Trickle Charger

[Marcus]

Hey guys, So after telling a guy I had to recharge my battery on the weekend after not riding for a long time.

He mentioned I should get a Trickle charger.

I know you guys have heard of them and what they do...

Are they any good?

Is it better then just charging up my flat battery?

And where can I get one?

[Abe]

Hi Marcus,
I use one similar to this one.  Mine is 1 amp max.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Battery-Charger-Trickle-Charger-Motorcycle-Battery-Charger-/390388639721

I also use mine on the cars.

Cheers
Dave

[saaz]

I use one of these, as it can do bikes as well as cars, and can be left on indefinitely.  http://www.ctekbatterychargers.com.au/ctek-mxs50.html

The smaller ones will work just fine if you don't need anything fancy. I also have a supercheap one that was on clearance, but it does not have all the extra features.

Just make sure that it can be left connected to the battrery indefinitely. The old style trickle chargers (I have one of those from the late 70s) just keeps on charging away regardless of whether the battery is fully charged or not.

[Whizz]

Marcus, A trickle charger is really only of use when you want to maintain the charge in your battery, but because of its limited output current it won't be much good at charging a flat battery, in fact most trickle chargers will current limit if you connect them to a flat battery and won't charge anything. Most trickle chargers are less that 1A output which will take a hell of a long time to charge up a flat battery, if they can charge it at all. If you are going away somewhere for a protracted period, or know you wont be using you bike for some while, then a trickle charger might be of use (although I would question the good sense in leaving it connected whilst you are away!), but if you want to charge your flat battery use a normal charger, then disconnect it once its done its job. Why bother with two different chargers, seems like an unnecessary expense to me.

[Brock]

I have a small charger that will recharge, and then drop to a maintenance (trickle) charge. I use it left connected when I go to Thailand for an extended period. They work by just putting a tiny charge current into the battery, which stops sulphation (deadening) occurring. This is much better than allowing the battery to flatten and reharging.

[Tackleberry]

I have the JayCar knock off of the one saaz put up: 

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3604

I have changed the end plug to be a male european cigarette lighter plug, and wired the female plug into the battery. 

Placed the female plug under the rear rack so I can plug in at any time I park up and charge the battery without removing plastics. 

[Skip]

I've had one for years. A 300mA trickle charger bought from my STealership for about $50. It came with a little insulated off-set plug that is permanently connected to the battery. I have it coming out just below the side panel so no need to remove any plastic to hook it up.
I originally bought it to help fire up a V twin as it was pretty hard on batteries.

[ST2UP]

Use a CTEK 800......set and forget, comes with a fly lead that attaches to the battery with 3 charge indicator lights, green > 13V, yellow > 12.5 V and red < 12.0 volts, about $99 on special.

Multi-stage Smart chargers have come along way compared to the "Automatic" chargers of many years ago that where supposed to turn off when they reached full(ish) charge....instead some use to boil the guts out of a battery at > 13.5 volts.

From playing with solar & deepcycle batteries over the last umpteen years camping, 4x4 touring the biggest favour you can do for a battery you wish to charge or maintain a charge in is to have some output from the battery most of the time, the radios, driving lights, and fridge (always on) in our Landcruiser are off the second battery plugged into a CTEK 7000 when not in use.....battery is now 9 years old living in a very cold climate.

Bike battery on my old ST1100 was 5 years old treated the same, still going strong.

Cheers

Chris

[Malcolm6112]

I have a    AUTOMATIC 12V 900MA 2 STAGE BATTERY CHARGER


http://www.projecta.com.au/Products/BatteryChargers/ChargeNMaintain.aspx#!prettyPhoto

The fly lead is attached to the battery all the time. When you want to use it, plug in the wall socket and fly lead and turn on the power.

They're not too expensive either.