Thursday 24 November 2016

Battery Maintenance


A spell of cold has weather prompted me to think about my bikes' batteries. I've got four bikes but only one is being used at present. This isn't generally a problem but many years ago I had a battery discharge and freeze solid.

There are the idle bikes' batteries being charged. I'm using a charger and a pair of battery tenders. The Yuasa on the right is an industrial battery I got from my brother and used for a 12V supply in the garage. The batteries can be charged on the bikes but once charged I'm going to store them in the house over the winter.



This is a cheap battery tender from Lidl. It supplies a low current to charge the battery slowly and switches off when the battery is fully charged. In theory it can be left on permanently without boiling the battery.

Frost-covered apples in a barrow in my garden.
 

3 comments:

  1. Brrrr, getting that time of year. I can remember storing batteries in the house when we lived n Canada and received a lot of snow in the winter.

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    1. It's not usually that cold here but winter seems to have come early. It's been freezing all this week so I thought I'd be safe rather than sorry.

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    2. It seems that a fully charged battery will never freeze but it becomes more likely as the battery discharges. A flat battery will freeze like water. So if I keep then in the house I don't need to constantly charge them.

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