Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Motorbike Battery Care, Maintenance & Fault Finding
If a motorbike is used regularly & a few basic checks are performed once a month, a motorbike battery should be serviceable for at least 3 years. Maintenance free & gel filled batteries require very little maintenance once they have been correctly charged & installed.
However, it is worth remembering that, due to their size, motorcycle batteries can be very temperamental if not properly maintained & will not take much abuse. Correctly charging your battery & checking the battery at least once a month will usually ensure trouble free usage.
Based on numerous years of experience with motorcycle batteries, we have found that a faulty motorbike battery will usually either fail within the first month or won't function correctly from the start. Most motorbike batteries that fail after a month have failed due to being incorrectly charged or due to being abused.
Motorbike batteries are very simple in their construction & the return rate for genuinely faulty batteries due to manufacturing faults is less than 1%. It is worth noting that most motorbike battery warranties only cover manufacturing defects or faults, not abuse by the owner or failure to keep the battery charged.
Common Motorbike Battery Facts
~Although most automotive batteries are referred to as either 6 volt or 12 volt, these numbers are only assigned to batteries to make it easier to distinguish between the 2 types of electrical systems & don't represent the true voltage of a motorbike battery.
~A healthy 12 volt motorbike battery should be between 12.5 & 13.5 volts & a healthy 6 volt battery should be between 6.5 & 7.2 volts if tested on a motorbike whilst resting (ignition switched off)
~Once a 12 volt battery drops below 12.4 volts (while resting) it will start to struggle to start most motorcycles.
~Brand new motorcycle batteries are only charged to about 80% of their full capacity (around 12 volts) which is why they need a top off charge before they are initially used
~Even a motorbike battery that isn't connected to a motorcycle will gradually lose it's charge. Once a battery is filled with electrolyte (battery acid), the chemical reaction that produces electricity starts to work & the process of 'self-discharge' begins. Batteries not connected to a vehicle will discharge slower than connected batteries
~A motorcycle battery charger specially designed for the purpose should always be used to charge a motorbike battery. Car & general automotive chargers use a higher rate of charge which forces a higher current into the battery very quickly. This can lead to overheating & plate damage as motorbike batteries are not built to take this kind of charge. A motorbike battery should be charged at about one tenth it's amp/hour rating (for most motorbike batteries this means about 1-2 amp's per hour).
~Distilled or de-ionized water only should be used to top up a conventional or lead acid battery. Other kinds of water (like tap water) contain elements which will permanently damage the plates in a battery
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