Dead battery, new battery, dead battery

[Buzz]

Morning chaps...

My old battery (bought with the bike about 4 years ago) was always a bit dodgy and didn't like standing for more than 3 weeks without being used.  I charged it again with my Oximiser 900, it was reading around 12V when I plugged it in but in the morning it was reading 3.6V and the red warning light was on...FUBAR I thought.  I bought a new Yuasa YT12B-BS, filled it up, waited an hour for the plates to soak and left it overnight on the Oximiser. 

Went and checked this morning and it's on 3.8V and AGAIN the red warning light is on!!!  WTF!!

This leads me to a frustrating set of conclusions.


1) The Oximiser is shite/broken.  Means I've bought a new battery for no reason and maybe damaged it?
2) The Oximiser is only to be used to trickle/maintain batterys but not for the initial charge....seems an insane decision.
2) The new Yuasa is duff...can't really see how, it's a box with metal plates and sulphuric acid.

The Yuasa says to charge at 1.2A for 5-10h but the Oximiser only does 900mA, could this be the problem?  Is it just too weak a charger to initially charge this battery?  I don't really want to buy another charger in case it's the battery and vice-versa.

I'm not sure what to do next, any advice?

Cheers...Buzz

[Andy FZS]

Is the battery fitted to the bike or are you charging it independent of the bike? If it's fitted you may have a fault on the bike discharging the battery.

[Buzz]

Nope, in the house.


I watched a few vids and it says to keep the caps off for the first charge.  Doh! I filled up, waited an hour, pushed the caps on THEN charged.  I think there may be a build up of gas which is stopping the charge.  I'll take another look tonight, with gloves, facemask, labcoat and a perspex sheet.

[Deefer666]

I should be a sealed battery so that should not matter, you only leave the caps off if its the old style non-sealed type

[Buzz]

So I see... 


What a pile of shite, I didn't check the voltage after filling up and leaving for an hour but it can't have been the 12V it should've been, hence the charging failure.


I'll contact the supplier to see what they have to say.


Thanks for the advice.

[Jules-C]

I would check the voltage the charger is putting out when connected to a good battery.  It should be about 13.8v to 14.4v while charging.  It could be the charger developed a fault and either over voltage and frying the battery or not charging at all and putting a load on the battery and draining it

[Buzz]

Looks like it was the Oximiser charger...the multimeter showed that both batteries were around 12V but the Oximiser was showing 3.5V and the warning light was on.  FUBAR!


I bought an Optimate 4 at lunch and it's now charging fine...happy days! (sort of)


Oh and I bumped into Punkstig in the shop as well...small world.

[Punkstig]

I tried to hide but buzz was too quick for me!