I ended up picking up a Yuasa from my local dealer. I filled the acid and let it sit for about an hour then stuck it on my charger. Charged for about 5 hours at 1 amp and now I'm starting another two hour cycle at 1.5 amps. The voltage at the moment is at 13.26 volts and climbing slowly but surely.
Is this an acceptable voltage for a new battery post-charging? I need to ride the bike tomorrow so I'm deciding whether to pull the battery off the charger tonight (after the 1.5 amp cycle) and install it or let it charge at .5 amps overnight.
What do you guys think?
Most chargers are automatic and will go green or indicate a fully charged battery. It should really sit charging until you get the
"green light".
Most chargers start at a higher unput, say 1.25 and add voltage at a lower rate as the battery nears full charge.
IMHO, I
wouldn't bump the charge higher at the end as you get closer to full charge.
If its not an automatic charger, your probably ok, see the
BOLD part I posted below.
13.2 volts is apparently the magic number..
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FROM THE BATTERY TENDER FAQ SITE:
Background: The motorcycle dealers receive batteries from the manufacturer in a dry state. The plates are dried out, and there is no acid in the cell compartments. (Do not confuse this with a dry-cell battery.) The dealer must fill the individual battery cells with acid and then put them on a shop charger to pre-charge prior to selling them to a customer. As the batteries arrive from the manufacturer, the plates are approximately 80% "formed". The initial pre-charge, post-formation charge, or more correctly, formation-finishing charge, must be conducted at a specific power level and for a specific time period. Each manufacturer has its own recommendations, for example one manufacturer recommends that the charger deliver a constant current equal to 10% to 15% of the battery amp-hour capacity and that the charge current be applied to the battery for a period of 5 to 10 hours.
Answer 1) Certainly if the dealer has properly pre-charged the battery after filling it with acid, then the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES.
Answer 2) If the dealer has not properly pre-charged the
newly filled battery prior to the sale, then the answer is YES, WITH SOME QUALIFICATIONS:
Qualification A) The Battery Tender® Plus should be left on the new battery for a minimum of 24 hours on float, in addition to whatever amount of time it takes for the charger to get to the float stage. It is not clear how to correlate the 80% formed plates with a given state of charge once the cells are filled with acid. To be safe, assume that the batteries require a full 100% charge after the cells are filled.
For example, a 16 Ah battery will take about 13 hours to get to the absorption voltage (constant 14.4 Volts). It may take another 6 to 8 hours to reach the float voltage
(constant 13.2 Volts). This may sound awkward; because what happens is that the battery charge current drops while the absorption voltage is held constant. When the battery current drops to 0.1 amp, or if 6 to hours have elapsed at the absorption voltage, the charger automatically switches its output from 14.4 V to 13.2 V. So it may take the better part of 20 hours to reach the float stage. Add another 24 hours to that and you are at 44 hours. Throw in another 4 hours for good measure and you get a nice round, even 48 hours, or 2 days.
Qualification B) Although there are probably several charging methods that will be equally
