I've got an Optimate 4 which, when I bought it, was supposed to be the king of the heap as far as smart chargers go.
http://www.tecmate-int.com/ENG/u_optimate_4_dual.php
Bloody thing isn't as smart as I thought.
When the previous battery was a bit flat I hooked the Optimate up, it charged for a short time and then went into its test cycle, the test showed that the battery was good. I rode to another suburb, a bit over 5k, then came back out this end of town, parked the bike for a few miinutes and it wouldn't restart. New Battery time.
My faith in the test abilities of the Optimate is consequently somewhat shaken. It's an entertaining beast though. It has ten LEDs which glow or flash in various combinations to indicate what's happening. I was forever checking the manual to see what it was trying to tell me.
The charger can be had with various connections, one set is permanently on the bike so all you have to do is plug it in, you don't have to remove anything to get at the battery. My current arrangements don't permit me to have the charger on without the shed door being unlocked so I don't use it to best advantage.
It is a clever beast but the maximum rate of charge is quite low, that's probably so the battery doesn't over heat, and if you were using it right you wouldn't need a fast rate of charge. Both the bike and the car have new batteries now, so hopefully I won't need a bigger charge rate. I do have an old dumb trickle charger though if I need a quicker boost.
The Optimate test function tells me that the moped battery is now in the first stages of failure. I hope it's right this time.
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