Tips for Charging a Motorcycle Battery
In the last post we saw tips to start the bike after a long time stopped and we saw the importance of the battery, one of the components that suffers the most from inactivity. Today we want to dedicate this article to talk in more depth about battery testing and charging and replacement operations.
How do you check the motorcycle battery charge?
Before deciding to charge or replace the battery, the first thing we should do is check its status. To check the status of the battery we have several processes:
Through a tester : which by selecting the appropriate scale of volts in continuous we will measure how much it has
Use a battery tester : which will ask us to enter some battery data and with them, being connected, it will indicate its status: if it needs to charge, if it has to be changed, etc. You can also indicate some percentages corresponding to the current load capacity and know if we should load it or not.
How do you charge a motorcycle battery?
When we consider the simple fact of how we charge the battery of our motorcycle , doubts always arise about which would be the correct way: connected, disconnected, off the motorcycle, etc…. Today many motorcycles are equipped with external connectors, which are prepared or adapted to be able to connect some specific chargers designed by the brand. Even manufacturers of battery chargers adapt them to the specific ones for the brand to be able to use them.
The most correct way to connect the charger to our battery will be to disconnect the battery from the motorcycle and extract it from it, to be able to connect the charger jacks to it. If we use automatic chargers, which is the most common today, depending on their quality, the charger will give us several charging options. In any case, the ideal or most correct option will be slow charging to ensure that our battery is optimally charged.
If they do not give us charging options, it is likely that it will only charge in a certain way and in that case it will depend on the manufacturer of the charger to provide the capacity (either 0.8 amps, 1 amp, 2 amps ...) If it is a simple charger Although this is automatic, it will generally use only slow charges.
In the case that we acquire a high-end charger we will see that they offer several additional functions among which we find some useful and quite common in this type of charger:
Hibernation
Maintenance
Battery test
These types of chargers are usually more expensive but they do the necessary tests to determine the charge that the motorcycle needs.
If our battery is what is commonly called "dead", normally with this type of chargers they will not be of much use to us since they need a minimum charge for the charger to detect the battery and thus be able to recover it. However, we must bear in mind that after recovering a battery, even if it indicates that it is fully charged or indicates that it is in good condition, sometimes it does not recover correctly and when we install it back on the motorcycle it does not have the strength to move the starter motor and thus get our motorcycle in motion. In these cases, despite being told that it is 100%, the battery is really ready to be changed for another.
If we have the possibility of using connectors installed by the motorcycle manufacturer and that are prepared to charge the battery, we will have the advantage that we can directly connect our charger and thus charge the motorcycle without further complication. With this procedure, the charge will reach 100% but it may take a little longer than usual, because our motorcycle, even if we remove the contact, always has some type of consumption generated by the clock, an alarm installed, etc.
The other option that we can find when charging our battery would be to install a special connector ourselves which will be prepared to charge with a specific charger. The only thing we will have to do is install it directly on the battery terminals and thus, without having to disassemble the battery, we can charge it. Normally this type of accessories are sold or supplied with the purchase of a non-original brand charger, but we must inform ourselves if they are included in the purchase or we have to acquire them separately.
In addition, we must take into account the type of battery that I am using, since not all chargers are prepared to charge all types of batteries. We will have to determine what type of battery we have: lead, acid, gel or lithium and be aware that each of them has a different way of charging and our charger has to be able to charge the battery correctly.
How long do you have to charge a motorcycle battery?
The charging time of it will depend on its state, if we have batteries with maintenance we will have to control the electrolyte level if it is low we will have to fill each glass with distilled water and we will bring it to level after that procedure, the charging time will depend on the If it is low it will take longer than if it is with a high load, with automatic chargers the time will be determined by them, we will not be able to decide anything just plug it in and check it every 30min or every hour and we will see the status of it if It has reached 100% so that it can be removed, let it cool a little until it reaches room temperature and we will install it on the motorcycle if we have proceeded to disassemble it.
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