How to charge a battery properly??

[Anonymous]

So I went to the local Canadian Tire and I bought a new 14 amp battery for my bike. The girl filled it up and boxed it for me, and I was picking it up, she said I didn't need to charge it because it was already at 12.8 V. That sounded a little fishy to me, but I was in a hurry and left.

I got home and found she didn't fill the electrolyte levels to the right levels... not the end of the world I guess... so I decided to hook up my charger and charge it.

It started charging at 6 amps or so, then I went inside...
After about 10 mins, i thought "maybe thats too high for a motorcycle battery" and disconnected it. Is this the case? Did I just take some life out of my battery?

--wiseguy

[argonsagas]

Your first priority is to ensure you have a proper fill in the battery. Don't worry about the electrolyte being entirely acid. The main requirement is to have the plates covered completely with liquid. Your battery has an air / expansion space above the plates, and there may be varying fluid levels in that space, but, as long as the plates are covered, any differences between the fluid levels in each cell are not important.

If you are down a bit in any one cell, fill the battery to the necessary level with DISTILLED water. Do not try to add any acid.


You use distilled water because it is free from chemicals which could contaminate your battery, and possibly shorten its life.

Unless one or more cells is VERY low on fluids, then water is probably all you need. If you have one cell that has only half the level required to cover the plates, then take the battery back to the store.







As to charge......batteries tend ot come to life when the acid is added, but it will NOT be a full charge. You need to charged the battery S . l . o w . l. y. Overnight. On LOW amperage ( 1 amp to maximum 2 amps per hour)

[Anonymous]

Do you think I damaged the battery by charging it at 6 amps? Or would damage only be incurred if I did this for a long time and repeatedly?

thanks!!!

[Dink]

Higher amperage charging creates problems because it generates HEAT, heat being the enemy of ALL electrical and electronic components, excessive heat speeds the breakdown of the plates in the battery by speeding up the loss of material off the lead plates. So no not enough to worry about but certainly not something to do repeatedly.
Dink