Testing battery tender plus
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 6,932
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From: 46th State, USA
The Battery Tender I have has a green and Red light. The Red light is on while charging. It turns green when it's charged. Use a volt meter on the battery terminals while it's charging.
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 2,056
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From: Milton Mills NH
Put the charger on the battery, connect a volt meter to battery, take reading, TURN ON battery charger, note reading. If charger is working the reading will indicate how much. A fully charged 12 volt battery (cars anyway) have between 13.2 & 13.8 volts in it. SOOOOOO, if the first reading is 13.2 or 13.8 the charger is NOT going to work. You need to turn something (lights, directional) on for a few minutes to draw the battery down. Hope this helps.
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Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,039
Likes: 11
From: Northern Ontario
OK, It seems you are wanting to mknow of a way to check the tender....Generally under a NO LOAD condition this tender will have 13-14.5 volts acros its output using a hi inpedance Volt Meter. This however is NOT a good test NOR is looking at the "idiot" lights (LED) (only takes approx <.5v to forward bias an LED depending on the LED) so any "leakage" can still forward bias the LED and light it up and you think all is well add this to the NO load volt test above and then you "really" think all is well BUT NOT!
You will need to do a test under a load condition. The best way and easiest way to do this is to simulate a load.
1. After confiring the NO load test above.
2. Using a 12 V DC light bulb (car tail light will work with two jumper clips) attach this bulb to the tender the output of the tenders current rating typicially 1.5 amps or 1 amp will be fine.
3. If the light "lights" and is normal brightness then all should be good, you can also using the voltmeter across the terminals measure the voltage and it should be around +- 13 volts possibile at 12v then all is well with the tender. If the bulb fails to light and the output volts drops to ZERO or some value below 12v then buy a new tender.
Load testing is more complicated then this but this is a good go no go test
Marty
MyRide7
You will need to do a test under a load condition. The best way and easiest way to do this is to simulate a load.
1. After confiring the NO load test above.
2. Using a 12 V DC light bulb (car tail light will work with two jumper clips) attach this bulb to the tender the output of the tenders current rating typicially 1.5 amps or 1 amp will be fine.
3. If the light "lights" and is normal brightness then all should be good, you can also using the voltmeter across the terminals measure the voltage and it should be around +- 13 volts possibile at 12v then all is well with the tender. If the bulb fails to light and the output volts drops to ZERO or some value below 12v then buy a new tender.
Load testing is more complicated then this but this is a good go no go test
Marty
MyRide7
To the others, thanks for the explanations .
Dan I figured the tender wouldn't do the trick when I first put the new battery in the bike and attached the tender and got the click.
Ride On
Last edited by RidemyEVO; Mar 30, 2011 at 07:55 PM.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 2,856
Likes: 127
From: Middle of Kansas
I had a bettery tender, but it shorted out and discharged my battery. I don't use them anymore. No problem since. I still have the pigtail on my battery for checking voltage, but I ride almost all winter. Sometimes it sets a month, but thats about it.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 3,400
Likes: 268
From: Southern California
OK, It seems you are wanting to mknow of a way to check the tender....Generally under a NO LOAD condition this tender will have 13-14.5 volts acros its output using a hi inpedance Volt Meter. This however is NOT a good test NOR is looking at the "idiot" lights (LED) (only takes approx <.5v to forward bias an LED depending on the LED) so any "leakage" can still forward bias the LED and light it up and you think all is well add this to the NO load volt test above and then you "really" think all is well BUT NOT!
You will need to do a test under a load condition. The best way and easiest way to do this is to simulate a load.
1. After confiring the NO load test above.
2. Using a 12 V DC light bulb (car tail light will work with two jumper clips) attach this bulb to the tender the output of the tenders current rating typicially 1.5 amps or 1 amp will be fine.
3. If the light "lights" and is normal brightness then all should be good, you can also using the voltmeter across the terminals measure the voltage and it should be around +- 13 volts possibile at 12v then all is well with the tender. If the bulb fails to light and the output volts drops to ZERO or some value below 12v then buy a new tender.
Load testing is more complicated then this but this is a good go no go test
Marty
MyRide7
You will need to do a test under a load condition. The best way and easiest way to do this is to simulate a load.
1. After confiring the NO load test above.
2. Using a 12 V DC light bulb (car tail light will work with two jumper clips) attach this bulb to the tender the output of the tenders current rating typicially 1.5 amps or 1 amp will be fine.
3. If the light "lights" and is normal brightness then all should be good, you can also using the voltmeter across the terminals measure the voltage and it should be around +- 13 volts possibile at 12v then all is well with the tender. If the bulb fails to light and the output volts drops to ZERO or some value below 12v then buy a new tender.
Load testing is more complicated then this but this is a good go no go test
Marty
MyRide7
To others re: Reading Battery Voltage. A fully charged Lead Acid battery is 12.65 Volts. It is chemically impossible for a Lead Acid battery (such as used in cars and bikes) to produce more than12.65 volts. If the battery has recently been charged (Battery Charger and/or Engine running) it will have what is called a "Surface Charge" on it, for as long as 24 hours. A battery with a surface charge can read significantly more than 12.65 volts. In fact a bad battery with a shorted cell should produce 10.55 volts (12.65 - 2.1) . . . but with a surface charge it can actually read over 12.65 volts. To use battery voltage as any sort of measurement of a battery State of Charge (SOC) you need to remove the Surface Charge first. Yo can either wait a long time, or you can ground the spark plug wires (to keep the engine from starting) and crank the engine for 15 - 30 seconds, then wait 2 minutes and then read the battery voltage.
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Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,039
Likes: 11
From: Northern Ontario
+1 This is a fairly good DIY Test of a Battery Tender. You have to measure both the voltage and the current to know if the charger is working.
To others re: Reading Battery Voltage. A fully charged Lead Acid battery is 12.65 Volts. It is chemically impossible for a Lead Acid battery (such as used in cars and bikes) to produce more than12.65 volts. If the battery has recently been charged (Battery Charger and/or Engine running) it will have what is called a "Surface Charge" on it, for as long as 24 hours. A battery with a surface charge can read significantly more than 12.65 volts. In fact a bad battery with a shorted cell should produce 10.55 volts (12.65 - 2.1) . . . but with a surface charge it can actually read over 12.65 volts. To use battery voltage as any sort of measurement of a battery State of Charge (SOC) you need to remove the Surface Charge first. Yo can either wait a long time, or you can ground the spark plug wires (to keep the engine from starting) and crank the engine for 15 - 30 seconds, then wait 2 minutes and then read the battery voltage.
To others re: Reading Battery Voltage. A fully charged Lead Acid battery is 12.65 Volts. It is chemically impossible for a Lead Acid battery (such as used in cars and bikes) to produce more than12.65 volts. If the battery has recently been charged (Battery Charger and/or Engine running) it will have what is called a "Surface Charge" on it, for as long as 24 hours. A battery with a surface charge can read significantly more than 12.65 volts. In fact a bad battery with a shorted cell should produce 10.55 volts (12.65 - 2.1) . . . but with a surface charge it can actually read over 12.65 volts. To use battery voltage as any sort of measurement of a battery State of Charge (SOC) you need to remove the Surface Charge first. Yo can either wait a long time, or you can ground the spark plug wires (to keep the engine from starting) and crank the engine for 15 - 30 seconds, then wait 2 minutes and then read the battery voltage.
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Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2010
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From: Union,Ms
If you want to see if a tender is working, take a multimeter put it on dc amps. If the tender is supposed to be putting out lets say 1.2 amps, stick the probes in the tender connector and you should read 1.2 amps.
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