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There are probably high quality AGM batteries, but you have to pay a lot more for them, well over $100. It's been a while since I've looked at the expensive ones, so I don't know how much they cost now, where they're made or anything else. One of those might be worth the extra cost if they last more than 4 yrs. A number of yrs ago the Scorpion AGMs received plenty of good reviews on the various motorcycle forums & I seem to recall that some guys reported that they lasted 5-7 yrs.

ps: I thought mine was exactly 2 yrs old, but after checking the receipt, I actually bought it in mid Sept, so it's almost 2 yrs old.
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The Scorpion AGM battery is MADE IN CHINA.
Steve

Yes. I knew that. It's difficult to find stuff not made there any more. The walmart wet cell battery, which I didn't want, is also made in china. I was going to get a Yuasa the last time, but their site didn't list an AGM for my bike. They just offer a conventional battery. I may switch back to a wet cell next time & get the Yuasa.

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Here is an AGM for a Z1 for $101.95

www.interstatebatteries.com/product-search-results#

The last Interstate AGM I had in my ZRX only lasted 10 years. I have high expectations for the one in there now.

It's hard to say whether or not any battery made nowadays will last. That's the main reason I was hesitant to get an expensive name brand battery the last time. The first scorpion agm I got wasn't expensive but not cheap & still kind of disappointing.

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They played this one up really well. Saying it comes from Asia not CHINA makes me expect it to fail just like all the others. Looks like there's a choice of getting one at the local auto store and get a 90 day warranty at double the price or a 1 year at 1/2. All I can say is we'll see.
Steve


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martin_csr wrote: It's hard to say whether or not any battery made nowadays will last. That's the main reason I was hesitant to get an expensive name brand battery the last time. The first scorpion agm I got wasn't expensive but not cheap & still kind of disappointing.

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I understand and share your concern. I did not even check to see where my new one was made, but now I am curious. No matter, I remain hopeful that it is as good as the last one. There is an Interstae battery store five or six miles from my house, where I have bought bike and automotive batteries for several years. I would hate to have to look for a new source.

While I do share your concern for Chinese made batteries, perhaps there are other contributing factors to your high failure rate. Perhaps overcharging is cooking them into a early death? I know you know these charging systems intimately and forget if you went to the holy grail (SH-775) of R/R's, but you may be missing something my friend.


A little cleaner / clearer diagram.


I thought my 1 year old Chinese gel cell was failing, but as it turned out the stator was shorted, then after I replaced that, I found the "sense" (brown wire) voltage to be low to my regulator causing it to overcharge.

northeastbattery.com/top-5-reasons-batteries-fail-prematurely/

I also believe that I replaced a good napa battery because of the charging system out of whack, yet I blamed the battery for my failure to check things out closer. I am still using the orange Chinese AGM battery and it shows zero signs of failing to this day.


I did add a relay to the sense circuit to stop the overcharging. It feeds B+ directly to my original R/R.

It may be a combination of factors. I ran the battery dry, added distilled water and charged it with a tapered charge. By then the battery was toast. Didn't happen with the last one though. It just failed in the same way. My charging system is at full value and I have a SH 775 R/R but with all the lights it is working very hard. I suspect that's why the battery is being taxed so much. However when I had the old regulator/rectifier setup even though it was 70's old tech, the battery would last 4-5 years unless the crappy regulator failed. I got a working one off a Z1A and it was still overcharging. I use to have a Marshall halogen headlight with a 100w pencil beam what was great for out here but it took a lot of juice to run it. So much so I fried the rectifier and replaced it with a Yamaha XS 650 one I had on hand. It's larger in every way and gave me all the power I could use but the old style regulator couldn't keep up with it. I then installed three inline regulators at the coils, headlight and battery . That seemed to work until 13 when I got the bike back on the road. The line drawing you show is from The Old Kaw Man when I bought a used stock KZ1000 R/R from him. It worked OK but couldn't keep up with the lights so the SH 775. I've gone LED on most of the lights and a HID headlight. Still it shows the battery is being taxed and may have to put it on a trickle charge once a month. I don't understand why the digital multimeter jumps around like it does. The volt meter on the dash is junk (broken needle) and my analog meter isn't working to compare readings. That may be it. I'll find a cheap little analog meter just to test it, that is if I can find one.
Steve

WOW, that's some extensive modification list! lol I don't see how a stock shunt type regulator could overtax a charging system, when it actually shorts the excess current to ground, rather than sending it through to the electrical system. My bike is operating GREAT on my original R/R with the addition of the sens voltage relay.
Perhaps going back to the stock configuration that worked well for you may be the way to go.. Or perhaps the new stator and SH775 has once again decided to stop powering all of your modifications and doohickeys?

If you have a charging system deficit your battery will go dead as you ride.

One thing that may help in your situation would be that rather than an analog volt meter, would be to install a amp meter between the battery and the electrical system. (less starter loading) This is long forgotten tech, that used to be state of the art and used in almost every type of charging system known to man. It shows when the current flow is + or - in relation to the battery charge, compared to the load.
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This is nominal charge voltage and stator current at ~3K rpm with the stock shunt regulator:

Looks like I may have a bad solder connection on the stator when I replaced the rubber grommet. With the SH775 the charging system is independent of the harness so I doubt that has anything to do with it.
Steve

Once a battery runs out of water in one or more cells, its life will be shortened. Sometimes in that case, just adding water won't help. If the battery was boiled out such that it was spitting acid out, then you also lost the essential electrolytes that were in the acid, rather than simply water vapor.

If your batteries are running dry in a short time, then you are probably over-charging. If you were under-charging, the battery would be dead, but the water should stay in it.

The stator has to be connected to the regulator (SH775) at some point, so a bad stator connection will affect the charging system.
I'm not sure what you mean by "independent".

Sorry, I didn't see the videos if you already showed what you found.