First charge of a new battery.

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Good point Sid. I'd only ever recommend Japanese made Yuasa, Varta, or GS.

Luckily for me I have a very good Varta supplier locally. I've supplied hundreds over the years, & had very few problems with them.


Cheers.

Indeed Varta are the bollox! £50 for a 220CCA 14aH battery. Ive had it for a year and half and my god its had some hammer (in the falco). I took it to be load tested and it held fine. (had starting issues. I think it was the HT leads on their way out... Replaced them and its great again) Tested at 230CCA, so above spec

Only gets upto 12.7V though. Don't know how others are closer to 13.5v?

Originally Posted by Durbs

you still living in 1978? Get a praaaaper battery. Sealed gel, plug it in, bike works.

I've heard mixed reviews with Gel. Maybe on a Sv with lower cranking requirements they are ok but for big **** crank requirements (big twins) they need something with a lot more kick (particularly the CCA part).

I may be misinformed though so if you know better please educate

[ophic]

primary advantage of gel is that they will work upside down, back to front, on the side, etc. Liquid batteries don't take so well to this. However I agree with Greek that they don't tend to put out the same CCA for the battery size.

[Spanner Man]

Originally Posted by Dave20046

Any experience with dynavolt?

Good morning all.


Dynavolt batteries seem to perform pretty well. Mind you, they damn well should do for the price. They seem popular on bikes that are borderline 'under batteried' as standard. Such as 1200 V-Maxes, & some Harleys.

In my opinion they're not really worth the extra expense, over the cost of a good standard battery from a reputable maker. Also, they're no more resistant to abuse, be it intentional, (left to go flat) Or un-intentional (regulator going pop).


Cheers.

Originally Posted by shop_addict

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

I had/have the same but found that my unit lost its display fairly early on and then I believe it did not discharge and recharge the battery. In the end, despite is connected at all times, the battery failed.

I got myself a new battery before taking the bike for a service and simply followed the instructions. Empty the solution into the battery, leave to stand and then charge as necessary. All in all I would say this took about 2 hours. Enough power and time to ride to the dealers.

I decided to by myself an optimate 4, which appears to discharge the battery to a point and then recharge and maintain, very happy with it.

Incidentally, I have a Datatool 4 fitted to my SV and it definitely drains the battery to some extent if not used for a week or so, but again since the new Optimate 4 has been fitted, not problems at all!!

Good Luck

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Spanner Man

Good morning all.


Dynavolt batteries seem to perform pretty well. Mind you, they damn well should do for the price. They seem popular on bikes that are borderline 'under batteried' as standard. Such as 1200 V-Maxes, & some Harleys.

In my opinion they're not really worth the extra expense, over the cost of a good standard battery from a reputable maker. Also, they're no more resistant to abuse, be it intentional, (left to go flat) Or un-intentional (regulator going pop).


Cheers.

Thanks for that spanner man, can get them muchos cheaper than yuasa IIRC so wondered if they were worth considering.

[Spanner Man]

Originally Posted by Dave20046

Thanks for that spanner man, can get them muchos cheaper than yuasa IIRC so wondered if they were worth considering.

Good morning all.


I've just had a quick peruse on the net, & it seems that Dynavolt prices have come down considerably. So, it may be that they're making (or having them made) a cheaper range, in order to cash in on their name.


Cheers.

[Swin]

Originally Posted by tigersaw

NO NO NO NO as a dealer you should know better.
The acid needs time to react with the plates, and a lot of heat and gas is given off in this time. You have to wait until the battery goes cool before sealing, else you will damage it.

The gas being given off is Hydrogen I believe, so as well as leaving the caps off before sealing it, probably best to let it sit for an hour in a reasonably well ventilated area without naked flames close by...

How long should an initial charge take after adding the acid? Mine seems to be taking a long while (3 hours now and the voltage is only just getting to 14v) so my charger is still shoving in 1.2A. The voltage when I first added the acid was 12.5V. Im worried that this battery is already a ****ter.

So anyone know what it means if the charger cant get the voltage over 14V?

[JediGoat]

Mine took about 4 hours or so (including all the faffy tests the charger does after the initial charge).