wordsmith Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 I note from the Owner's Manual that the battery type in our bikes is a VRLA unit. It goes on to stress that "a special (constant-voltage) battery charger is required. Using a conventional battery charger will damage the battery". I think I may have been guilty of this, not being aware of the warning, and the battery seems to have died on me. I'd appreciate an explanation, as there seems to be conflicting on-line advice about these VRLA batteries, some claiming that a conventional charger is adequate. Thanks in advance.. Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 Any “trickle charge” battery tender type charger that maintains the battery by charging at around 0.8- <2 Amps will prolong the life of your battery. These will usually have an auto shutoff feature so you can plug it in and forget it. The brandnames I’d recommend are Optimate, tech mate, or a Battery tender brand. -Skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted April 4, 2019 Supporting Member Share Posted April 4, 2019 @wordsmith I just posted this link in another thread. I have been using the Battery Tender Junior for many years. Like @skipperT said - set it and forget it. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 4, 2019 Author Share Posted April 4, 2019 Thanks, betoney and skipperT - I must get something like this! I'm taking the battery - which is only three months/ 1300km old - to be checked this morning. Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duhs10 Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 +1 on the battery tender junior... '15 FJ-09 w/ lots of extras... Fayetteville, GA, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 Took the dead battery to be checked - it is indeed dead, all my fault as I charged it on an incorrect charger. I have about the same knowledge of electrons and their mysterious ways as a Neanderthal cave-man, so it's not surprising! Bought a decent YUASA battery made in Japan, and a CTEK Swedish battery charger/tender. The ones suggested here are not sold in my neck of the woods, but the CTEK has lots of good features. The battery is just being fully topped-up and I should be ready to go! Lesson learned! Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buggy Nate Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 Just as a side thought Wordy, is your Voltmeter that you recently fit up wired in to constant 12v rather than switched? If so might be the reason for the premature death of your battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 It's wired through the under-screen aux plugs (or the wires leading to them), and like the DRLs comes on only when the ign is switched on. Put another way, it has no separate switch. I had thought about adding one, as I have a spare h/bar mount one somewhere, and I feel the v/m is only going to be glanced-at once I'm ready to suit up and head-off out. Despite my appalling higgerance about electrons I find it hard to believe that the tiny digital read-out could cause that mass loss of power - but who knows? If I add a switch that means getting in behind the screens etc one more time - I've had that! But woddya think? The cause of death of the battery was use of an incorrect charger unit - when I took it out of the bike it had a distinct bulge on the bottom, and of course the battery shop guy also tested it. He said that it had lost one cell... I appreciate your thoughts, Nate. Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdavis Posted April 5, 2019 Share Posted April 5, 2019 When mine dies, its replacement will be a SSB Lithium, had them before and are awesome. I also have lipo chargers on hand for my other hobbies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 5, 2019 Author Share Posted April 5, 2019 7 hours ago, jdavis said: When mine dies, its replacement will be a SSB Lithium, had them before and are awesome. I also have lipo chargers on hand for my other hobbies. The battery I killed was an SSB Lithium - it weighed nothing! Unfortunately in my ignorance I didn't know that it should not have been charged with a lead-acid battery charger! An expensive lesson! Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted April 5, 2019 Supporting Member Share Posted April 5, 2019 3 hours ago, wordsmith said: The battery I killed was an SSB Lithium - it weighed nothing! Unfortunately in my ignorance I didn't know that it should not have been charged with a lead-acid battery charger! An expensive lesson! Yes, there are different chargers available for the different battery types. Expensive lesson indeed. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 6, 2019 Author Share Posted April 6, 2019 4 hours ago, betoney said: Yes, there are different chargers available for the different battery types. Expensive lesson indeed. No need to rub salt into the wound, betoney! ☹️ Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted April 6, 2019 Supporting Member Share Posted April 6, 2019 1 hour ago, wordsmith said: No need to rub salt into the wound, betoney! ☹️ Oh, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad, that wasn't my intent, I was merely agreeing that it was an expensive lesson in hopes that others reading would avoid that mistake. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buggy Nate Posted April 6, 2019 Share Posted April 6, 2019 Ah someone replaced the stock battery with a lithium, that makes sense now. I thought you would have had to have been trying real hard to kill a standard lead acid style battery! No worries at all on the VM if it is on a switched circuit. We used to have a heap of guys wire phone chargers and gps chargers straight to the battery and the small current drain would kill batteries all the time. Lithiums are great but they do have some downsides unfortunately. Hope you never see what happens to one when a regulator/rectifier fails on one of them! 🔥🔥🔥 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted April 6, 2019 Author Share Posted April 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Buggy Nate said: Ah someone replaced the stock battery with a lithium, that makes sense now. I thought you would have had to have been trying real hard to kill a standard lead acid style battery! No worries at all on the VM if it is on a switched circuit. We used to have a heap of guys wire phone chargers and gps chargers straight to the battery and the small current drain would kill batteries all the time. Lithiums are great but they do have some downsides unfortunately. Hope you never see what happens to one when a regulator/rectifier fails on one of them! 🔥🔥🔥 Thanks, Nate (also betoney - only jesting, mate!). On embarrassed reflection, this episode was perhaps not quite as stupid of me as I made it out to be. When I bought the bike new in December 2018 it had been sitting unused for three-and-a-half years since being built. The dealer - 1800km away from me - kindly put a new battery in it, unasked. Unfortunately, I didn't note that it was a Lithium device, or I'd probably have pulled up then and looked into any recharging issues. I'd recharged earlier Tracers with their OE batteries quite OK with my old recharger, and went ahead in the accustomed way. Oh, and the battery shop did give me $15 off in exchange for the very dead Lithium item! Not to worry! Now I've got a new always-useful recharger/ trickle-charger as well as a top-of-the range YUASA battery. With a ~4500km circuit coming up soon I cannot afford any niggling worries on that front! Thanks to all for advice and responses. Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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