I have three bikes that will need some sort of battery maintenance through winter. The bikes are in a car park with no access to mains. Is the optimate suitable for battery maintenance at home? How do they work? Do I just plug it in and attach it to each battery at a time for a certain amount of time on a regular basis?

I've never used one of these so any info would be appreciated. I've checked their site and that mainly refers to plugging into the mains and allowing to sit over lengthy periods...rather than having three batteries out of the bikes at home.

For info, one battery is completely flat, the other two are relatively new.

Thanks
Den

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Yeah, it will be fine. When you plug them in, they do some sort of test, then a charging cycle that takes about 3 hours. After that, they just sit there monitoring the voltage and putting a bit more in if it starts to drop, which is why you can leave them connected for long periods.

So yeah, just pull the battery out of each bike once every week or two and stick it on the optimate for a few hours until the green light comes on, then put it back. This is effectively what happens to my wife's bike, which isn't being used over the winter - the optimate is permanently plugged into it, but the power to the garage is only switched on when I go to do some work out there, so it effectively gets topped up every week or two.


An Optimate, or other smart charger, might refuse to resurrect the one that's completely flat - effectively the electronics in the charger decide that it's not really a battery, or it's knackered. You can sometimes get better results by using a more crude charger first to try and get a bit of charge into it, then keeping it on the optimate.

If it's been flat for a while though, be prepared for the possibility that it is knackered and won't ever hold a charge properly again.

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Thanks for the informative reply Uberthumper.

I probably wont be using 2 of the bikes at all throughout winter so I guess it will be ok to leave the batteries out, connect them every fortnight for a charge, then place them back into the bike after their winter hibernation?

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Thanks Keith, I'm ok thanks, hope all's well your end. I'll just make do with the one as the batteries will be off the bikes having a turn each to charge every so often. If the flat battery charges it will be a bonus as it's a bike of a friend who is abroad indefinitely which I'm looking after.

Take care

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Update & more questions...

I picked up an Optimate 4 yesterday & tried it on my friends Honda Falcon 400 which I've been looking after for the past couple of years while he's out of town. The battery died on me in March from lack of use and has been sitting in he garage since. I removed the battery & when I hooked it up the bottom left red light came on indicating that the battery was 'deeply discharged or neglected'. After the 30 minute retention test the red 'test' light came on. The guide states that the battery is dead or needs a professional service, so I disconnected. Should I have left it attached for a while to try my luck or just give up on it?

Second question. I've removed and plugged in the XTX battery...which has the green light staying constant after the retention test with showing a voltage of 13.54v...all appears to be well as expected from a 5 month old battery. It's been plugged in for 5 hours now...is this enough, should I disconnect, if so how often should I plug it in. I wont be installing the battery for a little while now as winter has set in.

Thanks
Denny

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Sorry, this is a bit late - just seen the thread!

I would have taken a different approach, as you are removing the battery from the bike to charge it, I would have gone for a normal battery charger with a deep charge cycle, these will cost around the same as an Optimate (around this location anyway) but are more suited to varied uses (such as recovery of a very dead battery). You can also 'fast charge' if you need to get the bike going quickly.

Optimate, for on-the bike charging and maintenance is the way to go though.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Although it doesn't say, my post was realy directed at anyone with a similar problem, reading it later. No use to you as you have already purchased the Optimate.

Bin it. you'll be fighting a long battle with this battery until the day you replace it.

Optimates are designed to be plugged into the bike (or battery in your case) constantly. However as the battery is out of the bike I would be inclined to give it an overnight boost once a month and maybe a few constant days before you intend to use it again. I am presuming you have the battery stored inside, out of the way of low temps ?

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.