Battery Charging
 

Does anyone know if it is OK to trickle charge the OEM gel battery on an ST4s and is it possible to do it in situ, ie using a couple of 17 A. wires that I have for cold-morning starting.
ie. do you have to vent a gel battery , in the same way as you should with a lead/acid one ?
Any advice gratefully rec'd.
Thanks,

AK says the gel batteries are sealed, so you cant ventilate them.
You can trickle charge them with an optimate - which has only 0.6 amp charge - which is a trickle charger, designed to be done in situ.
Wires should be fine, but the optimate has got a lead with it.

A

[Edited on 25-2-2004 by CK]

I was always told that if you connect a battery charger to the battery without disconnecting the battery from the vehicle then you stand a good chance of damaging the alternator.
Do the job right and spend £40 on an Optimate.

IMHO
 

no probs trickle charging a battery connected
The current going into the battery will limit whats taken by other electrical thingies, such as alarms etc.
Why would the alternator be damaged as the on/off switch disables these, otherwise the battery would always be connected to it??
If the battery is rated at say, 10 AH (Ten Ampere Hours) or wotever, then a good rule of thumb for trickle charging is to divide the AH rating by 10 - 15 and this then determines the trickle charge
So you have a battery wiff, for a bike say, 15 AH then between 2.25 Amps and approx 1.5 Amps would trickle charge the battery. Most often the lower rating the better
However...................
This is not the same as battery conditioning, coz all you'd need to keep the battery topped up would probably be about 2% max of AH rating, so for a 15AH batt then if my befuddled brain can do the maths, 300 milliamps which equates to 0.3 of an amp
more wine needed methinks
get an optimate or equiv, it does the bl**dy job fer you
rgds
mort:o:o:o:o

I admit that i havent studied the circuits for the bike but i dont think that the ignition key disables anything that it doesnt need to. It will disable the starter and lighting etc. Cheap battery chargers have a lot of AC in their output - they are not very well smoothed and this can damage the diode pack in the rectifier. Of course this might only apply to old cars that have the recifier built into the alternator. I ruinied one on my old Mini by charging the battery while it was still connected.

I expect modern cars and bikes are much more sophisticated.

Still if you get an optimate you can leave it connected all the time and not have to worry about overcharging etc.

A diode in the rectifier is a one way valve - if you keep forcing power the wrong way, it can damage it, by constant high ampage and a fluctuating power surge.

Modern gel batteries do seem to need a trickle from an optimate, as they dont do the job as well as the old lead acid batteries - but, unfortunately the positioning of these batteries require a sealed battery, so they do not leak.

Hopefully this should improve soon - but doesnt help your situation now.

Modern stuff is better - but best to use the optimate.

Alan

OK, I give up, its off to the Optimate shop and £40+ the lighter.
Battery probably costs rather more than this if I do st** it up.
Interesting stuff tho'.

optimate
 

Belthead
I have used one every winter since getting my st4s as here in switzerland the bike goes in the garage end october and resurfaces generally around april. The optimate is connected with the battery in situ and low and behold, come the spring the duc fires up wonderfully with out a fuss. Optimate - highly recommended.

One extra point worth mentioning is that Optimate do an opptional plug which only costs a few quid and this plugs straight into the power output socket on the LHS below the seat. I believe this "cigar lighter" style socket is only fitted to the ST range, though I'm not 100% sure.

I have mine connected in this way - works a treat and couldn't be easier.

I think its only on the ST4S (not sure about the new range of bikes) My 1999 ST4 and my 1998 ST2 didnt have one.