6 Volt Battery Charger For Motorcycle

[Aron Eugine]

Nomatter what kind of Motorcycle or Scooter you own, we can keep it charged. We do not always have the time to take our bikes out for a ride. Life, work and the changing seasons sometimes leaves that machine parked for days, weeks even months at a time. A BatteryMINDer will keep your Motorcycle charged, Maintained and Desulphated to go for a ride anytime you are. Stop buying a new Battery every season and buy a BatteryMINDer instead.

VDC Electronics provides 12-Volt and 24-Volt battery chargers/maintainers/desulphators for all your Motorcycle battery systems. BatteryMINDers are the new generation of SMART, pulse type "computer-on-a-chip" chargers, that safely charge and maintain all size / type / brands of batteries including starter, deep cycle and sealed types including AGM "dry" made by OPTIMA, ODYSSEY, EXIDE, INTERSTATE, et al. They do all of this without ever overcharging, no matter how long they are left on charge - days-weeks-or even months. Dubbed the chargers with "brains," they are the first to fully-automatically reverse the primary cause of early battery failure known as "sulfation". Sulfated batteries once considered beyond recovery can now be brought back to long-term useful condition. Certain models of BatteryMINDers can more than double the useful life of new Motorcycle batteries.

In most cases, you can recharge your motorcycle battery with a trickle charger (also called a battery maintainer.) It will take 1-3 days to charge your motorcycle battery, depending on the charger and how drained your battery was. That said, a slow, gentle charge is the safest way to get the most life out of your motorcycle battery.

No. A 12-volt car battery charger that can charge AGM batteries at 1-2 amps would double well as a motorcycle battery charger. If your smart battery charger has the right settings, you can use it for both your car and your motorcycle.

If your motorcycle battery is 12 volts, then yes. That said, the charger's voltage should match the battery voltage. You could damage both if you mismatch voltages. Some motorcycles have 6-volt systems, and they would require a 6-volt battery charger or a smart battery charger with a 6-volt setting.

Idling your motorcycle is the least effective way to charge your motorcycle battery. Some motorcycles have an alternator, like a car, for generating power for electricity. Some use a stator. Both require significant RPMs from the engine rotor.

The best answer here is via a good smart charger or battery maintainer. This is an essential tool that every motorcycle owner should have in his garage (along with a multimeter). Not only will it recharge a discharged battery, but it will prevent the battery from getting discharged in the first place when it is used according to manufacturer instructions.

Motorcycle and battery manufacturers will tell you that this is not advised, which is sound advice for the most part. A car charging system is way more powerful than a motorcycle and has way too much current for a motorcycle battery to absorb properly.

Jumpstarting these is against all lithium battery manufacturer recommendations. Lithium Batteries should not be jumped as they do not take kindly to being fed lots of amperage when excessively discharged. We recommend a smart lithium charger with a safe recovery feature if your lithium battery is discharged.

Charge time depends on the depth of discharge, the battery's size, and the charger's amp setting. It is recommended to charge slower rather than faster, so generally expect to plan for a minimum of a couple of hours and as much as 24hrs for a full, complete charge when using a motorcycle charger.

The big eye-opener was that none of my automatic chargers would bring the discharged Odyssey back to life. The famous-brand chargers* just turned turtle and flashed the "battery problem" light. *you know, the ones with the yellow name that rhymes "fender," hyped as "charges all batteries."

The old flooded lead acid battery (FLA) has lead plates suspended in liquid battery acid. They have a small vent tube plugged into the top chamber, to allow acid droplets to bypass any delicate motorcycle parts. One advantage of an FLA battery is that you can top up the electrolyte with distilled water, as needed. FLA batteries also have a slightly lower resting voltage, which means the charging system on an old bike will probably keep a FLA battery charged.

Batteries today are mostly "sealed lead/acid" (SLA). Sealing the acid electrolyte inside the case is a huge advantage for reducing corrosion, and enabling safe shipping. You can even lay the bike on its side, without fear of battery acid dribbling out. The downside of an SLA is that there is no way to replace the electrolyte as it slowly evaporates.

The Odyssey battery site recommended an ACI smart charger, and I got the model 1214CC with a capacity of 7.0 Amps. At the time I had other machines, so I obtained an 0.8A Optimate 4. With the new chargers in hand, I excitedly hooked them up and tested the voltages with a digital voltmeter, comparing the new chargers against the old ones in my garage.

At the time I had four motorcycles. My batteries included a Panasonic AGM, a Westco AGM, an Odyssey AGM, and a spare Interstate Cycletron Plus AGM. I connected each charger to each battery for a minimum of 12 hours, and measured the "float" voltage. Then I disconnected the chargers, allowed the batteries to rest for a minimum of 12 hours, and measured the "resting" voltages. I rotated the chargers over several days, with the garage maintained at 65F.

Ideally, both battery chargers and bike voltage regulators would have temperature compensation, but that jacks up the costs. Most bikes have voltage regulators set for average temperatures, and in hot climates they will consistently overcharge batteries.

I installed a ChargeGuard voltmeter on Sparky to be able to read what was happening, and I really liked it. It was comforting to wander by Sparky in the garage with the charger connected, and see 13.6V on the meter.

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When I got it home I measured it with my volt meter and it read 11.81 volts. I took the battery back to the bike shop and tried to explain to them that this battery was in extremely poor state of charge for a brand new battery. They tried to replace it with another one which also read 11.9 volts, which I also politely pointed out was completely discharged and not fit for sale.

After the ensuing verbal spat, telling me in not so uncertain terms what a freak I was and that they'd seen plenty of batteries come back to perfectly serviceable life after dropping to two volts. I got my refund but it wasn't a pleasant experience.

I've bought more than a few batteries over the years and have learnt that it's a good idea to take a volt meter along to test a battery before I buy it. My cut off point is about 12.4 volts, anything lower I won't buy it.

It will then usually drop steadily to 11.5 or something around there, at which point the voltage stays relatively steady until the voltage drops below 10%, at which point the battery is empty enough that it can cause serious damage.

You write that the battery is at 11.8 or 11.9. I'm guessing they've over stored their batteries a bit, but there's almost definitely no permanent damage to the battery from that. If you want to really play it safe, there's no harm going to another garage where the batteries are somewhat newer, but 11.8 volts is probably around an 80% charge. While this isn't the norm, IMHO, it's not unacceptable.

While a battery may show low voltage if it's been sitting on a shelf for a while, when initially charged it should easily show 100%. If it doesn't... potentially a bad battery (or far too old). I would say that 11.9% might be nitpicking a bit... but the claim that a battery at 2% is still a functional battery is a bit of a stretch. While it may indeed be serviceable (ie, be able to be recharged and used), some damage to a 2% battery has almost definitely occurred (depending on the circumstances). After all, something had to drain that battery to 2%... and that something can't be good.

Note that I'm just a layman who just purchased a new starter, new battery, and a new battery tester... and I'm just going by what I read in the tester manual and seen on YouTube. But I believe this is fairly reliable. Something a bit trickier to research and understand is the SOC (state of charge)... having to do with how well the battery accepts a charge. My brand new battery is showing an SOC of 85% and won't go higher... and I've been told that definitely indicates a failing battery. Since it's brand new the store told me to return it for a free replacement and free installation.

A fully-charged 12-volt motorcycle battery should measure about 12.6 - 13.5 volts between terminals depending upon its chemistry.12-volt motorcycle batteries supply useful energy only through a limited voltaic range -- from over 14 volts (when fully charged and rested) down to 10.5 volts in use/under load (this battery is noticed when lights dim, or your motorcycle is hard to start). No 12-volt battery will remain at over 14 volts for more than a few seconds unless it's being charged. The lowest limit is 10.5 volts (used in testing) and obviously unsatisfactory for practical use.If your battery is a flooded lead acid (with caps) check the fluid levels on each cell before charging.

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