Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Help with Optimate

[Tantrum992]

Doe's anyone know what desulphate means on my Optimate
Ive allways hooked what ever bike ive owned up to the charger as soon as i put it away and have never seen this light aluminated before.......

The Multistrada has been at my local dealers for about six weeks, got it back yesterday, put it in the garage but left it till this morning to plug the charger in, it went straight to desulphate and stayed there for the next few hours, when i next looked it had gone to weak not charge i tried starting her which she did instanly but the turnover was very slow. Ive since switched the Optimate off and then back on again to see what happens and it went straight to desulphate again, anyone help me

Cheers Simon

[Duke2BSteve]

Had a look through my booklet, and found this;

Tests the battery for possible deep discharge or sulphation. If necessary, the OptiMate IIISP automatically engages a special high voltage recovery mode (maximum 22V) with controlled very low fixed current, so as to desulphate very flat batteries, for up to 2 hours, controlled by an internal timer.

Sound like you batteries flat as a pan cake...

probably due to being sat at the dealers in near zero temps .....

[Glyn]

my battery is well fooked
its been doin the desulphate thing for the last year
but now it really is time to replace as it barely holds a charge

[Dementor]

Had to push my Numpty home today, battery U/S and it's the second one on a 18 month old bike Duc batteries are really cr*p I keep the optimate on all the time!

[raykay748R]

Basically the desulphate light comes on when the plates are (for want of a better word) coked up.
Imagine two stroke or diesel engine lazily doing it's job and never being worked hard, which they all enjoy and most importantly they all need!!
The optimate applys a discharge/charge programme which tries to coax some life back into the (coked up) cells. But to be honest it's probably close to it's last legs anyway. If it does manage to get it back to life I'd still start sourcing another battery all the same. Good luck

[Tantrum992]

Thanx for the feed back guy's.

Did'nt have chance to check it this morning before i left for work but ill take a look later to see what its doing. Hope its not fooked Battery was fine when the bike went in for some warranty work, so ill be a bit peeved if its gonna cost me a battery cause it sat there so long.

Simon