[arsenic]

Where are you guys getting this info from?

Experience It tends to be a better teacher then stuff you read on the internet published by the manufacturer of said product.

[steves]

Could always replace the battery with a Shoria from GSXFJim and not need to worry about using a tender at all over the winter.

Those batterys don't slowly discharge, just unhook the leads to make sure the bike doesn't have a low draw anywhere and you would be set.

Krey

FYI, my Shorai dropped in voltage enough between late Oct and Dec that I decided to hook it up to the tender, and I did it again last month. But not for all winter.... I just didn't want to risk losing the fairly expensive battery.

Also we think this was probably caused by the clock.... not discharge.

[rexazz2]

I pull my battery out , put it in the basement on tender all winter
do it every year , no problems

BTW
[U]IF YOU NEED AN ALTERNATOR[U] PM me and I will give you the name of a rebuilder in Kitchener
We had the one for Batgirls rebuilt there and he was very reasonable on price

[Mojoe]

Where are you guys getting this info from? An actual battery tender (not a trickle charger) can be left connected indefinitely without causing any harm.

http://batterytender.com/resources/f...stions#answer9

ok....let me rephrase that part.

from personal experience, I USED to leave my battery on a tender all winter long, and I found myself buying a new battery at least every 2 years. then my dad told me it was too much. I gave him pretty much the same response you did..."I have a battery tender and it is made for that".

his response..."don't buy into that sh*t because they are in with the battery makers. that's what they want you to do...leave it on a charger all the time so it shortens the life of your battery and you have to buy a new one".

to be honest, it made sense to me, so I stopped doing it. and now, after reading all the threads starting on here, I am even more convinced it is true just by the way it is often handled. folks charge the battery too much, it goes dead, they charge it some more, it goes dead faster...then they just give up and buy a new one. then because they are afraid the new one will do the same, they start off by going overboard on the charging. this just happen to be another one of thse things where I think it possible that "less is best". my batteries really do last longer, and as I said before, I have a lot of batteries to deal with, so I certainly have something to use as a reference.

if leaving it on all winter works for you, then by all mean, do it. but from my experience, there is really no advantage to it at all, and in some cases, slowly killed my battery.

a day on a charger, once a month, is plenty. that's all any of mine get, aside from the boat batteries which is every 2 weeks because of running everything they have to run...but once a month is the norm for me. anything more than that serves no real great purpose. if you battery has to be charged more than that, it's not a very good battery.

Experience It tends to be a better teacher then stuff you read on the internet published by the manufacturer of said product.

agreed....especially when the chances of battery makers and battery charger makers being in business together, is very likely.

[Mozzy]

At this point, I'm a bit ****ed that I've gone through two batteries.

[steves]

If you got a Yuasa battery both times, then I would think the rate of failure doesn't sound right. It's possible, but not likely that the tender is bad.

[rexazz2]

At this point, I'm a bit ****ed that I've gone through two batteries.

are you using regular acid filled battery(fill caps) or a maintanence free(sealed)
If you think you can get it over to my place in Waterloo we can put a volt meter on it to see if its charging

[TRPUT]

If it's a maintenance type battery, try topping it up with distilled water (as mentioned above). Charging will "boil" off water. Since it's potentially cactus anyway, I would then hit it with some serious amps for an hour or so to really mix things up and blow some scale around and see if it gains some life.

My bike batteries get "tendered" overnight about every 1 - 2 months. That's been good for 5+ years life. Although we do have a 12 month riding season here.

[Mojoe]

How long can I leave the Battery Tender Plus battery charger connected to a battery?



In theory, you can leave the Battery Tender Plus battery charger connected to a battery forever. Like they say, “Just plug it in and forget about it!” Practically speaking, it is a good idea to check on the battery at least once a week. Strange things can happen. Sometimes a battery can have a weak cell that won’t show up until the worst possible time. Of course, that time is usually when the battery is connected to a charger. If something goes wrong, then you have to deal with the question of the chicken and the egg. Which came first? Did the battery fail because it was connected to the charger or did the charger fail because it was connected to the battery?

No matter how good a product is, anything can break. With a battery and a charger connected together, it’s a much better idea to be proactive and anticipate problems, however unlikely they may be. In more than 99.9% of cases, nothing will go wrong. That still leaves about 0.1% where something might. Learn to respect electricity. A little common sense can go a long way.

actually, upon reading that another time, that response is just nothing but a big loophole. not once did they make a claim that leaving the battery tender on all the time, is 100% safe for the battery. instead, they make sure to state that anything can happen. they even mention the chicken and the egg....did the battery fail, or the charger? that is pretty much the loophole they need for it frying your battery.

it won't do it the first winter you store it. it takes slightly longer than that for it to totally fail. the 2nd winter is likely to the most damage....right about after the warranty on your battery has expired.

personally, I think they have it down to a science, both the makers of batteries and chargers. one sell you the battery, and the other sells you a charger known to be "safe" to just leave hooked up all winter. then when the 2nd winter does your battery in for good, and the warranty is long gone, you have to buy another. they really are making a lot of money off of that.

If it's a maintenance type battery, try topping it up with distilled water (as mentioned above). Charging will "boil" off water. Since it's potentially cactus anyway, I would then hit it with some serious amps for an hour or so to really mix things up and blow some scale around and see if it gains some life.

My bike batteries get "tendered" overnight about every 1 - 2 months. That's been good for 5+ years life. Although we do have a 12 month riding season here.

that's the right way to do it, and 5+ years sounds about right like that.

[KAT TOY]

vibration kills batteries as well. be sure the battery is properly secured and not flopping around.

[thetable]

I've never hooked a battery to a tender, something about riding 12 months, they all seem to last just fine, other than the crap battery in the Buell, and the 7 year old battery in the Kat.

[Ninty2lxcoupe]

Does the battery tender you have say automatic or manual? If its not a automatic tender, it would have over charged the battery causing a short in the battery. Even tho you cannot tell it with a battery tester the best thing to do is to make sure its fully charged, then disconnect the cables over night and measure the voltage. If its fallen the plates in the battery have been burnt from overcharging. This in return would cause it to short and drain the battery over a certain period of time.

I see this allot of time from having to do battery warranty's at work and asking what kind of tender people have and most of the time they are manual. Just a thought..

[Kreylyn]

FYI, my Shorai dropped in voltage enough between late Oct and Dec that I decided to hook it up to the tender, and I did it again last month. But not for all winter.... I just didn't want to risk losing the fairly expensive battery.

Also we think this was probably caused by the clock.... not discharge.

Why I mentioned disconnecting the leads to the battery for the "storage" period. It's amazing what can cause small amounts of draw or discharge to cause a problem over the long run.

Krey

[Mojoe]

FYI, my Shorai dropped in voltage enough between late Oct and Dec that I decided to hook it up to the tender, and I did it again last month. But not for all winter.... I just didn't want to risk losing the fairly expensive battery.

Also we think this was probably caused by the clock.... not discharge.

cold will cause the voltage to drop as well. it shouldn't be the clock that did it, but then again I am not sure how your clock is powered. on my kat the clock has it's own battery. I would assume yours must as well or else you would have to keep resetting the clock each time you disconnect the battery.
speaking of clocks...they need to make bike batteries like the clock battery on my kat. my kat is a 92 and the clock battery has seen the cold of winter for 20 years and it is still going strong.

Does the battery tender you have say automatic or manual? If its not a automatic tender, it would have over charged the battery causing a short in the battery. Even tho you cannot tell it with a battery tester the best thing to do is to make sure its fully charged, then disconnect the cables over night and measure the voltage. If its fallen the plates in the battery have been burnt from overcharging. This in return would cause it to short and drain the battery over a certain period of time.

I see this allot of time from having to do battery warranty's at work and asking what kind of tender people have and most of the time they are manual. Just a thought..

well for sure I would not leave a battery on a tender if it wasn't automatic, but even then I wouldn't trust it. I guess it all depends on how it cycles. you know...like it is designed to shut off at 12.6v, but then turns back on at 12.5 or 12.4, then it might as well be a manual tender and will probably still be over charging.......as opposed to a tender that cycles off at 12.6, but will not cycle back on until the voltage drops below 12v.

I don't know if the tender states this in the directions or not, but it should if they really are concerned about your battery. but my guess is that they don't say....this way the end user can see it is cycling on-off and they assume the tender is working as it should, but it is still charging too much.

[kat600rdr]

My first year with the Kat, but with my race quads and the Kat.. All having Yausa batteries... I take them out and take them and store them in the house. Anything else in the carage with a battery.. I just disconnect when not in use. When I used to leave them in the garage for the winter, I never had good luck.