Winter battery woes

[DC Concours]

Hi guys,

My bike is parked outside in the cold. Current battery is three and a half years old. It is a no brand 12V 18AH SLA battery.

For the last couple of months the starting crank was slowing down. Last weekend it was quite weak but it did start. Next day I checked my voltage and it was reading 13.6V!!!! I put it on a basic dumb charger and it stopped charging within 2 mins saying that was fully charged. I am assuming the charger was only reading the voltage.

Is the battery a goner? Anyone know how much CCA a typical battery like this holds?

[VirginiaJim]

RIP battery.  It's gone, dead, kaput.

[DC Concours]

Damn! I was hoping for one more season.

Any idea why it reads such high voltage??

[Boomer]

If you put a multimeter on the battery and then crank the engine, the voltage on a good battery will drop to about 10v during cranking.
The plates in the battery fur up (sulphate) over time and that increases the internal resistance which means that the cranking voltage drops.
On an old battery, it will drop to well below 10v and the cranking will be slow and may not start the bike.
With a decent quality battery that is kept on a battery maintainer the upper life expectancy is about 8-9 years.
With a budget battery that is never on a maintainer the upper limit is about 5 years.

If you have a decent battery maintainer, remove the battery from the bike and leave it plugged into the maintainer for a few days.
The good ones can de-sulphate the plates to a degree and will recover the battery somewhat, but don't expect miracles.

[DC Concours]

I might just buy another. I will take it to advanced auto and see about leaving it on their bigger "smarter" charger.

Do you know how many CCA these small motorcycle batteries carry? 200 maybe?

[Boomer]

The MotoBatt MB18U that I am running is rated at 280CCA and is a sealed AGM battery.
It also has a second set of terminals that are useful for connecting accessories to.

A budget battery is about half the cost of the MotoBatt but only has 190-200CCA.
You should avoid putting motorcycle batteries on car chargers, unless they have a motorcycle battery mode.
Car chargers can charge motorcycle batteries at too high current and cause warping of the plates.

[VirginiaJim]

What I've started doing is using a timer for the charging.  The Indian I have uses AGM and I'm using a NOCO smart charger.  I charge it for an hour every day.  So far working fine.

[DC Concours]

Thanks for the CCA info. I never see that on these batts.

The guys put it on a 2ah charger. I think that is low enough. I have a 1ah "dumb" charger at home but that said my batt was charged and turned off within 2 mins. The store one kept charging the whole 20 mins I was shopping.

I should buy a trickle charger but I always buy budget batteries and they last about 3-4 years anyway and I figure that's a good life on one of these batteries. If I got double the life out of double the price I would get a better batt and a smart charger. I might this time around.

[m in sc]

get an AGM they tend to suffer less from sulfating plates.  I run one of these in each C10.  the caltric ones on ebay are good.

AGM Battery for Kawasaki ZG1000A Concours 1985-2006

https://www.ebay.com/itm/272160298716?fits=Submodel%3AZG1000A%7CModel%3AConcours+1000%7CMake%3AKawasaki&epid=16003209862&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item3f5e0496dc:g:2xoAAOSwClNeXiUk&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACwPYe5NmHp%252B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSlHY%252FYTip4QFVjNQrCEJt6nkyamesHPjNvgUVbR90lfRx4ZdcZjlgx06pRFkdgNG5aDn7D5Rv7Zb3%252FaTDLghfLpoWzVfcS6uCzp4Jpm4%252BCvCc2DR%252FDXeAOD%252Bf8bWCDb42NOm2ovDEF0jLE2agggA1YmnpjEWM6tejjS7SOAhfEvNSDWQ9Y%252BgZv6DPt2bQ8LUNRAj84yddav8cAddmfRYqYGpd6NhefnyDd7PGb5ExU0xKHNnvLMqG3NWxPX2q4O%252BSILH2idPBGPPriudOQQ0qL2SKmHxOUbVnrnItGdNTvk5Wpg4%252BZWa1MMMjVr9YQg0pj74W5HyDr6e1uJ%252BowuIFrFpqZIH2gacjVtZWjDXWh4rkb6vCl4RFoeGJAn4z2OKPdZFTBG467bPAFp4oBBZ3i4ht74zPq8XXVBSDM1jpew4hAJ12hvpb7GCcFqqwh2h6vgK6YuQ%252Fv1QJmmPYcFk4aN2Z%252Foa2MMuzo1YDitWaJZPTQodkZZz8xH77BIMMoa2PtKYzjSx717j939fObKVgJFGwde6H5GeOqUiLP4zlN5uSgalxQdKQ2LYm%252F2KlnNUc8lY8nSkHEcDSxMyHNOD9MN0t2w7WUqxRKW9Gfs5ljOqo1N9V9UyJtkF6NT8bR95bt%252FEOw51ojrrRY%252BiACkn0S3WPEh9vcDDFof3gebGGiXvSxHvYAgvZGt4JMgPDSlIGbctWAUBHRzH3QN8hX3Y31Yyq%252FRoVPwrVIf204QQ6VyN%252BmtA2h6UHmGVYGoGba6ncSCuITOhK1%252BGeUFeidaKjwy3r5cI2ozjJmETPtrKQ57sWjv8loUiw9ver%252BBMbK8gppbxPSsemg55ftYvM5%252FcWFnCw%252Fh0VKw42M7BuJdIiRuF5SSosatXG6HOiIgOC0sFG%7Cclp%3A2334524%7Ctkp%3ABFBMpLDqvLNf

[DC Concours]

Thanks. I spend about $40 last time I bought my no name battery. This looks good to me. If it lasts me 4 years, hassle free, outside, then I am happy.

get an AGM they tend to suffer less from sulfating plates.  I run one of these in each C10.  the caltric ones on ebay are good.

AGM Battery for Kawasaki ZG1000A Concours 1985-2006

https://www.ebay.com/itm/272160298716?fits=Submodel%3AZG1000A%7CModel%3AConcours+1000%7CMake%3AKawasaki&epid=16003209862&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item3f5e0496dc:g:2xoAAOSwClNeXiUk&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACwPYe5NmHp%252B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSlHY%252FYTip4QFVjNQrCEJt6nkyamesHPjNvgUVbR90lfRx4ZdcZjlgx06pRFkdgNG5aDn7D5Rv7Zb3%252FaTDLghfLpoWzVfcS6uCzp4Jpm4%252BCvCc2DR%252FDXeAOD%252Bf8bWCDb42NOm2ovDEF0jLE2agggA1YmnpjEWM6tejjS7SOAhfEvNSDWQ9Y%252BgZv6DPt2bQ8LUNRAj84yddav8cAddmfRYqYGpd6NhefnyDd7PGb5ExU0xKHNnvLMqG3NWxPX2q4O%252BSILH2idPBGPPriudOQQ0qL2SKmHxOUbVnrnItGdNTvk5Wpg4%252BZWa1MMMjVr9YQg0pj74W5HyDr6e1uJ%252BowuIFrFpqZIH2gacjVtZWjDXWh4rkb6vCl4RFoeGJAn4z2OKPdZFTBG467bPAFp4oBBZ3i4ht74zPq8XXVBSDM1jpew4hAJ12hvpb7GCcFqqwh2h6vgK6YuQ%252Fv1QJmmPYcFk4aN2Z%252Foa2MMuzo1YDitWaJZPTQodkZZz8xH77BIMMoa2PtKYzjSx717j939fObKVgJFGwde6H5GeOqUiLP4zlN5uSgalxQdKQ2LYm%252F2KlnNUc8lY8nSkHEcDSxMyHNOD9MN0t2w7WUqxRKW9Gfs5ljOqo1N9V9UyJtkF6NT8bR95bt%252FEOw51ojrrRY%252BiACkn0S3WPEh9vcDDFof3gebGGiXvSxHvYAgvZGt4JMgPDSlIGbctWAUBHRzH3QN8hX3Y31Yyq%252FRoVPwrVIf204QQ6VyN%252BmtA2h6UHmGVYGoGba6ncSCuITOhK1%252BGeUFeidaKjwy3r5cI2ozjJmETPtrKQ57sWjv8loUiw9ver%252BBMbK8gppbxPSsemg55ftYvM5%252FcWFnCw%252Fh0VKw42M7BuJdIiRuF5SSosatXG6HOiIgOC0sFG%7Cclp%3A2334524%7Ctkp%3ABFBMpLDqvLNf