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

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

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.

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)

Ruttly wrote on 12/12/17 at 05:41:34:


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).

sagi wrote 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.

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).