Battery, Robbery, etc: Quidnunc Required

[bsasuper]

Its only this spell of cold weather.

[Paul in NZ]

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

[Mom]

and it has a warranty" (3 months, IIRC).

Hope it was super cheap

Doesn't this sort of thing piss you right off?

[AllanB]

Chap I know killed a factory fitted Honda battery (an expensive one) in 2 years on a CB1300. Pretty sure it was a result of the short runs to and from work it was getting and it did not get a frequent enough long blast to recover.

[Pedrostt500]

Lead Acid batteries have so many charges discharges before they end their lives, short runs with lots of engine starts will kill a battery quicker, than longer runs, it takes a vechicles altenator a reasonable time to recharge a battery after a start, and longer if you are running lights & other instraments.

Sealed Lead acid and Gell Cell batteries have a small valve built into the battery so that if the battery does not over pressurise if the battery is over charged, or run hot, I have seen Gel Cell batteries baloon because they have been excessivly over charged, they have allmost ended up ball shaped.
I used to service mobility scooters, electric golf caddies, and other battery powered devices, that used Lead Acid and Gell Cell batteries, our biggest problem was people excesivly overcharging batteries, even a battery charger on trickel charge can over charge a battery.
I have been happily back on the Tools in Engineering for the last 4 yrs.

[vifferman]

I testicled it last night - turned on the headlights for about a minute to see what I could see. Turned out, my gargre is messy'n'dirty, and has a pool of coolant where #2Son's FrenchHeap'o'Shite parks.
Any Wayne, the numbers went down to about 12.3 thingies, then when I turned the lights (and fan, and fuel pump, and everything else that runs when the key's on) off, it slowly climbed, a hundredthdthdth of a zolt at a time, back towards 12.5. Ish.

Interesting (or perhaps not) that my short 20-30 minute commutes may be killing it. My VF500, with your tradiitonal non-low-maintenance battery, lasted over 6 years (SIX YEARS!!) despite being run flat several times, and mostly being used only for communtering. The only care I gave it was to use only distilled water when topping it up.
I still reckon it's inferior quality 'bits' (lead recycled from electronics held over a small fire, suplphuric acid derived from industrial waste, and that horrible smelly plastic everything in the Wharehouse seems to be made from) that's at fault. That and the Dodgy Prick who supplied me the Koyo when I asked for a Yuasa.

[boman]

Get a Hydrometer, made for motorcycle batteries, check the Specific Gravity of each cell in the battery. All it takes is small short in one cell, and you have a 10Volt battery. Good for fark all.

The specific gravity, is the charge of the Electrolyte (acid+water) in each cell. They should all be even with very little fluctuation in each cell. Cheaper batteries, lead plates inside the battery case, are not as robust as the quality batteries, therefore quite aften the lead will drop off the plates more readily and cause a short.(IIRC It has been a couple of years since I had to Know this stuff.

[vifferman]

Get a Hydrometer, made for motorcycle batteries, check the Specific Gravity of each cell in the battery. All it takes is small short in one cell, and you have a 10Volt battery. Good for fark all.

Sealed batery. The Man says it's dangerous to open them, and I will die, explode into flames, and die some more.
It's not a shorted cell - the readings would be around 10.5V if that was the case.

The specific gravity, is the charge of the Electrolyte (acid+water) in each cell. They should all be even with very little fluctuation in each cell. Cheaper batteries, lead plates inside the battery case, are not as robust as the quality batteries, therefore quite aften the lead will drop off the plates more readily and cause a short.(IIRC It has been a couple of years since I had to Know this stuff.

Apparently, it's heat'n'stuff that causes the lead sulfate complex to drop off the plates, and (because it's electrcally conductive), it allows the little electrical greeblies (which are like ants only blue and silver) to migrate between the plates on the crusty bridges, and have elegant little soirees (thney don't do wild parties, coz the landlord will evict them).

Did I tell you I did 3 years of university chemistry? Did all the chemistries available excepting for radiochem? And some fizzix.
Fancy that.
No, actually I don't really...

Man/God/Woman/Norblat, the Troll of Snot - this thread is getting like, SO boring.
I wish my farking battery would hurry up and arrive.
It's (for any one that gives the rectum of a rodent) an AGM, 14Ah, and much cheaper'n a Yuasa. (Standard Yuasa is 10Ah, and maintenance free. Comparable Yuasa is around three (3!) times the price.