Which gel battery

Old Man Rock wrote:

I can't speak for others outside of hotter then hell environment (Arizona heat) but one thing that is fact.... batteries don't like heat....

Wet cell batteries here in this heat, no way for they do and will boil over here regardless.... It's just too fricking hot....

Whether you buy a new battery annually or spend a little more and get twice to three times the life... Really comes out the same in the long run...

I'm on my second summer here with my AGM battery, no power/battery issues what so ever @ considering the cold cranking amps, she starts right up with a simple push of the starter button...

I'm with the others on this one... AGM or even GEL batteries are better then the wet acid cell batteries with out a doubt.... Especially in the heat!

OMR

If you have a wet cell that is "boiling out" in ambient temperatures of even as high as 110-115F, I can say without fear of contradiction it's a charging problem. Either the charge rate is too high and/or the set point voltage is too high. I strongly suspect the latter because (for th sake of cheapness) some newer voltage regulators neglect to put in the temperature compensation which is necessary to track the actual battery voltage. I designed the IC reg controller that Mopar adopted back in about 1978. The tempco they specified was about -15mV/degC, with the target voltage of about 14V @ 25C. This means simply, at about 50C, the charger must reduce the set point voltage by about 0.4V to keep "on target". If no temp comp is built in, you are overcharging by about 0.4V. Not horrible, but certainly not what you want in hot temps and it will overcharge the battery. To complicate it more, the actual battery voltage tempco is not linear and the -15mV/C was a best fit approximation from about -25C to 50C, at least that was the data then. Battery makers still publish curves for it. Wet cells should never boil water unless they are being improperly charged.

testarossa wrote:

Bountyhunter makes a good point about running the headlight while cranking the bike. On my newer bike, that's just how it is. You can't even get the headlight to come on until you have released the starter button. On my KZ1000, no relay needed. Just turn the headlight switch to "off". I realize that this has changed on the newer KZ's.

No light switch is even installed on bikes newer than around 1978. My '79 has no switch but the handlebar clamps still have the stampings in the metal saying "LIGHTS" and "ON" and "OFF" where it used to be so they disappeared some time right before '79. It is my understanding that federal law mandates that the lights must be on when engine is running so no light switch is allowed. maybe the cop bikes had a switch because their wiring was different.

Mine is an '81, and has an off switch, and you can run the bike without lights if you wanted to. I installed a light relay when I replaced the cop pursuit lights with additional headlights that I wired to the existing pursuit light switch. My front turn signals also act as running lights and have a toggle switch that lets you turn them off too if you want. I guess it was made so the coppers could run up behind a suspect without being seen.

Well, I like the AGM I have and I will never go back to batteries where I have to attach a tube to them. The possibilities are there for it to leak, spill when inadvertantly tipped over by some knuckle head, it needs to be maintained.
I like the relay idea. I had a relay on my xs850 and it started to malfunction which left me without a headlight to run around with. But as I recall the batteries in that bike only lasted a season and a half and it had the relay built in. Maybe if I had a pre 78 switch to turn light off and on it would be nice to have.
I still think it averages out. Either way you like to go I don't think the AGM is more expensive in the long run.

dblhdr wrote:

Mine is an '81, and has an off switch, and you can run the bike without lights if you wanted to. :

Must be because it's a cop bike. i checked state laws here:

www.eastcoastmarc.org/art_laws.htm

And most (but not all) states require daytime headlights. Some specify it is on bikes 1978 and newer. That must be when bike makers converted to "no light switch" for US commercial bikes. Cop bikes would be exempt.

You're probably right about it being special on the cop bikes. I do like being able to turn them off when I warm the bike up in the driveway at five in the morning, and I'm taking my time getting my riding gear on before I leave for work.

I just popped in a simple throw switch last year, and it makes a noticable difference when starting.

Here's a link to how I wired my secondary head lights to a relay and the pursuit switch. I wired it with it's own fuse so it wouldn't draw from the main fuse box. It's from the KZ police forums
Thanks to robjonrik. who posted it.
autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/kz1000p/fil.../Headlight%20Relays/

Newer designed AGM/gel batteries with increased CCA would handle this no problem...

Seems to me anyways... the bike was designed as such using older lower CCA wet cell batteries... Or am I missing something here....

As for wet cell boil overs in AZ heat... Well I guess every car I've owned out here had charging issues then... :S

Seriously, they just don't last here in this god for saken heat... 115* F ambient translates to 175* F under the hood (heat off road)... Even the asphalt gets soft....

Simple switch or relay... no harm done...