Will charging a motorcycle battery at 6 volt instead of 12 volt damage the battery?


I feel like an idiot! I left my bike's battery on a battery tender all winter, well, I just went out to fire up my bike for the first time this year. Battery was dead. I took a look at the battery tender and noticed that somehow over the winter the tender switch got bumped to 6 volts instead of 12. I switched it over to 12 just now and the yellow "charging" light came on. But I don't know how long it was on 6 volts so I'm wondering if the battery could have been damaged. It's a brand new bike, well, 6 months old, and I hate to think I have to buy a battery already.

 

The simple test is to see if the battery will charge all the way up, ride it , and see if the battery holds up.

Get a Deltran battery tender. Only has 12 volts. Has kept my original battery charged for almost 5 years now. Why are you putting a 6volt battery tender on your motorcycle? Eliminate this error from happening again.

 

It has a little switch that goes from 6 volt to 12 volts. I've used this tender for 3 years with no problems. Somehow, probably when I was digging in the garage for something, I must have bumped it and knocked the little switch to 6 volts.

 

Just got back from a ride.....battery charged up full with the tender. All is well!

 

Shouldn't be any long term damage, but I wouldn't make a habit of this. The battery would just be weaker charging at a lower volt and not fully charged.

 

Yes don't make a habit of making mistakes... it would be a mistake... and don't make that a habit.