A Battery of questions

vibrac

vibrac

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Like many long time motorcyclists I have a few bikes and I note the days are getting shorter soon I shall be draining out all the petrol for the use in mowers next spring and putting the bikes away followed by the spring session of buying a new couple of batteries that did not make it through the winter
Now what I want to do this year is take out all the batteries now fully charged (they are all 12v) and the one out of the Van put them all in line on a warm garage shelf + to + - to- and hook up one charger to keep the lot charged up.
Q what are the limitations?
Q what could possibly go wrong?
I have a smart charger and a basic charger I use the basic sometimes when the smart one doesnt like to discuss charging with a reluctant flat battery and the blunt one forces the conversation to start. otherwise the smart one is preferred.
 
vibrac

vibrac

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I was hoping the power would bring them all to the same level but I suppose the water analogy stalls out.
So...
I start to see a board with wires at the back with lots of parallel nail pairs each pair marked with a day of the week....
 
eharris

eharris

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Batteries are frustratingly fickle things.

For best results you need one charger per battery.

OptiMate are usually quite well recommended for keeping batteries alive over the winter, but as with any technology you get what you pay for and their cheapest seems to be about £40.

The issue with the cheap ones is that they just hold the battery up at a high voltage and slowly they dry out.

One option you could explore is a number of cheap low current chargers, but have them plugged in to a time switch that only runs then for half an hour every day.
 
Colin

Colin

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My cheapskate solution is ONE Oddyssey battery to fit all my BMs. as I can only ride one at a time , and swop it about. The "A" is without a battery, and the Eglis share the same charger alternate weeks (or months)
The van (Camper) is permanently plugged into the mains when not travelling and it's built in charger can do what it will!!! Seems OK so far. The Yam DT battery is dead cheap little 6 volt so that can do what it will as well, in any event it is up for sale.
Anyone want a !977 Yam DT 250, never been offroad and with 3729 miles from new.?
 
Gary Gittleson

Gary Gittleson

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The other drawback to parallel charging not mentioned so far is that different types of batteries, AGM, flooded, lithium etc. have different charge and max voltage requirements. But if they're all the same type and condition and all first brought up to full charge, then maybe it's a good idea. When you think about it, all these batteries are really multiples of single-cell batteries wired in series. In series or parallel, there will always be slight variations in condition of the individual cells. I have an old Yamaha electric golf cart for my wife to run about on here on the farm. It has six six-volt batteries wired in series. A 36-volt automatic charger charges them all together.
 
Albervin

Albervin

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Moto-Batt make an excellent charger that is suitable for 6v and 12v batteries. They are auto-sensing for voltage so automatically go from charge to maintain. They will even give a light that says "bad battery". The last one I bought was AUD$40. I think Jay Leno has a hundred of them.
 
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