evaporates, the acid remains in crystalline form. Keeping the water above the maximum mark isn't really a cause for concern unless the battery is subject to extreme overcharging...in which case the acid might bubble out the vents.

Water level dropping is much more of a problem as the plates can be damaged. Don't let any of the plates be dry.

Thanks again Munkey,

Ya I ran the charger on the 1 amp setting, not the 2. I've read reviews of these things claiming your battery is charged (and thus going to maintain mode) when it really isn't, so when it claimed it was done after 2 hours I almost got pissed and thought I'd have to return it because it wasn't working right. I checked it with a multimeter and it registered a sweet 12.8v, again from just 2 hours of 1A charging. My bike's been having a lot of trouble starting on cold mornings, but I think this is going to atleast partially resolve it. The starter motor seems to crank way fucking harder now than it has probably since I bought it over the summer. All in all I'm pretty pleased with how things turned out :-D

If anyone else is looking for a nice basic battery charger/maintainer at a low price (I paid 30 at Napa auto parts but thats still reasonable IMO), this ones got my approval. The guy working there actually recommended it to me over a $50 competitor they stocked. He said he bought the same one to maintain his golfcart in the winter and its worked flawlessly for years.

Cheers,
Jon