bike batteries

I got a a toplite bike batterie from super cheep auto yesterday.

i got home and after some halarity's on irc i relized i needed some acid for
it as they are empty when stored

so i went back to see if they would fill it, they wouldnt, but sold me a 1l
bottle of sulphuric acid for 8 bucks and a filler for 3 bucks.

I was told to put it in strait, dont dilute it.

the pipet leaked like a siv and was useless.
so i used a hydrometer to fill it up slowley. taking half an hour.

now the battry works..

do bike batteries normally come unfilled? it seems very odd to me.

cheers
Nathan

 

A friend in the batt biz once showed me some tech info from century
batterys...it said that a lead acid that is let go to fully flat 3 times has
half the life of one that isnt. If the batterys were full on the shelf
waiting to be bought then they would go flat & drastically shorten their
working life. There are also storage & transport issues with having them
full. Most bike shops will do it for you once you buy the battery.

 

Yes they are sold empty. Anyone that has been to my old's house may have
seen the glass and wire container that acid used to be shipped in when the
family owned the servo in the olden days.

Shipping batteries with acid is expensive dangerous and detrimental to the
life of the battery.

Hammo

 

Bike batteries aren't a huge seller so they come dry so that they have a
long shelf life

in future buy a small funnel

or spring for a better battery that has 6 containers of acid , just push
down and the battery fills itself with the required amount

make sure that once you have filled it that you wait 8 hours for the acid to
soak into the plates and then charge it

 

i waited 2 hours, the instructions told me 15 minutes recomended but not
required..

then gave it a runaround the block for 5 minutes...

but i have 300mls of acid left, and the old bike battery which still holds
charge fairly ok..

what happens if i put new acid in it?

so what about these maintanance free batteries, that are completely sealed
that my modern honda's have..

wont the acid eat the funnel?

and is 44 bucks + 8 for acid good?

cheers
Nathan

 

Fill the new batt with new acid...put it on a charger overnight or more til
the specific gravity is up (you have a hydrometer) to about 1.2 or 1.3. END
STORY

Hell you can buy a charger for $20 from those shit & glitter shops you got
the cheap battery from. What makes you think the acid will eat the funnel
when it wont eat the battery (plastic) or the plastic bottle it is in ? The
price is relitive...if it last 2 winters then yes.

 

take a chill pill phil, you sound like bobbys been in your fridge again..

yes, battery is in its charged, the battery comes dry charged anyway, its
been on a trickle charge for many hours.. and the hydrometer tells me its
fully charged..

why it wont eat the funnel, because its a different plastic type..

 

Battery acid wont eat plastic in general ... i have 1860g/lt sulphuric acid
in a plastic bottle in my shed...it fumes when you expose it to air & will
cut through a folded up rag in literally seconds or skin whilst you look at
it.

Picked it up cheap from a snowtown bank auction.

 

Better by far to buy a gel battery. When they evenually need replacing, so
does your bike.

 

Strange.... Must be a "Head" thing...

 

hahahhahahahahahahha phil. looks like a part of me will be in your fridge
one day

 

are the gell ones the maintanance free batteries? the sealed units you cant
put anything in?

cheers

 

go drink his acid then bubby

 

take old battery and left over acid to the recycling

you cant put new acid in it

once you put acid in a battery it is always in there , it is the water that
evaporates off

if the battery is stuffed it is stuffed , usualyl through to sulfation of
the plates

you fill em , put the cap on and forget about em until your bike wont start
any more

not bad

some interesting reading

http://www.batterystuff.com/battery/battery_tutorial.htm
http://www.tpub.com/neets/book1/chapter2/1e.htm
http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/
http://www.yuasabatteries.com/faqs.asp

 

A dose of sulphuric acid in a bowl of sugar is pretty spectacular to
watch.[1] Your 300ml should do the trick. End result is a very raw form
of diamonds that you can present as a gift to Mrs Mad Biker.

- sanbar

[1] Kids, *don't* do this at home.

 

Naw, AFAIK 2 different types.
The most common today is the sealed lead-acid type as used by most manuf as
OEM.
It's "maintenance-free" (non-refillable, no breather hose). It's still a
fluid-filled item, but sealed.

Gel's are maintenance free, no breather hose, sealed off, haven't got a clue
what's inside them (apart from gel replacing the water/acid mix).
Longer life, higher price, not available for some bikes/ some sizes (unless
imported individually from UK/US).
cheers
pete

 

In three years? That's about the life of UPS gel batteries, and they rarely
get discharged. I used to use gel batteries in a previous Guzzi. They cost
more but don't last any longer.

Theo

 

good for trailbikes etc that are likely to go belly-up. Some people also
get the idea that the sealed maitenance free batteries are gel. Not so, the
two batteries I put into the VTR were both sealed maintenance free, but you
still had to put the acid in and put the lid on to seal it before you fitted
it to the bike. Nice acid bottle/ funnel they had too: 6 small funnels
moulded in line that you put into the holes for the cells, a small spike
within each funnel. The acid came in a moulded pack of 6 bottles, each with
just the right amount of acid, push the bottles down on the spikes and the
acid runs down the funnels. Too easy.

Al

 

should i do that at the breakfast table?

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also gels can be mounted in any position i.e upside down

they discharge(go flat) a lot slower

a standard lead acid battery loses on average 1% of charge per day , Gels
last a lot longer before going flat
and also usually can charge up quickly and go quite flat before a charge
without huge damage unlike a lead acid
battery which if you leave flat for too long then say goodbye to it