I just bought a Stanley 8/6/2 battery charger/tender. It charges @ 6 amps then switches to 2amps for trickle. I noticed after hooking everything together, my battery makes a sizzling sound. Is this normal? I have never charged anything like this before and don't want to blow up the battery. The battery is the standard wet cell.
I would say that's way to much charger for a motorcycle battery, the charger I have is only a 1.5 amp. Does the charger say its good for motorcycle batteries?
There are separate chargers for smaller batteries.
There is a section in Vulcan versus that talks about what other chargers people has used.
I've heard slight sizzling sounds when charging batteries before but it was for a full size car/marine batteries.
I would say take that battery and have it load tested, any auto parts will do that free of charge. That sizzling is the electrolite (fluids being boiled away, to much boiling and you get overflow and now you have another mess to contend with. Batt acid eating everything up! I had a wet cell batt sizzle on a 2amp charger, also thought it was prob bad anyway, which it was. I think any time you can slow charge a batt it is better, gives it time to absorbe the charge. A good float charger is good to have, it reads the batt and stops the charge, once the batt drops so many measurments, it will slowly bring it back up on it's own. That is why you can leave the charger on for very long periods of time with out harm. I have big chargers and 2 small ones, one a 2amp and one a 1.5. I usually try to use the 1.5, takes longer but I think it is safer. Another thing to keep in mind is that these float chargers will not charge a battery once it gets below a certain voltage!! Read the owners manual, sometimes you have to use a bigger charger to get the batt up somewhat. If you don't have an ohm-volt meter it is a good thing to have.
Does it switch on it's own or is it manually selectable.? 6 amps is WAY too much for a bike battery. So is 2 amps really ....
Take it back and get the right type of charger. You might have cooked your battery BTW..I hope it wasn't still hooked up to the bike.....I'd have it tested. Actually I'd toss it and get an AGM battery as reccomended by Everyone here.....
Well, after further investigation this is what I found out:
1.) The battery is dated 11-1-1999
2.) No water
3.) Made by Yacht
The charger does switch automatically. The battery is out of the bike now and is being charged after being refilled with water. I guess a new battery is in order when feasible.
Chunk it!!! Go get a good battery, AGM, stay away from liquid fill. Make sure both your main grounds are clean and solid connections. You will be surprised what a good battery does for these bikes!!! Runs better, definately starts better, less problems-----
Some of these AGM batt's say fully charged, just install. I would suggest using a 1.5 or 2 anp charger to top it off and make sure is is full. Take a volt meter and note charge, should be 12.3 up to like 12.7, slow charge it, and let it sit for a couple hours, ck your volts again, now you have a good starting point to monitor your battery. Would not be unusual for a hot batt to show in the 13'ns, then settle back to 12.3ect. For a couple bucks go ahead and add a charger pig-tail to the batt, tuck it behind side cover until needed then no need to remove seat to charge if needed. Further, add a volt meter to your system, (super easy& low cost), can monitor batt and system, running or not. My digital volt meter and on-off switch was less than $20, and works great!
It's not a big deal atm. Bike won't be runnable until Friday/Saturday anyways. I'll be getting the Interstate battery tomorrow and I'll prolly see if Lowes has a "more appropriate" battery tender.
Got he Cycle-Tron II today. Also bought a 1.2 Ah battery charger from the same store. Battery is under charge now. Now all I need is for USPS to deliver my tank Friday. Should be up and running then.
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