Which Charger for Hawker Battery?

[CBI]

Hi all,

Got a Hawker Battery (680) for my R100GS at great expense...

Can someone explain in plain english which chargers are suitable for these batterys.

I have the old BMW (blue trickle charger) and a Carcoon charger. Are any of these any good for it?

Regards

 

[Paul Rochdale]

I use an old Accumate Battery Tender permamently connected to the battery terminals when the bike's not being regularly used. But I'd be more than happy to use a conventional battery charger if the Hawker battery was absolutely flat.

 

[Steptoe]

If it's fully charged then any charger will keep it fully charged.

but if it's flat or low then it needs a big boost to get it fully charged, an optimate or similier isn't adequate

 

[(RIP) Perryhill]

Hi all,

Got a Hawker Battery (680) for my R100GS at great expense...

Can someone explain in plain english which chargers are suitable for these batterys.

Regards

Been down the same route myself and use an Optimate on each of my bikes - permanently on the ones with alarms and occasionally on the ones without. They are designed to by left on all the time - unlike conventional ones with which you can quite easily cook your battery. As my R100GS doesn't have an alarm, the battery doesn't lose much charge so the 'top up' design of the Optimate is fine, I'd be more worried if the battery was losing charge.

I've also got one connected to a car we don't use very often, it has an alarm which can flatten it in two weeks and an Optimate is a lot cheaper than a new battery.

Hope this helps

 

[Graham W]

The beauty of the Hawker batteries is that they will hold their charge for huge amounts of time with no attention at all and still be quite capable of cranking the engine happily, even if the bike is used infrequently. On an airhead with no alarm or other current drain it shouldn't need to be on an optimate. I'd just stick it on the bike, get on with riding it and not worry. For me this is the whole point of spending the extra on a Hawker!

Only problem I've ever had with one turned out to be a faulty (mechanical) regulator on my R80/7 so the battery wasn't getting fully charged in the first place - my old faithful Halfords charger worked fine for topping up the Hawker on that occasion.

 

[CBI]

Thanks all- will use existing chargers to top up once in a blue moon

 

[Pukmeister]

If you go on the hawker batteries website, they have a list of recommended trickle chargers, the optimate/accumate isn't one of them as it puts out excess volts at about 14.3V and insufficient amps at a constant rate for the AGM cells in the hawkers and can cause damage to them.

I use an optimate on my Yamaha and previously on my GS with a wet cell lead-acid battery, but will be buying a CTEK Multi XS 3600 charger (compatible) for my GS with the Hawker Odyssey.

http://www.ctek.com/en/home.asp

http://www.ctek.com/en/MXS3600/features_benefits.asp

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/odycharg_c.htm

A quote from the Hawker website concerning AGM cell batteries:

"Chargers that do not have a regulated trickle charge voltage between 13.5V and 13.8V (no lower than 13.5V and no higher than 13.8V) will cause early failure of Odyssey batteries. Use of such chargers with Odyssey batteries will also void the battery's warranty."

Sorry if this means more expense getting the right charger, but it is better than being stranded by a failed battery on a cold wet night miles from home.

 

[wessie]

If you go on the hawker batteries website, they have a list of recommended trickle chargers, the optimate/accumate isn't one of them as it puts out excess volts at about 14.3V and insufficient amps at a constant rate for the AGM cells in the hawkers and can cause damage to them.

I use an optimate on my Yamaha and previously on my GS with a wet cell lead-acid battery, but will be buying a CTEK Multi XS 3600 charger (compatible) for my GS with the Hawker Odyssey.

http://www.ctek.com/en/home.asp

http://www.ctek.com/en/MXS3600/features_benefits.asp

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/

http://www.odysseyfactory.com/odycharg_c.htm

A quote from the Hawker website concerning AGM cell batteries:

"Chargers that do not have a regulated trickle charge voltage between 13.5V and 13.8V (no lower than 13.5V and no higher than 13.8V) will cause early failure of Odyssey batteries. Use of such chargers with Odyssey batteries will also void the battery's warranty."

Sorry if this means more expense getting the right charger, but it is better than being stranded by a failed battery on a cold wet night miles from home.

I can't believe Hawker can justify specifying such a tight threshold for a charging voltage.

The charging voltage on a vehicle will never fit into such a tight threshold: the battery FAQ at http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/carfaq5.htm states that the charging voltage range is typically 13.8 to 14.8V.