Battery Tender not tending very well

[Guest]

2 years ago I bought a new AGM battery for my newly acquired GK and a Deltran Battery Tender to keep it charged up during the off season. Last week when I found out my bike wasn't charging as it should I hooked the Deltran charger up and left it for a few days. I checked with a volt meter today with the charger hooked up then without and it was only showing 11.8 volts either way. I hook up my big charger and set it to 2 amps leave it for a couple hours and the battery by itself now shows 13 volts. I guess my brand new Battery Tender is junk or am I missing something?

[Mekanix]

Charging a battery to 13v constantly will eventually kill it. Maybe that tender is smart and is just gradually bringing it up and then depleting it a bit kind of like cycling it on and off. You could have caught it during an off cycle.

I have one that will charge to 14.4 and then allow the battery to drop to 13.5 and then kick in again, It does that for 3 hours and then it stops charging and allows the battery to drop to 12.7 and then starts making a high frequency clicking noise and maintains 12.7v indefinitly.


Just a thought.

Try it on another battery to see if it starts charging right away.

[tkent02]

Battery tenders tend to ruin batteries.

[Mekanix]

Cheap ones do !! Nothing more than a transformer, a diode and a few resistors.
High quality ones behave better. Not perfect mind you but at least don't boil out a battery slowly over time.

[GSXR7ED]

Battery Tender

Here's the one I use...works Great!



Ed

[Mekanix]

Note: After the battery becomes approximately 75% to 80% recharged, the Battery Tender Plus will go into the absorption mode.
At this time the GREEN LED FLASHES & RED LED remains ON SOLID. After a period of time, possibly as long as 8 hours, it will
go into float / maintenance, storage mode. The RED LED turns OFF & the GREEN LED stays ON SOLID

http://batterytender.com/includes/languages/english/resources/Trouble_Shooting_BT_Plus.pdf

[brownford]

http://batterytender.com/includes/la...ng_BT_Plus.pdf

Quote:
Note: After the battery becomes approximately 75% to 80% recharged, the Battery Tender Plus will go into the absorption mode.
At this time the GREEN LED FLASHES & RED LED remains ON SOLID. After a period of time, possibly as long as 8 hours, it will
go into float / maintenance, storage mode. The RED LED turns OFF & the GREEN LED stays ON SOLID

Obviously mine isn't working correctly as I have NEVER seen the green light on solid, it is always blinking. I guess I should have read the directions a couple of years ago. Too late to return it now.

[chuck hahn]

I like the BATTERY COMPANION. Got mine many years ago from Meijers and its still going strong. Was like 25 or 30 bucks though. Slow trickle charge and automatically goes into cycle of charge and maintain once the battery is fully charged.

[tkent02]

Or you could just charge them once or twice a winter and have them last for years and years and years.

[chuck hahn]

Tom..the Companion is 12 OR 6 volts by the way..select which with a switch on the front. here the one I have and another for considerably less.

Mine...http://www.allbatterysalesandservice...fm/4,5596.html

The other......http://www.farmandfleet.com/products...l#.U0C1vqhdWig

[tkent02]

You can't sell me one at any voltage, I don't use them. My batteries last much longer without any trickling.

[chuck hahn]

Keeping them topped off and a trickler has always made mine last very long times. Had one on the 98 Honda Shadow go for 7 years till finally conking out.

[tkent02]

Keeping them up by charging a few times each winter does it better.

Riding them every few days does too.

[Allie]

Or you could just charge them once or twice a winter and have them last for years and years and years.

I won't argue that you can make a battery last years with diligence. My last one went about 8 years with nothing but the ancient Sears motorcycle charger. I would typically dial in a very low amperage (has a pot for ~.2 to 1.2 amps) and charge it at a very slow rate.

Still you're the only person I've ever heard claim that battery tenders tend to ruin batteries so I remain somewhat skeptical of the claim. I bought a Yuasa tender last year and used it all winter. Of course I'm using a different brand of battery this time but if I don't get at least 5 years out of it maybe you've got something.

[akckhim]

I believe an AGM requires a charger specifically for AGM battery yes? No?