Optimate4 goes quickly to green?

[no_akira]

Hello sv650 riders
I got this charger in the post at the weekend, took me the weekend to understand the manual ! It made my brain ache.:scratch:

Eventually I got it, it swaps every half hour between charging or running a testing sequence to verify that the battery is holding the charge.:eek:

However after placing my problem battery on charge it charged for a bit but after about an 30 minutes went to the test sequence. Then went green and stayed there, didnt return to charging.:(

This battery had been totally flat (requiring a bump start) a few days before. Its the original Yusa and is probably about the original battery with the bike ('02 plate).

I get the impression that these clever chargers have problems with GEL batteries ?:confused:

[arenalife]

I've had this before with an automatic charger, wouldn't do anything, just said it was done when it was obviously flat as a pancake. I just got a new battery, was probably knackered. Why was yours flat?

[no_akira]

Because every now and then I can be a real knob and when putting the ignition lock on keep leaving it on the PE setting. Also the battery is as you say obvisously U/S and within a couple of hours is flat.
But I was just hoping the optimate could do a frankenstein

"It's Alive !!!" :smt027

[tigersaw]

It will go green once the battery is 'full' - though thats no indication of the capacity, just that it took a charge, and held that charge.
Best test of a battery is a simple discharge test - run the headlights on it for a minute - go dim? its knackered.
Or you could use a conductance tester,
http://www.midtronics.com/home/products/stationary/stationarytesters/cta2000.aspx
but they are not halfords type stuff

[Sid Squid]

Two things:

1) You haven't got a gel battery in your SV650, it's a sealed lead acid battery like older conventional ones are, only it has clever mixes of metals in its plates so it doesn't gas and lose fluid so no topping up is needed.

2) If the battery is goosed, then no charger, however clever, can get it back.

As a battery gets older, one of the things that suffers is its capacity for charge, essentially it becomes a smaller battery, even though it's still 12v it's no longer 10Ah, (or whatever its capacity was), so it fills and empties more quickly. I suspect this what you are finding with your new charger and old battery.

[dyzio]

2) If the battery is goosed, then no charger, however clever, can get it back.

I had something similar.
Oxford Maximiser switched to green after a minute or two but I couldn't start the bike (wasn't even trying to spin).
Battery was completely dead, yet the charger kept indicating it's ok.

[Sid Squid]

I had something similar.
Oxford Maximiser switched to green after a minute or two but I couldn't start the bike (wasn't even trying to spin).
Battery was completely dead, yet the charger kept indicating it's ok.
I think you've found the same thing as the OP - automatic/smart chargers etc are very good, but they can only do so much. And of course the fact that the charger reports charged so soon on a clearly dead battery is also an indication of the battery's condition - deducing what test results and other such info means is the really important part of diagnosing problems.

[Alpinestarhero]

COuld be time for a new battery for you guys then

Invest in a good one, buying a cheap one is false economy

[Sir Trev]

And keep the new battery on the Optimate. Should last you years and years if it's kept permanently conditioned from new.

My Optimate 2 shows my SV battery as "weak" every now and then when I check it. As the battery is nearly ten years old and has been plugged in to it for the last six years I'd say it was a damn good investment.