Is this trickle charger safe for 2017 r1200rs?

Well if your talking a lead battery then I think any charger will do even a 40 year old one. However battery's have a "preferred" methodology to charging them based on chemical composition.

AMP output at specific voltages makes or breaks a charger/battery.

Recently spent some time on the phone with a Yuasa tech. Scott is a great guy. I was asking about fitment of battery's for my 2017 GS. As stock is like 4 3/8" high their battery's are over 5". So to that there seems there is a spacer below the battery which allows a much taller(more plates) battery to be installed from the factory mini.

So I asked him about charging and maintaining. He is right down the road from me as the battery's are made in Reading, PA. Turns out he used to own a motorcycle shop and very familiar with Hermys as a client and friend. and is my dealer. Any way I asked do you keep your bikes on a charger and he said no. He said he will plug it in if he cant get a ride in over a few weeks in winter which here in PA we can ride a bit in winter. I asked why and he said that if the battery is used every few weeks and run over 2500 RPMs for a period of time that is all the battery needs. He says he does not maintain but rather once it completes a cycle of test, charge, and then into maintain mode, he unplugs it. Rinse and repeat as needed.

I have zero personal experience with LI but had a friend who had one and it was a PITA here in PA in the winter. He had to turn his bike on without starting and excite the battery, then turn the bike off, and then turn it back on and go for a start. He had a bit of money invested in the LI battery and specific charger.

I encourage anyone to look at battery chargers and their features to match them to the class of battery you are using. Again and battery's improve the techniques to maintain them and the science behind that is very relevant to your charger/battery match.

Me, I use Yuasa battery's as they are hometown for me made right down the road in the USA, and a Optimate charger. The Optimate runs a test cycle shooting varying amount of voltage into the battery to see if it can accept a charge. After that test it goes to charge. and then finally to maintain. I have seen 14.7 being shot into it while watching it run a test cycle but I did not stay on it too long as it takes a good bit of time for it to run the test cycle depending on the battery condition.

Use the right charger for the right battery. And not all chargers are created equal.

PoorUB said:

My newest charger is 15 years old, and the oldest is close to 40 years old. I still use both. Why replace them if they still function properly. Battery chargers typically just quit, they don't explode like in the movies and level your garage.

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My 14 year old BMW charger/maintainer finally gave up the ghost last year. Wouldn't charge past 2 yellow lights and go to green. I replaced it with a Noco charger maintainer.

One of the less expensive piece of kit for the motor, as it were

brownie0486 said:

My 14 year old BMW charger/maintainer finally gave up the ghost last year. Wouldn't charge past 2 yellow lights and go to green. I replaced it with a Noco charger maintainer.

One of the less expensive piece of kit for the motor, as it were

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I bought a battery charger at the "Sears and Roebuck Company" (that is what it said on the charger) back in 1966 to charge the battery in my car which had a failed generator so I could plug it in over night and drive on battery power to and from work at the Radar Station. That charger was still working fine until last year. Mud dauber wasps had filled it with their dirt nest and even after I got it cleaned out it wouldn't work.

GREGFEELER said:

I am totally with you Paul. Unless you are building a super light performance bike where every pound counts, I don't see the point of the additional expense and risks of lithium batteries. I've seen reports of lion batter fires and they are not nice. When I can get a typical 10 years from an AGM battery for $130.00 I'm good.

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Agreed. I've had an AGM battery in my k13s for five years now and the new battery bought for the r12rs is the same. The battery tender still works fine so I don't see any need to swap it out, although I have definitely got my money's worth out of it. Thanks for all the good info on the new more sophisticated chargers.....I may need to buy one at some point.

I have a CTEK MXS 5.0 smart charger that I use when I expect the vehicle to go for months without being used. It keeps all the electronics happy so I don't have to reprogram my radio stations, reset the seats and the clock, etc. Generally it's better to keep a battery charged than let it go flat then bring it back, it's charge/(deep) discharge cycles that shorten their lives. The only time i put my bike on a charger was when i was gone for 3 months, same with the car.

Lithium batteries aren't worth the cost IMO. They're lighter by what, the weight of a half gallon of gas? Plus they need a Li-compatible charger, and as was pointed out above, the bike's charging system probably isn't optimized for Lithium batteries either. Me, my gear, and my bike loaded for travel is 800 lb, 3 lb will be unnoticeable. I made a much bigger difference when I quit donuts and milkshakes.

I also have a 30 year old ferroresonant dumb charger (the kind you wait for the ammeter to go down then disconnect before it boils the battery dry). And a starter pack with a lead acid battery in it. And a starter pack with a lithium battery in it. I should probably get rid of 2 of them.

LFarling said:

Well if your talking a lead battery then I think any charger will do even a 40 year old one. However battery's have a "preferred" methodology to charging them based on chemical composition.

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No argument there, my my post was in regards to the comment the someone should replace their eight year old battery charger, no reference to the type of battery. Simply age implied.

Other than Li-Ion batteries that should have a proper charger, any lead acid, including AGM, battery will do fine on what ever charger you have available, even Paul's from 1966 if it still functioned.

PoorUB said:

Other than Li-Ion batteries that should have a proper charger, any lead acid, including AGM, battery will do fine on what ever charger you have available, even Paul's from 1966 if it still functioned.

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It served one purpose very well. It was of course a dumb charger. But it was a 6 amp charger. And the instructions with my Odyssey batteries called for a 6 amp charge. So I would use it for 12 hours about once a month if a bike with the Odyssey wasn't being ridden.

PGlaves said:

It served one purpose very well. It was of course a dumb charger. But it was a 6 amp charger. And the instructions with my Odyssey batteries called for a 6 amp charge. So I would use it for 12 hours about once a month if a bike with the Odyssey wasn't being ridden.

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Thats not how it works. The charger has a capacity of 6 amps maximum output. If a battery calls for a 6 amp charge, that means you charge it with a constant 6 amps and the voltage varies as the battery reaches it max charge. These are called constant current chargers. Your charger is not that sophisticated. It will output a constant voltage with a current depending on the the draw of the battery up to 6 amps. As the battery reaches maxmimu charge, the current tapers off. Lead acid batteries do best on constant current chargers, especially the initial charge after servicing them with acid.

dravnx said:

Thats not how it works. The charger has a capacity of 6 amps maximum output. If a battery calls for a 6 amp charge, that means you charge it with a constant 6 amps and the voltage varies as the battery reaches it max charge. These are called constant current chargers. Your charger is not that sophisticated.

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OK. But it never caused an issue with any of several Odyssey batteries. It had me fooled. I am glad there are folks who really understand batteries. I don't actually pretend to.

But it sure is interesting how sellers of battery chargers tell us we need their very specific gizmo, when the charging system on the motorcycle works with a wet cell, AGM, Gell, and maybe even Lithium batteries. I smell an odor.

PoorUB said:

My newest charger is 15 years old, and the oldest is close to 40 years old. I still use both. Why replace them if they still function properly. Battery chargers typically just quit, they don't explode like in the movies and level your garage.

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Because the OP was asking if the charger he currently (haha) owns would work with his new purchase. My response pointed to peace of mind to alleviate doubt. My comment had nothing to do with throwing working equipment into the landfill, and thank you for helping the planet.

Now you guys have me wondering:

"Typically", a battery's internal resistance is very low. I have no idea what it might be if the battery is somewhat discharged and in need of a charge (trickle, boost, whatever).

If one has a high-capacity (meaning amperage) charger, and hooks that up to needful battery, isn't it possible - maybe even probable - that the higher current being pulled in would cause over-heating of the plates and/or acid? This would be damaging to the battery.

Pauls1150 said:

Now you guys have me wondering:

"Typically", a battery's internal resistance is very low. I have no idea what it might be if the battery is somewhat discharged and in need of a charge (trickle, boost, whatever).

If one has a high-capacity (meaning amperage) charger, and hooks that up to needful battery, isn't it possible - maybe even probable - that the higher current being pulled in would cause over-heating of the plates and/or acid? This would be damaging to the battery.

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For many years battery makers recommended that a charge in amperes not exceed a number of amps equal to 10 percent of the amp/hour rating of the battery. The reason given was exactly as you postulated: a higher charging rate could overheat and damage the battery. This advice applied to wet lead acid batteries and many AGM and Gell Cell batteries. Thus for a typical motorcycle battery we were usually looking at chargers which didn't exceed 1.5 or 2 amps. Then along came Odyssey which advised to use at least a 6 amp charger for the PC680 battery. Then we got conflicting advice for other VRLA (valve regulated lead acid) as to bulk charge rates, maintenance charge rates etc.

Twenty years ago I lived in Kansas with 6 BMW motorcycles parked for the winter. I had one "dumb" 2 amp charger. So on the first day of the month bike 1 got charged for 24 hours. The next day bike 2 got charged for 24 hours, the next day bike three - and so on until all 6 had received their 24 hour charge. Repeat starting the first of the next month. I had no more battery problems then than I do now with 6 or 7 little "smart" chargers of various brands: BT, BT Jr., Schumacher, Duracell, and others I would have to go to the shop to identify.

PoorUB said:

No argument there, my my post was in regards to the comment the someone should replace their eight year old battery charger, no reference to the type of battery. Simply age implied.

Other than Li-Ion batteries that should have a proper charger, any lead acid, including AGM, battery will do fine on what ever charger you have available, even Paul's from 1966 if it still functioned.

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In my experience, just about any type of battery will accept a charge from just about any kind of charger. However, that doesn't mean that the battery is getting either the maximum charge or one that will prolong the life of the battery.

I've done a lot of reading about battery technology over the years, and every article about AGM batteries has said they need a charger with at least a 14.7v capacity, and preferably an AGM specific charging process. I started using Odyssey batteries over 10 years ago and bought their specific charger. Since the Odyssey's are a deep discharge design they require a charger designed to recover one of their batteries from less than 4.0v. Since then I have also used two NOCO Genius chargers which are designed with lot of different charging profiles for everything from very small 6v lead-acid batteries to LiOn batteries. In particular they have a profile which appears identical to the one used by the Odyssey chargers, and one of their latest chargers appears to have sub-4.0v recovery capability.

Below are two clips from the Odyssey site about the required charging profile in three steps, and then the six-step process their chargers perform to do a recovery charge. I am not a battery engineer and can't prove that any of this is true (i.e. not just marketing hype), but I've used their recommended chargers and followed their recommendations for over a decade. I have their batteries in four bikes which get ridden from very often to infrequently, and I'm getting 9 to 10+ years of reliable service life. I've never had that from any other brand or type of battery. YMMV.

Pauls1150 said:

Now you guys have me wondering:

"Typically", a battery's internal resistance is very low. I have no idea what it might be if the battery is somewhat discharged and in need of a charge (trickle, boost, whatever).

If one has a high-capacity (meaning amperage) charger, and hooks that up to needful battery, isn't it possible - maybe even probable - that the higher current being pulled in would cause over-heating of the plates and/or acid? This would be damaging to the battery.

Click to expand...

A smart charger should monitor current and voltage to avoid this kind of situation.