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Bike not charging at idle with headlight on.

  • Thread starter Thread starter andrewclaycomb
  • Start date Start date
psyguy said:
andrewclaycomb said:
Is a battery tender a trickle charger?
Click to expand...

hm, depends where you live :-D
yes it is
Click to expand...

I started to write something up at lunch on this yesterday, but forgot to take home the stick it was on till today, so here it is better late than never

As chuckycheese said an actual "battery tender" is a brandname and a good one (but $$$ )

Also acceptable would be something called a "float charger". There are various models and manufactureres, and they would all be acceptable.

Not really acceptable is something called a "trickle charger"

So whats the difference ?

They are all mainly meant for storage of charged batteries more than charging discharged batteries, although they all can charge discharged batteries back up (although it may take some of them days)

A trickle charger is the simplest, it puts a low fairly constant current into the battery for as long as it is hooked up. It will slowly bring a discharged battery up to full charge. After that (or if hooked up to an already charged battery) it will slowly overcharge it. Done for a short time, not too often, this causes no real harm. If you periodically do it for a specific recomended time, or measure it with a meter, it can be a marginally ok way to maintain your batteries over the winter. Forget to disconnect it for long enough and you WILL damage the battery.
The hassle and potential danger of this method make it not really worth it.

A float charger is similar, except that once it hits a specific voltage (the "float" voltage, usually 12.8 to 13.2 or so volts, up to 13.6 for AGM ones) it will not go over this voltage, and the charging current will taper down to virtually nothing. You can leave a battery connected to one pretty much indefinately without damage. You can also store a battery off the charger, but periodically connect it to the float charger for a bit if that is more convenient, which works about as well. In that case the charge time is not as critical as it would be with a trickle charger.

There are various other types of chargers typically called one of the following: automatic, manual, bulk, taper, 2-stage, 3-stage, smart, and boost. These are for charging discharged batteries more than maintaining them over the winter, and I'm not going to talk about them here with one exception:

The actual "battery tender' is a combination of a 2 stage charger with a float charger. It will first analyse a battery, then charge it at a constant current till it hits something called the absorption voltage (about 14.4 or so volts from memory), maintain that voltage till the current drops to a certain level (or an internal safety timer times out) and then drop to a float voltage of 13.2 volts from then on.

I'll mention one more specific charger, harbor freight sells a cheap $5 float charger. QA on them seems a bit spotty, and they seem to have various voltage settings. But it is a true float charger and will work well if you get one set to the correct voltage. If you want to buy one, bring a voltmeter, take them out of the bin and plug them in and check the voltage. When you find one set to 13.2 volts, get that one and you are set.
 
that's very informative mr bakalorz!

my "trickle charger" is marketed under a full name "trickle charger with automatic overcharge protection" :-D
 
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