Re: Seeking advice on battery charging and maintaining
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dompel
Hi guys,
- What causes a battery to fail like this? Is there something I could have done to prevent it?
- When I'm not using my bike for a week or more, should I plug it into the maintainer/charger? Should I leave it plugged in for the entire duration or should I have to plug it in for a day, then leave it unplugged for a couple of weeks?
- I have several things attached to my battery (switched phone charger, switched headlight, etc) is there any reason why I should not plug the charger onto the battery with those items connected? I have been disconnecting them (which is a bit of a hassle) but it would be nice to permanently attach the maintainer/charger terminals together with all of the others -- it would make setting up the charger easier.
You need to top-off with few ml of distilled water to keep the cells wet. Dry cells kill batteries.
Batteries will not discharge unless your bike is going on very frequent and short rides or it is not getting enough voltage from the bike to stay charged. Also a battery will only last a few years before its no longer useful.
Your several things may be causing a parasitic drain from your battery. If they are drawing more than a few mA at-rest, I think that's your problem. Use a meter and check.
Re: Seeking advice on battery charging and maintaining
You're really only supposed to discharge a battery to about 50 to 75% sounds like you're draining it pretty low and then letting it sit there. You can tend the thing all you want but if you kill it over and over it's done. Not saying that's what you are doing but it sounds like it.