OPTIMATE III SP

anyone got one ?

ive connected the terminals to the bikes battery, plugged it into the mains and turned it on.

the orange light came on, to let me know it was charging, then it started flashing, letting me know that its checking the condition of the battery, then the green came on to let me know its fully charged and it thats it trickle charging the battery. all within an hour.

i turned it off, then turned it back on agian, and then it goes through the cycle all over again,

i was under the impression that it would check your battery and decide wether it was full, or not, as whether to charge it, or trickle charge it.

but to me, it just seems to run a set program.


your thoughts ?
does this sound normal ?

the instructions didnt make much sense to me by the way.

sounds ok,

it will run the set program & only differ if your battery is dead.

if your battery is dead it will turn to red after after turning on.

HTH

ok, but would giving it a charge, when its already full not knacker the battery ?


and im i correct in thinking that when the light goes green, it is fully charged and switches to maintain mode ? (trickle charge ?)

[northwind]

Nah, it's a real trickle, shouldn't be a problem. I was a bit stumped when I got mine, the old one just did "desulphate-charge-maintain", this one's like a disco

http://forums.sv650.org/viewtopic.ph...light=optimate

or

http://www.accumate.co.uk/it010003.html

Originally Posted by Warren

ok, but would giving it a charge, when its already full not knacker the battery ?

Not if it's a trickle charge

and im i correct in thinking that when the light goes green, it is fully charged and switches to maintain mode ? (trickle charge ?)[/quote]

Yes. It sounds normal. Plug it in, and forget about it.[/quote]

[northwind]

Slightly unimpressed with mine... It reported fully charged and on maintain with my spare battery, but it turns out to be almost totally dead. I'm sure it had as much charge as it's capable of holding, but that's not the same thing as being healthy. Not the charger's fault the battery's fraggled though.

I am starting to believe these chargers are a con. My optimate works as it should, you plug it on light goes yellow and i suppose it charges because a few hours later the light goes green fine the only thing is a day or so later when the alarm runs the battery down it doesnt recharge just lets the battery discharge. well thats no bloody use. if i reconnect it it starts to chatge and does bring the battery back up but it doesnt stop the battery from dying over the space of a fornight.

[Sid Squid]

The charger isn't a con, Otimates etc work very well and definitely better than the average battery charger. Nothing can resurrect a shagged battery, but I've been more than once surprised at how well an Optimate has done on a battery that I thought was useless.
It can't work miracles though, if your battery really is knackered or your bike/alarm has a fault there's nothing a battery charger can do to fix that.

[northwind]

It does sound like it's not maintaining right here though, to me.