Battery Charging

[RantMachine]

Hi again,

As mentioned recently, I'm trying to get my old bike back up and running before the week is done. Got a new battery, but it's a bit different to the ones I've had before... Both bikes came with vented lead acid batteries, and I've got a Halfords Bike It Maintenance Charger for them. This new battery is of the sealed maintenance free variety, and I've read somewhere or other that some types of charger may not be suitable. Anyone able to comment whether my charger will be ok? Walking past Halfords later today so will get a new charger if necessary. It's cool, I didn't need to eat this week.

Cheers in advance.

[Joeman]

why does the new battery need charging?

[Mr Fro]

What Joe says.

Although you should be fine with a maintenance type charger as it'll vary the voltage/current depending on charge state. Sealed batteries can go pop if you use old single stage chargers.

[RantMachine]

Because I know sod all about batteries so I asked Google about them, and Google told me I'd need to do it

This was the first page that came up when I did a search for info about batteries, goes on about sealed batteries being supplied at 70% charge and needing a charge up to full before use.

[eastanglianbiker]

just fit it and see how well it turns the bike over ollie they are normally well charged and will start the bike and be usable from the box

[RantMachine]

Will give it a go when the time comes, then. Bike isn't ready to fire up just yet.

[Stu]

Fit it it should be charged

And for reference the charger will be fine to use

[Pete]

I've got a Halfords charger that might be the same as yours - has two switches allowing switching between sealed and...not sealed! Standard is the word I think it uses. Other switch allows switching between bike and car/other.

You should be fine with a new battery as others have said. If you have a multimeter handy you could check the voltage before installing it just in case but that's probably overkill. Should be around 12.2V-12.8V.

[RantMachine]

Dammit

http://intelisoftbd.net/user-post/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/facepalm,.jpg

Why did I not think of just using the sodding multimeter

[Fozzie]

Most batteries are good to go out of the box, they will charge up just fine with a good run.

If it's sealed then a battery charger usually has a softer setting to avoid making them gas, when they have no where for the gas to go (unless it's a gel battery). But in most cases a quick blast on any charger will be fine.