Battery died, how to charge?

[cmor15]

Hey so today i left the headlights on at school for a while on my 09 fz6 and the battery died on me. The display wouldnt even light up. First i tried pushing it down a slope putting it in 2nd and engaging the clutch but it didnt work. Tried this about 3 times, the display would come on and engine would pick up a bit but wouldnt run.

So i got some tools, lifted the tank up and got the campus police to help me jump it and this got me home. When i got home i rode the bike around the block several times (at about 4500 rpms) cuz i thought it would charge the battery more or something?. when i shut the bike off and tried to start it up 10 minutes later the display lit up, but it just buzzed/clicked at me.

So I have a battery charger at home but its for a car, the lowest setting it goes on is 5 amps i think.

Someone told me that its safe to use this charger and let it 'trickle charge' overnight but i'm not sure if this is a good idea as maybe its too long???. how long should i let it charge for on this setting???

Or should i just jump the bike then go ride it for a half hour or something and let the bike charge itself? also, at what point does the bike begin to charge the battery, i've read several different things on the forum, some people said 2000rpms.

thanks in advance!

 

[oldfast007]

From what I've read, a battery shouldn't be charged at more 10% of their amp/hour rating. I think our battery is a 10 A/H
..1-2 amps at most for this case, if you can find a battery tender, an overnight would do the trick, good luck! 5 Amps over night may cook it IMO..

 

[Stumbles06]

It's more like 4-5000 revs for the system to start charging.

Leaving it to trickle charge overnight should be ok, but see above post. Put it on just before you go to bed, and remove it as soon as you get up if you're worried about it.
Some batteries will fail after being totally drained of power, but seeing as your bike is fairly new ('09), it should take to charging ok. If the battery was 3-4 years old, I'd suggest replacing it.

The reason you couldn't bump-start it down the slope, the electric fuel pump needs some juice, and sounds like yours was just too flat to run the pump.

Good luck with the charging, hope it all works ok for you.

:rockon:

 

[crazy dave]

i got a nice battery charger / tender from walmart for about 20 bucks...it handles both 6 and 12 volt batteries and shuts itself off when the battery is fully charged. Also came with a connection to run a wire so you dont have to take off the tank to hook it up. ill have to take a look at the name of the product though.

 

[Ryan T]

Battery Tender Jr.

Does wonders, no worry of an overcharge, light lets you know the condition of the charge, and it has cables that stay connected to the battery that you can plug in other accessories (provided you have SAE plug).

You can't go wrong with it.

 

[cmor15]

i got a nice battery charger / tender from walmart for about 20 bucks...it handles both 6 and 12 volt batteries and shuts itself off when the battery is fully charged. Also came with a connection to run a wire so you dont have to take off the tank to hook it up. ill have to take a look at the name of the product though.

Does it charge at 2 amps or whats the lowest setting? yea thanks let me know when you find the name of it maybe ill do that.

 

[crazy dave]

Does it charge at 2 amps or whats the lowest setting? yea thanks let me know when you find the name of it maybe ill do that.

ok its called speed charge by schumacher. It charges at 1.5 amps and it auto detects everything. There are no controls to mess up. it charged my battery from 100 percent dead and works great as a tender as well

 

[cmor15]

Hey everyone so I ended up using this 2 amp charger. I suppose I'll let it charge for no longer than 5 hours??
2 amp x 5 hours = 10 AH

 

[Motogiro]

Hey everyone so I ended up using this 2 amp charger. I suppose I'll let it charge for no longer than 5 hours??
2 amp x 5 hours = 10 AH

Internal resistance of the battery will somewhat regulate it's rate of charge. As the battery reaches it's voltage threshold it's own internal will reduce rate of charge.
I've use an 1156 lamp as a series ballast to reduce current safely when I was concerned with over current. You can use even lower current lamps as a sort of primitive series ballast to limit the current even more. A good rule of thumb is if the battery is cool to the touch it's probably at an okay rate and you can leave it charge for the night. Also keep in mind that batteries can fail and have other problems creating other issues.
Another thing I might mention is wear safety eyeware when you're playing with batteries. They have been know to explode if they don't like somerthing and your eyes will be exposed to not just flying debri but acid that has an equivalent of thousands of degrees F when it hits your eye. Wear yer goggle!
Hell....put your helmet on, face shield down! Hahaha:rockon:

 

[Nick J]

I'm a little curious here. You said you left your lights on. How did you do that? Doesn't everything turn off when you turn your key off?

 

[RJ2112]

I'm a little curious here. You said you left your lights on. How did you do that? Doesn't everything turn off when you turn your key off?

If you stop the motor with the kill switch, and then forget to take the key out of the ignition, the lights will stay on. <experience speaking>:spank:

 

[wolfc70]

If your battery was completely flat, it most likely sulfated. This makes charging much harder as you have to break up the sulfur deposits on the plates. .6-.9 amps at 14-15 volts seems to do this rather well. Almost every battery maintainer will do this to some extent during charging.

If your battery does not hold a charge well, it might have sulfated too severely to have a normal chemical reaction. It is then a fancy paper weight.

You can charge with a 5 amp charger, you just have to baby sit it.

Charge for 15 minutes, then let stand for 1/2 hour. Repeat until charged. This method may still damage the battery, as it will cause it to vent and drop in electrolyte level, but in can be done in a pinch.

This might help: http://www.600riders.com/forum/prod...harger-reviews-multiple-models-long-post.html