Battery Charging

[SilverTalon]

Just a quick question here. Is it OK to trickle charge a battery overnight (maybe around 6/7 hours)?

 

[Ebola Monkey]

yes, trickle away.

 

[vfost]

Yes it is, and not only is it ok it actually put a better charge into your battery. If you had a battery that wasnt charging well with a normal quicker charger sometimes you can put them on a trickle charger and they will actually bring them back to life.

 

[SilverTalon]

Can I just leave it in the bike to charge or do i need to take it out and put it on a piece of wood?

Is longer than 6 hours bad?

 

[vfost]

You could just leave it in the bike to charge it with no problem in fact a lot trickle chargers come with leads that you can leave right on the batter for some bikes that have harder to get to battery terminals. As far as how long to leave it on it depends on how dead the battery is really. But on the other hand most trickle chargers i have ever seen have a float setting where they will just maintain a full charge and only come on when the battery is down and then stop when it gets back to a full charge.

 

[happy61]

Not to hijack this thread, but I have a trickle charger lead on my bike and have been putting it on whenever I'm not riding. It seems to boil the battery dry. The green charged light is on but today I went out, removed the lead, and the bike barely turned over. I was lucky to get it started and after I rode I came back and sure enough, the battery was almost dry. I had to add quite a bit of distilled water and half an hour later she pops right off. Second time its happened. It's a 1.5a charger/maintainer. What gives?

 

[vfost]

hmmm not sure what the problem is there. Are you positive your trickle charger is also a maintainer and turns itself on and off as needed? Other than that i would start with the obvious...take the battery out and make sure that the case isnt cracked or anything and it is just leaking out very slowly. On another note if you charger really was boiling your battery enough to boil it dry you would smell a VERY VERY strong odor of rotten eggs (not something you want to happen)

 

[OliverB]

"Trickle Charger" is actually older terminology used before float or maintainer type chargers became common. The trickle chargers did just what the name implies but did not shut off when the battery topped off and could boil the battery dry over time. Most, but not all, low output chargers on the market are of the maintainer/float type that shuts down when the battery tops off. Usually, they come on periodically to sense the level of charge in the battery and charge as needed. These chargers should not exceed 2 amps output and can be left on indefinitely unless they become defective as the one described above may have done.

 

[SilverTalon]

Mine is one that does not turn itself off. The manual says 4-6 hours should do it (for when i ride next)

 

[happy61]

Pretty sure mine is meant to turn itself off when the battery is fully charged. I have an identical one on a car I leave in Florida and have no issues in the car. The overflow of the bike battery is coming out of the overflow tube. I might need to get a meter and check the output of the charger. These batteries hold so little water maybe the output is critical.

 

[SilverTalon]

I just want to make sure I can leave everything hooked up, and just connect the charger while I sleep lol.

I also have to open the little holes on the battery for it to vent at the same time.

 

[drewpy]

make sure the charge is less than 2 amps, any more and it will damage the battery plates being a small battery!
that's why we have motorcycle battery chargers!
mines optimate 0.7amp