HOW TO ENSURE A BATTERY IS HEALTHY?

hiup

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Can anyone tell me how to test a sealed battery to ensure it's healthy?

Mine is nearly six years old and I have NO PROBLEMS - but how long can it last?

It lives on a battery tender (connected to a battery socket not via can-bus) whenever the bike is not in use.
 
Post on an Internet forum that you have no problems with your battery. The next Saturday - ride to the local petrol station with your Satnav and grips on.
Fill up, buy a paper and a coffee. Riding kit back on and...it'll likely not start!
 
Stick a spanner across the terminals.

If it flashes, buzzes, heats up and welds itself to the terminals, all is good.

If it doesn't, it's fecked.
 
Don't connect it to your 'tender' charger for a couple of nights.......if the bike is doing more than 20 miles a day it shouldn't even need one in the first place :blast

If, after a couple of days, the bike is slow to turn over, the battery is on its way out.......

All you're doing by keeping it on a charger is hiding any potential weaknesses, until it comes to the point where it will fail suddenly and totally, and almost always inconveniently.

If you don't use the bike for a couple of weeks at a time, plug it in, but otherwise, it's best to know how your battery is by feeling and hearing it start every day so that you won't be let down by it at the worst possible time and place.

If you genuinely want to test its health, get a drop test done on it.
 
Quote:

'A drop test is good but be sure not to do it in your slippers'.

So, I wear protective footwear then drop my battery on the floor? That's the best way to 'test it'?

Sorry I asked?
 
put a load tester on it.

one designed for motorcycles would be better, but a little interpretation of the results on one like that would be good enough.
 
hiup said:
Quote:

'A drop test is good but be sure not to do it in your slippers'.

So, I wear protective footwear then drop my battery on the floor? That's the best way to 'test it'?

Sorry I asked?
Click to expand...

It's better if you take it upstairs and throw it out of the highest window available to you actually.

Make sure your care worker is standing nearby to measure the amount of bounce.

Divide the height thrown by the bounce, and multiply by the amp/hour rating of the battery.....if it's 3.6 or above, the battery was OK before you chucked it out of the window :)
 
Wait until the bike wont start. Then connect the Optimate (or whatever tender its using). If it goes green in a couple of hours the battery is goosed. If it takes 10 or more hours, the battery is good as new. Just have some jump leads handy and the car nearby.
 
Load test is the only way. If you dont know how - take it to a garage.
But, at 6 yrs old, don't bother. Get a new one.
 
AberdeenAngus said:
Load test is the only way. If you dont know how - take it to a garage.
But, at 6 yrs old, don't bother. Get a new one.
Click to expand...

The battery on my Buell X1 is 12 years old so his might be less half way through it's useful life ;-) or aren't these BMW's fitted with parts of the same quality?
 
kevmean said:
The battery on my Buell X1 is 12 years old so his might be less half way through it's useful life ;-) or aren't these BMW's fitted with parts of the same quality?
Click to expand...

Some will last for longer than that but, after 5 or 6 years you're running on luck.
 
AberdeenAngus said:
Load test is the only way. If you dont know how - take it to a garage.
But, at 6 yrs old, don't bother. Get a new one.
Click to expand...

Load test, chucking what may otherwise be a good battery away. ..
Absolute piffle!

Technically, a load/drop test is the correct way to do things but IMHO,
if the battery is good enough to start the bike after standing for a few weeks it's good enough for me ;)

Phil
(Two 'Onda's with original batteries 12 & 13 years old, cripes, that'd be six batteries in your world!)

sent from my 'phone
 
I doubt you will find many garages who use a drop/load tester as they have a habit of making batteries go bang :eek: A digital battery tester is what we use and as has already been mentioned a voltage reading alone won't give you the true state of the battery.
 
Thanks for the useful replies gents.

It seems that there is no 'simple' way to test your battery.

Maybe I will just replace it to avoid any future hassle.

So - Odyssee PC535GS battery or :nenau
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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