New battery already?!

[AKJayhawk]

My wife's NT700 is less than a year old and we're already having problems with the battery. Started at the end of last season -- went out to start the bike a couple of times and it was dead. Charged it and got it going again. Spent the winter on the battery tender and started up when I pulled them out of the corner of the garage. However, went to start it today and it was dead again -- it had been about 2 weeks since I started it.

The problems seemed to start when I installed her HyperLites -- the control module was bad and I couldn't get them to work. HL sent me a replacement and the new one works. Is it possible that bad control module zapped the battery somehow?

Before I buy a new battery and grumble about having to replace something that's less than a year old on a brand new bike, any ideas from the gurus here?

Thanks
Jeff

 

[karl]

My understanding of lead acid batteries is that when they get discharged past a certain point they are ready for the recyclers, regardless of age.
that is a non guru answer....

 

[Phil Tarman]

Sounds to me like you've got something that's putting a drain on your battery. I've had batteries that have lasted 3-4 years. I ride year-round (depending on the amount of ice on my street), but most years there'll be a period of at least 5-6 weeks when I can't ride. My batteries have stayed charged that long even without being on a battery tender.

 

[karl]

This is well past the self discharge rate for a healthy battery. Small bleeds still make you dead if it goes on long enough.

 

[bicyclist]

You might try temporarily disconnecting the hyperlights to see whether that has an effect on the situation. If you have some skills with a multimeter, you could see whether the module is drawing any current when the bike is turned off.

 

[JQL]

Once a lead acid battery's voltage* drops below 12v (at 20C) you are damaging the battery.

These voltages are "resting voltages" i.e. when not being charged or attached to any type of load
​

If you are not going to ride very often, disconnect the battery and, if possible, put it on a high quality charger like the Optimate.

Note: HISS does slowly discharge the battery. In my manual it does state that this usually takes a couple of weeks. If you have an alarm also then you could be discharging your battery in less than 2 weeks.

Yuasa have some information on Batteries here: http://www.yuasaeurope.com/en-gb/automotive/technical/how_a_battery_works/

Gel Batteries don't like being charged incorrectly and can "vent" (known as "gassing") especially at charge levels above 14.4v. This will shorten the life of these batteries considerably as they can't be "topped up" like wet cell batteries. Wet Cell batteries shouldn't be charged at more than 14.4v either as gassing will occur (it is very dangerous as the gas given off is Hydrogen) though, these can the topped up with distilled water.

* Note there are special lead acid batteries known as Deep Discharge Batteries which can be discharged to approximately 40% the best are usually only 6v. These are used in RVs, submarines, golf carts, fork lift trucks etc. A popular brand of deep discharge batteries is Trojan.

 

[Raycad]

I'm in the 6th year of the OEM old-tech "slosh" (not maintenance-free) battery on my 2005 Concours. In the winter, I charge it once a month with an old style 1 amp. charger. Periodically, I do the load test recommended by Alan Kohler, Engineer, Yuasa Batteries, in the November 2000 issue of Motorcycle Tour & Cruiser: after charging the battery and waiting at least one hour to stabilize the charge, I connect my multimeter leads to the battery and I crank the cold engine without choke so it won't start and I check the voltage. It was 10.1 volts last time and 9.5 volts or higher indicates a good battery according to Alan. On newer maintenance-free batteries, the same 9.5 volts threshold also applies.

Check www.yuasabatteries.com Lots and lots of good information there!

Ray

 

[Igo]

Damaged single cell?

 

[AKJayhawk]

Sorry for starting the thread and then not replying - life got pretty crazy the last several weeks. Finally got around to pulling the battery and taking it to get tested since I don't have any of the tools or knowledge to do it here. It was a goner according to the tech at Batteries+ so I replaced it. Not sure why it failed at such a young age, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Thanks
Jeff

 

[karl]

If they go below X voltage they are history, battery tenders do work. you can usually get one for less than the cost of one battery. I have a spot on my bench for the electrical hearts of the denizens of my garage and sheds.

 

[AKJayhawk]

Yeah, the guy at B+ said it was at 2.something volts so clearly DOA. Strangely it was on a battery tender all winter, but as mentioned we started having issues with it before putting it away for the winter. I can only guess that either the bad HL module or my efforts trying to get them to work trashed it. Thankfully it wasn't super expensive, just a bit frustrating to replace something so early in its estimated lifespan.

Thanks
Jeff

 

[karl]

some parts fail no matter how you treat them.
enjoy your ride

 

[elizilla]

I install "goofy electronics". Lots of 'em. And I don't ride every day, not year round - where I live you can't ride much in January and February. I put it on the tender if I'm unable to ride for more than a couple of weeks; other than that I rarely bother with the tender. Most sealed batteries last five years or so under these conditions. The ones that don't, fail quickly - batteries that do this are defective. If it's defective and if you bought it someplace reputable, say Batteries Plus, they'll replace it for free.

I don't think there's much point in having brand preferences, because the popular brands are all just re-badged whatever, from some random supplier. The Yuasa or Exide you bought five years ago that served you well, can't be replaced with one just like it, because that brand name is probably wrapped around batteries from some other supplier by now. And defective batteries are unfortunately somewhat common. Shop on the basis of price and return policies. Improve your odds of getting good life from a new battery, by charging it properly after filling and before using, or buying it from a vendor who does so - any shop that takes a battery off the shelf, fills in and hands it to you on the spot, is doing it wrong.

Whenever I install a new battery, I write the date on it with a sharpie, so I know its age without having to go look it up in my files.

 

[Stex]

I have 6 bikes that I use battery tender on and I get full life out of all my batteries, except...............my new NT ('bout 1.5 years old) with less than 1000 miles had the battery go south...............I have no accessories that take "juice"...........its just one of those things. New battery installed a month ago and it seems to be holding out.