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Old May 18th, 2017, 02:22 PM   #13
adouglas
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Name: Gort
Location: A secret lair which, being secret, has an undisclosed location
Join Date: May 2009

Motorcycle(s): Aprilia RS660

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Battery tenders made for lead-acid batteries don't work the same way the bike's charging system does. Read the info at the link for more. Google will help you dive as deep into this as you like, with differences in battery construction, voltages that the Battery Tender "sees" and how it responds, etc. Simple answer for me: Just buy the damn Shorai charger. I have two bikes anyway so it's not like my 30-year-old Battery Tender suddenly became redundant.

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Although the Battery Tender is known as a maintenance charger, this is not the case if hooked to a Shorai battery. Because of the voltage differences found in a Lithium battery pack, the charger may not enter "float" or "maintenance" mode. Rather than simply keeping the battery at a proper float level, it may stay in boost mode for long periods. There is then the risk of overcharging the battery, one of the many causes of early battery failure.

No De-Sulfators Allowed
One last bit of advice. It is absolutely NOT SAFE to use a charger with an automatic de-sulfation pulse mode. Such brands such as Battery MINDer and Pulse Tech offer great products to help restore old lead acid batteries, but because there is no lead sulfate in Shorai batteries it would prove harmful to the lithium cells. If your charger has a de-sulfation mode that is not automatic, you may use it as long as this mode has been turned off.
I don't put my bike on a tender either, except for winter storage. If you ride all year round, there's no need.

A lithium battery holds its charge much better than a lead acid battery, but you want to avoid parasitic losses from circuits that stay energized even when the bike is off. Manufacturers recommend disconnecting the battery if you're not going to ride for several weeks for this reason. The same drain can kill a lead battery....
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