New battery or charger?

Ok I have a sneaky suspicion my battery is dead… I have no multimeter and I have little interest in doing multiple voltage tests at the moment. Question is whether to a) buy a battery (£47) or buy a KTM charger (£53) to see if that does anything to revive it. Last time I killed a battery I bought a new one. Then I killed this one and my mech charged it up…

I can get battery a bit more easily as can pop out in my lunchbreak, the charger will have to wait till the weekend. Unless some kind person on here lives somewhere in Sussex and could lend me one (not necessarily KTM branded) that has the clamps (KTM helpfully putting the battery in an inaccessible place) 

MotoBatt it.  Good cold weather starting amps.

It has a motobatt in at the moment :wink:

Those are the ones that are £47

If it was me, I wouldn’t buy a new battery until I know what the fault is. If you don’t want to find out the fault, I’d first buy a charger since you will use that again whereas if you bought a battery, you might just end up killing it.

Grab yourself a cheap as chips low amperage battery charger such as http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hawk-Motorcycle-Motorbike-Battery-Charger-Optimiser-UK-EU-USA-Plug-12v-/281250216850?hash=item417bd1bb92:g:drEAAOSwv0tVG9f4

It has a short harness to wire up to hard to reach batteries and won’t cook your battery. Note some car battery chargers push out too many amps for motorcycle batteries.

The trick to longer battery life is in keeping the voltage topped up, little and often.

Valid point. In this case I think it’s my bad/rare use of the bike that killed it. Ok to give a bit more context. I killed this battery once when my clutch was gone and I was trying to adjust it. Multiple starts and stalls later, it had gone. Mechanic brought it back to life. Prior to this I had used it for 6-7 months (rarely but ok use). After mechanic revived battery, I took it on long trip to Lakes and a few other short rides without fault. 

Left it for c. 2 months without touching then started it and clutch was a bit screwed up again. Few small starts followed by stalling while I fixed it - all without running the bike. Took the bike for a quick ride to work (20 miles) on Friday. Today, bike won’t start. Lights work but won’t do much else (what it did last time I killed battery).

 


Grab yourself a cheap as chips low amperage battery charger such as http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hawk-Motorcycle-Motorbike-Battery-Charger-Optimiser-UK-EU-USA-Plug-12v-/281250216850?hash=item417bd1bb92:g:drEAAOSwv0tVG9f4
It has a short harness to wire up to hard to reach batteries and won't cook your battery. Note some car battery chargers push out too many amps for motorcycle batteries.
The trick to longer battery life is in keeping the voltage topped up, little and often.
National Treasure
Problem is, I have no idea what any readings mean so all I will end up doing is confusing myself. And to even get to my battery I have to unbolt a panel off which is quite annoying (it's below the radiator under a shield). Also, don't really have the time to do diagnostic tests as as per my post above (posted simultaneously), I'm pretty sure it's my fault the battery died :D

Ok I have a sneaky suspicion my battery is dead... I have no multimeter and I have little interest in doing multiple voltage tests at the moment. Question is whether to a) buy a battery (£47) or buy a KTM charger (£53) to see if that does anything to revive it. Last time I killed a battery I bought a new one. Then I killed this one and my mech charged it up...

I can get battery a bit more easily as can pop out in my lunchbreak, the charger will have to wait till the weekend. Unless some kind person on here lives somewhere in Sussex and could lend me one (not necessarily KTM branded) that has the clamps (KTM helpfully putting the battery in an inaccessible place) 

Serrisan
Does it have to be KTM charger, the one I brought from halfords works wonders, how different are KTM battery charger clamps?

Ok I have a sneaky suspicion my battery is dead... I have no multimeter and I have little interest in doing multiple voltage tests at the moment. Question is whether to a) buy a battery (£47) or buy a KTM charger (£53) to see if that does anything to revive it. Last time I killed a battery I bought a new one. Then I killed this one and my mech charged it up...

I can get battery a bit more easily as can pop out in my lunchbreak, the charger will have to wait till the weekend. Unless some kind person on here lives somewhere in Sussex and could lend me one (not necessarily KTM branded) that has the clamps (KTM helpfully putting the battery in an inaccessible place) 

Serrisan
Does it have to be KTM charger, the one I brought from halfords works wonders, how different are KTM battery charger clamps?
WildBoy
No idea... never really used a charger so I went with the branded one as the alternative

Picture of BATTERY CHARGER

don’t faff getting a KTM one, just get a halfords one. 

the motobatt is designed to cope well with draining so from your options, I’d buy a charger. But then I also agree that you should confirm that’s all the problem is first before buying anything

Any recommendations on which one as halfords have about 4 different ones? Bearing in mind that I would need something that can do a quick charge as I have nowhere to charge from other than from my living room with the bike in an uncovered patio…

This all seems a bit moot. You have a problem, you don’t want to diagnose, only choose between possibly pointless solutions, of which one you can’t do?

This all seems a bit moot. You have a problem, you don't want to diagnose, only choose between possibly pointless solutions, of which one you can't do? yourebarred

Not really, I have a problem, I’m pretty sure I know what has caused it and can sort of do both solutions. The one charger I offered can do a quick 1 hr charge which I can do, I cannot keep the bike permanently charged in

The voltage options were a third option which I cannot do…


Grab yourself a cheap as chips low amperage battery charger such as http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hawk-Motorcycle-Motorbike-Battery-Charger-Optimiser-UK-EU-USA-Plug-12v-/281250216850?hash=item417bd1bb92:g:drEAAOSwv0tVG9f4 It has a short harness to wire up to hard to reach batteries and won't cook your battery. Note some car battery chargers push out too many amps for motorcycle batteries. The trick to longer battery life is in keeping the voltage topped up, little and often. National Treasure
Problem is, I have no idea what any readings mean so all I will end up doing is confusing myself. And to even get to my battery I have to unbolt a panel off which is quite annoying (it's below the radiator under a shield). Also, don't really have the time to do diagnostic tests as as per my post above (posted simultaneously), I'm pretty sure it's my fault the battery died :D
Serrisan
Jeez, sorry Art I must be going bananas.... I don't know why, but I read that advert as a voltage meter - Must have been trying to do too much before my manager walked past 

Voltages aren’t so much of a mystery and you can pick up a multimeter for the price of a glass of Kopparberg. Three tests would be of interest to you

1) Battery voltage. Measured across the battery terminals with the ignition switched off, it should be greater than 12.2v. If the voltage is below 12.2v then recharge the battery. Note a reading of between 12.6v and 12.8v is 100% fully charged, 12.4v is 75% discharged and 12.2v is 50% discharged.

2) Battery standby current drain test. Again with the ignition switched off, remove the battery negative lead and connect a multimeter (set to 10A DC range) between the battery
negative lead and negative terminal. Stand by current draw should be less than 35mA (35 milliamps, 0.035A on the dial). If the current drain is higher than that you need to find out what is draining the battery.
3) Battery CCA load test (cold cranking amps/battery load test). Disable the ignition and fuel systems, pull the relevant fuses, and turn the engine over on the starter motor for 15 seconds, the voltage on a good battery should not drop below 9.4v – 9.5v. If the voltage drops below 9.4v then recharge and retest the battery’s CCA before writing the battery off.


Voltages aren't so much of a mystery and you can pick up a multimeter for the price of a glass of Kopparberg. Three tests would be of interest to you
1) Battery voltage. Measured across the battery terminals with the ignition switched off, it should be greater than 12.2v. If the voltage is below 12.2v then recharge the battery. Note a reading of between 12.6v and 12.8v is 100% fully charged, 12.4v is 75% discharged and 12.2v is 50% discharged.
2) Battery standby current drain test. Again with the ignition switched off, remove the battery negative lead and connect a multimeter (set to 10A DC range) between the battery negative lead and negative terminal. Stand by current draw should be less than 35mA (35 milliamps, 0.035A on the dial). If the current drain is higher than that you need to find out what is draining the battery.
3) Battery CCA load test (cold cranking amps/battery load test). Disable the ignition and fuel systems, pull the relevant fuses, and turn the engine over on the starter motor for 15 seconds, the voltage on a good battery should not drop below 9.4v – 9.5v. If the voltage drops below 9.4v then recharge and retest the battery’s CCA before writing the battery off. National Treasure
Bloody Kopparberg! Why do things have to be measured in terms of that soft drink masquerading as alcohol???? :D

But also good info, Art.

Right I think we’ve exhausted the topic… but also realised I may just buy a charger and bring the battery indoors to charge it up :smiley:

Haha you really hate multimeters don’t you?! :slight_smile:

he really hates himself if he wantes to remove the battery on a 990!