what charger to buy and battery maintenance advice  By  jdmsoldier (Read 542 times)

Jdmsoldier,

My own battery charger is from around 1955... So my "expertise" is a little "dated". It was used in Chicago winters to maintain the battery on my old Harley (6-volt) and my 1950 Chevy (6-volt) and dad's 1955 Chevy and 20 or so more cars and bikes (12-volt) ever since.  I even use it for color-anodizing aluminum parts...  Yes, it is SO old it has a switch for 6 or 12-volt use...

I still use it on my Honda car, and old Mercury car which don't get driven often, but have not needed it on the scooter yet. I don't ride too much, but so far the old Kymco 250 has not experienced a to-low-to-start battery in the two years I've had it. (New battery installed when I bought the 2007 scooter 2 1/2 years back).

I've never had a problem charging a battery while hooked up. My old Chinese 150 battery would get low some times, and I'd charge it overnight while connected.  I actually installed a cigarette-lighter (power-port in today's language...) so I could just plug in a male plug with wires, and connect the charger to the wires...  The battery was UNDER the floor and hard to access.  The lighter socket was also handy to plug in a little compressor to air up the tires.

My old charger is great for small batteries as it only charges at a max of 3-amps. I'd suggest getting as low-output a charger as you can find so as not to put too much juice into the battery. (Probably modern chargers automatically adjust their output to the individual battery's needs anyway...)

You also might consider a low-amp "battery-tender" to leave hooked up when not using the bike. These are VERY popular with vehicle owners for bikes, boats, cycles, lawn-equipment, custom cars... Anything that sits for a month or so without use.

I think any modern charger/tender would work well. Mine is 62 years old, and was a cheapie from a drug-store! Can't be all that complex or trouble-prone. I doubt if any brand would be of poor quality.

OK... Now how about some good advice from some younger riders with newer than horse and buggy/Harley Davidson experience?

Ride safe!

Leo in Texas

Agree with Leo, don't charge the battery with more than 1 amp, the so called "fast chargers" put a lot more amps into the battery, but that shortens the battery's life; a trickle charger like Kat's battery tender junior is what you want.

You want a float type maintainer not a trickle charger. A literal trickle charger never shuts off and keeps your battery cooking all the time causing the water to evaporate more quickly.

This one from Harbor Freight should do just fine:
www.harborfreight.com/automatic-battery-float-charger-42292.html

Rockynv,

Great item, AND affordable!  Should be perfect for the rider who doesn't ride all that often.  It's true that a trickle-charger will sometimes run "too much"...  Like as in ALL the time... LOL!

My old Chinese 150 took quite a bit of riding to get a weak battery charged back up.  If the battery in my "new" old Kymco 250 is a tad low when starting the engine, it seems to charge back up VERY quickly with a short ride.

Probably the charging capability varies from one scooter to another.

Ride safe, and... CHARGE!

Leo in Texas

I bought on of those float chargers from Harbor Freight several years ago, put it on a Gold Wing. I did not ride much that year due to back injury. About 6 weeks later I went out to crank it up. NO crank, no lights, no nothing. I looked in the battery, no water, It was dry as the desert in summer time. The $15.00 charger cost me about $60.00. I have purchased a lot of stuff from H/F but that was the worse. I have a air operated lift table that I use to work on my scooters and motorcycles, works great, good investment, for my back problem.