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Battery Options

  • Thread starter Thread starter JungleJustice
  • Start date Start date
Because of the potentially unknown behavior of any particular charger, I tend to have a volt meter attached to the battery so I can see what it is doing. Also my "charger" has an amp meter built in to give me rate of charge. And even though it is a 60 amp capable charger, it does shut off once charged (for lead acid at least).

As stated before, a "trickle charger" is just a tender and generally does not have the amperage capacity of a "charger" to really increase the state of charge of a battery. If the voltage of a lead acid battery does not increase above your free standing voltage by more than a few tenths of a volt (at least 0.5V) then it is not really charging.
A tender might be expected to keep the battery 13.2V (13.2-12.7=0.5V increase) where as a charger will push the voltage to closer to +1.0-1.5 (12.8==> 13.8-14.3V). This of course depends on the battery state of charge and if is still capable of holding a charge.

So you should always watch what the voltage does when you put on your charger or tender or what ever you may have in between.
 
I too use voltage instead of amperage. I can tell how strong my (non AGM) battery is by how quickly it charges up to 14 volts. After it hits 14 volts on my digital volt meter, I let it charge for 15 minutes. I read somewhere that the battery has to charge at 14 volts in order to move electrons or sulfur or something off the lead plates.
 
An AGM will get you through a SW Ohio winter without a tender, but you may need a little help on the first start in the spring. Put it on a trickle charge a bit in advance of the first ride and you should be golden.
If your charge is up, you are correct. If not you can loose an AGM battery just like any other battery if the charge is down and it freezes. I lost two batteries that way when we moved and I had more important things on my mind. One was a Motobat AGM and the other an interstate 1000 CCA battery in my RX8. Battery Tenders are a lot cheaper than batteries.
 
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