First charge of a new battery.
 

The saga of my cr*p battery continues. Damn thing was totally flat on Tuesday morning (so I had to use the car to come to work). Last night after getting home at 9pm I took the battery off, and put in on charge. At silly o'clock (about 1.30am) I put it back on the bike and started it (started fine, but couldn't really leave the bike running in the street at that time).

This morning it fired and died, then refused to start (damp spark plugs I'm guessing considering how much it rained last night), and repeated attempts just drained the battery.

So, I've bought a new battery (Yuasa YTX12-BS) which arrived today and I have to put the acid in and charge...and here I get a bit stuck. I've read a few different things about how to do that.

I believe I need to pour in the acid, then leave it to stand (some sources say 30 mins, some 4 hours), then charge it up, but again some stuff I've read says put the caps on before charging, others say do not put the caps on as pressure will build up.

Can anyone give me any advice on which is the correct method? The info on the battery seems to suggest that a full charge will be approx 10 hours, but if I need to let it stand for a few hours beforehand, I won't have time to charge it up enough to put on the bike before work tomorrow (and I'd rather not leave a battery charging in the house while I'm at work).

Worse case scenario is I recharge my old one tonight, swear at the bike in the morning and hope the damn thing starts first time. That means I can do this new battery on Monday when I'm at home all day.

I'm confused :confused:

Thanks in advance,

Jo

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

I bought a Yuasa battery a couple years ago and it had a little instruction sheet in it on how to fill and charge etc Jo, i'd say follow that and not what others here might suggest.

IIRC i filled mine, put caps on and ten charged it. But my memory is crap at the best of times so....

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

Don't get too bogged down in the details, it's not a highly sensitive procedure.

Basically add the acid and allow it to stand for maybe an hour or so, just pop the caps in loose at this stage.

What charger do you have?

A lead-acid battery typically likes to be charged at around one tenth of its amp.hour (Ah) capacity, so as you say a full charge over around 10hrs. That battery will be in the region of 10Ah so a charging current of around 1 Amp is good. An Optimate or similar will be in this region, a simpler (possibly older) type charger might increase the charge rate to 2 or 3 Amps. That's not a great issue but in that case you might consider charging for a couple of hrs then stop and allow it to stand an hour or so, then another couple and so on. Higher charge rate will probably generate a bit more gassing, very light fizzing sound is OK, a lot of fizzing or bubbling is not a good idea and indicates too fast a charge rate and can shorten the battery life.

If you can't get the full 10hrs I wouldn't worry too much, but let it stand for the recommended time first and then as much charge time as that allows you.

Don't forget to tighten the caps down before fitting to the bike.

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

I'm refraining from opening the packet with the instructions in until I've got it home and checked it's the same size as my current battery ;)

I really should stop reading stuff on the internet...now I've read that the first charge must be a trickle charge, not a full power charge :confused: I just usually connect my charger, select 'motorbike' (rather than car, boat, etc.) and leave it to charge up.

And is it meant to be done outside? It's not really an option to leave it outside all night in this weather...

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

Shouldn't need charging if it's new...

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

I have an Oxford Maximiser which is kind of similar to an optimate (and only a year old or so).

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

Eh?

But the acid is in a bottle (or rather a number of bottles) so surely it will need charging once I've emptied them into the battery?

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

That should look after the charging for you without any worry of overcharging. \\:D/

(Edit - just follow the instructions with the battery, they will know what's best!)

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

Thanks embee, I'll see if I get time to charge it up tonight :)

Re: First charge of a new battery
 

Nope, because the acid is fully "charged" when you get it. You've got to leave it for a couple of hours though for full charge to develop. But best follow the instructions with the battery...