Battery Tender Question
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Road Captain
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 680
Likes: 224
From: Buhl, Idaho
Battery Tender Question
Here's the scenario: Month or so back-19 day roadtrip in car. Bike unplugged from tender.Get home and bike starts right up. Okay. Just got home from 11 day trip in car. (Hauling lotsa estate stuff, so needed car). Bike on tender. hit start-click, click. No start. Check and clean battery cables and all related wiring. 0 ohms resistance in cables, very clean.Recharge battery, and check drain-down. Within 5 hrs, at a little over 11.3 volts, from full charge.Jump start with car battery (engine off). Test all voltages.Within spec.Charging system good.Engine off and batt. voltage drops again.Bike is '08 FLHT(stage 1)with about 94,000 on the clock. pretty much a daily rider. Question is (finally): Has anybody had a suspicious battery death that was perhaps caused by defective tender? Tender is about 5-6 years old, so maybe just wore out?The battery is 10 months old.Last batt. good for 6 yrs.New batt. from local dealer. Any input? Oh, yeah. I did the voltage drop tests with batt. removed from bike, so no outside influence. Solid green on tender. Thanks, guys.
MODERATOR
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,108
Likes: 1,964
From: New England
FWIW, I had one go bad years ago and froze the battery destroying it over a long winter...I won't use one again.
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,873
Likes: 13
From: NW Arkansas
I've got 3 of the battery tender plus, one of them 7 years old.....so far so good. (They most likely are all made in China with cheap electrical parts...so hard to expect much out of them.) A lot of Corvette owners use the one made by C-Tek.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 3,394
Likes: 263
From: Southern California
What was the voltage with the charger hooked to the battery when the green light was on?
13.2 Volts or more = Battery Tender OK, Battery has internal short in at least one cell.
12.6 Volts or less = Battery Tender Bad, Battery "probably" OK . . . but after going dead and being recharged 3 or more times it's future life will be fairly short.
13.2 Volts or more = Battery Tender OK, Battery has internal short in at least one cell.
12.6 Volts or less = Battery Tender Bad, Battery "probably" OK . . . but after going dead and being recharged 3 or more times it's future life will be fairly short.
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Road Warrior
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,510
Likes: 23
From: Connecticut
I believe you said above that you checked the battery cables, but I would check once more the leads for the battery tender.
Not too many months ago, I was seeing some errors with the Schumacher battery maintainer that I use.
I thought it might be an indication of either a bad battery or a failure of the tender, but by chance I re-checked the tender leads, and found the cabling frayed and broken at the positive connection.
Bought a replacement lead at Sears for $3.50, and all went back to normal.
Not too many months ago, I was seeing some errors with the Schumacher battery maintainer that I use.
I thought it might be an indication of either a bad battery or a failure of the tender, but by chance I re-checked the tender leads, and found the cabling frayed and broken at the positive connection.
Bought a replacement lead at Sears for $3.50, and all went back to normal.
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Thread Starter
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Road Captain
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 680
Likes: 224
From: Buhl, Idaho
Leads to tender in good condition,just replaced a weak connector recently.While doing all tests, with batt in bike, all accessories were disconnected from the battery completely, so only wires were + and- cables.all other tests done with batt out of bike. Charge on a 3 amp charger to full voltage.No load was 12.71. Within 3 hours, v had dropped to 11.82. Batt. 10 months old, and used very often, never a less than 1 or 2 hr ride, so this is sudden, with no prior problem. V across batt @ idle to 3k rpm with spec in manual, so charge system good. Batt. is not holding charge, I believe due to tender going homicidal on battery.I believe the charge time on tender had increased, also, but just a feeling, not actually measured.
