new battery charge duration

[Jim Hyman]

--- monahanwb@y... wrote:

> I got a new battery in the mail (Thanks, Fred). I am > going to take it home and fill it with acid, then put it > on my one amp charger. > > How long should I put in on the charger? > > Batty Bill

--------------------------------- Bill, The following info is from Yuasa batter's web site: http://www.yuasabatteries.com/ms_chrgnew.htm This is the text from one of the 'tips' pages. There are charging time charts on this page (that don't 'cut & paste' well). Go to this page to print out the page & check out other helpful info in the "consumers" section. Professor A9 Federal Way, Wa. [USA] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CHARGING A NEW BATTERY The MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember about charging a new battery is to actually do it! How many times have you seen somebody ready to throw a new battery into a bike and ride off - without charging. "The bike will charge it," they figure. Wrong. The battery will be damaged for life. A battery out of the box, with the electrolyte added but uncharged, is at 80% capacity tops. If it's installed and used that way - without an initial booster charge first - it'll never hold more than that 80% charge. The bike won't charge it higher. Neither will pulling the battery off later and trying to charge it to full capacity. The battery's capacity has been immediately and permanently cut by 20%, and there's nothing you can do about it. Insist on that booster charge. The rule of thumb is to charge a new battery for three to five hours at a rate equal to 1/10 of its rated capacity. But there are a lot of exceptions to that rule, as this table shows: If you're careful about monitoring and you're using a digital voltmeter (or multimeter), it's possible to bring that new battery to more than a full charge. This is what you do: periodically pull the battery off the charger and give it time to stabilize. Then check the voltage. The voltage will continue to climb - for YUASA batteries, up to 16v or 17v - and then will start to drop. When it does that, you've reached max. Quick Charges What about quick charging? The quick answer is don't. We don't recommend it, and here's why: only the surface area of the battery plates can be quick charged. A lower current charges the battery more uniformly. That means better performance. Also, charging rates above 2 or 2.5 amperes increase the chance of overheating, which can mean battery damage.