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Message started by buster6315 on 12/10/17 at 17:01:47

Title: battery voltage
Post by buster6315 on 12/10/17 at 17:01:47

I've got a battery hooked up to a maintainer which reads just below 14volts. Is 14 volts too high? The maintainer is listed at 1-1.2 amps

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Gary_in_NJ on 12/10/17 at 17:23:35

A battery maintainer will keep the battery at 12.8 to 13.2 VDC. If it tried to keep it at 14 VDC it would kill the battery over the winter.

What do the specs for the maintainer say?

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Ruttly on 12/10/17 at 18:38:03

Or your battery is crap causing you charger to work harder !

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by cygnet on 12/10/17 at 21:16:52

Not to worry 14 volts is normal when charging a 12 volt battery there is a lot of surface charge take the charger of and it will fall fast. If you didn't have 14 volts going into the battery it would never charge.

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Gary_in_NJ on 12/11/17 at 05:34:39

What kind of battery are we talking about, because the various chemistries have different long-term storage requirements. For example, a LiOn battery doesn't need a trickle charge. Simply disconnect the negative terminal for up to a year of storage.

What type of charger are you using? A trickle charger like the Detran Battery Tender actually reads the voltage and currant of the battery and varies the voltage to the battery. Most of the time it's in "float" mode meaning it's not actually charging, just reading the condition.

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by cygnet on 12/11/17 at 15:40:44

If you are storing a Lion battery it is better to put it at nominal voltage, nominal voltage will be 3.85 volts per cell so 3.85X3=11.55 volts fully charged would be 4.2X3= 12.6 volts for short term like 4 to 6 months it doesn't make much difference but long term it does, I have lion's that are 10 years old that work just as good as new when stored this way and your right putting a trickle charger on lion's is a bad thing, now lead acid or PB chemistry it is a must as they don't like to be discharged.

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by buster6315 on 12/11/17 at 17:09:20

Thanks for the info. The more costly battery tenders are keeping the batteries at just below 13volts in the float mode. The chepo charger is keeping the spare battery at just below 14 volts in the float mode. These are maint. free batteries. Not lithium. (I believe someone stated that if you trickle charged at 10% of the Ah, you would not harm the battery)

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Ruttly on 12/12/17 at 05:41:34

If you have a lithium ion battery get the proper charger or you will damage the battery or severely reduce its life span !

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Dave on 12/12/17 at 06:53:21

66414040584D340 wrote:

If you have a lithium ion battery get the proper charger or you will damage the battery or severely reduce its life span !

Or...no charger at all. I have had an Earth-X Li-Ion battery in my bike since 2013.....it has never been on a charger. As long as you don't have a clock or some other device that draws power when the bike is off - and you don't leave the key on by accident - there isn't any need to put a Li-On battery on a charger. (If your bike does have a clock or USB port or something that draws power.....disconnect the battery when you put the bike in storage).

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by sagi on 12/14/17 at 09:23:31

My stock battery is now three years old. The voltage was below 12.3V. I bought a 3 amp maintainer to raise the voltage to 12.7. While the battery was charging, voltage meter displayed around 14V. Once the maintainer was disconnected after the battery was fully charged (LED light indicates that), the voltage stayed around 12.7.

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Gary_in_NJ on 12/14/17 at 09:49:05

6674727C616174727067150 wrote:
My stock battery is now three years old. The voltage was below 12.3V. I bought a 3 amp maintainer to raise the voltage to 12.7. While the battery was charging, voltage meter displayed around 14V. Once the maintainer was disconnected after the battery was fully charged (LED light indicates that), the voltage stayed around 12.7.

The maximum static charge of a battery is a result of the construction and chemistry of the cells. When a battery discharges (whether through use or time) electrons travel from the anode to the cathode. The battery requires a higher state of charge for replenishment. Once that excitation voltage is removed there is no means for the battery to hold the higher state of charge and the battery reverts to its static charge level.

This is a simplistic explanation, but it illustrates whey we charge our batteries at 14V yet they only hold 12.8 (or so).

Title: Re: battery voltage
Post by Serowbot on 12/14/17 at 10:40:16

Your stator puts out 13 to 14.5 volts too...

Yer' good to go... :)