Totally dry battery

[Coyote]

I was kicking around in the garage today and noticed the light on the GS1000 battery tender had turned red. I got out my meter and it checked 14.5 V!!. I disconnected the tender and it was still over 14 volts Tried the lights and everything worked as normal. The I figured the light had gone red for a reason. I pulled out the battery to see if the water level was low. Low is not the word. Bone dry!. Not a drop in any of the cells. None!. Voltage now checks around 13.6. I realized that I had left all the caps loose so I guess it gassed off too freely. The battery wasn't even warm.
The battery is just sitting on the bench now and I am out of distilled water. I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow and pick up a gallon. So that brings up a question. Do you think topping it up with distilled water will bring it back to a normal life? Keep on mind there is nothing at all in it.
It's been sitting a little over 6 hours now and the voltage still checks 12.36. This leads to making me think there are no dead cells as it would have dropped a lot more.. What are my chances of having a usable battery?

[Alan H]

Chances are good. Fill it and try it. The charger may be ok, it could be the bike that's overcharging.

[lrutt]

A battery tender will boil out a wet cell battery. I had that problem until I went with AGM batteries.

[Coyote]

A battery tender will boil out a wet cell battery.

I never had that problem in the 4+ years I've been using them.

So this morning I filled the battery with distilled water. Checked the voltage at 12.35 I hooked up the tender and it started flashing red-green-red-green.. There is nothing in the documentation about this cycle. I left it a while and now is solid red - meaning that it's charging. However I have my doubts that it will ever turn green. I date my batteries when I put them in service. This one is dated 10/12/2011 so it's getting pretty old. I think I better get a new one and put it on the shelf in case this one doesn't work out. I'll post again when I know more.

[rngdng]

Chris, I think that your battery needs to be replaced, AND your battery tender is suspect.


Lane

[Coyote]

Lane. I already ordered another battery. I think the tender is toast too. Voltage is at 13.75. It should be flashing green indicating 80%, but it just remains red (charging).
Even though the voltage is 13.75, I'm betting it has no cranking amps at all. Been down that road before with a car battery. Showed to be fully charged but wouldn't turn the engine over. I took it to the parts place where they have much better testing equipment. The battery had 1 cranking amp.

[Coyote]

Now I think it's the tender that's toast. The voltage on the once dry battery is all the way up to 13.78. The tender is still charging away instead of going into it's maintenance mode.. That would explain the boiled dry battery as it continually drives voltage in to the battery instead of going in to the maintenance mode. Something must have fried internally.
SRIS. -- something rotten in service

[Coyote]

This morning, after running all night, the tender had driven the voltage all the way up to 14.22. Light still red and still charging. I am certain the tender is bad because it should have at least be blinking green (80%) charged. Really solid green indicating fully charged and maintaining. Now I am certain that's why the battery went dry. The tender became a full time charger and charged the piss out of the battery. Anyway I'm going to wait 24 hours and see if it retains acceptable voltage. Have another battery on the way, but I don't want to activate it if I don't have to.
Is anyone familiar with this type battery? http://www.ebay.com/itm/YTX14AHL-BS-SMF ... 53&vxp=mtr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rngdng]

I haven't used that particular brand, but the last really good one I bought was from Interstate Battery; really expensive AGM, and of course I sold the bike it's mounted in......


Lane

[Coyote]

I don't think this battery that boiled dry is any good. Even though it took a charge all the way up to 14.22, in 24 hours it has dropped to 12.23 and probably has no amps. I'll have to see what it drops to in another 24 hrs. Something I didn't know (read it yesterday), a battery that checks 11 volts is considered totally dead. Really kind of a small window we're playing with.
One of these days I'm going to buy a high quality gel battery an quit fooling around with these lead / acid batteries. Even new ones seem to be border line in no time at all. Plus you never know how long they have been laying around. About 2 months ago I bought a new lead / acid battery off eBay for my GT550. It has never been filled and it was sealed, but the date embossed on the battery is 11/5/79! So it's already 36 years old! ! It will be interesting to see what happens when I put the included electrolyte in it. I tried to check the voltage as it sits dry, but my meter just jumps all over the place.

[yeadon_m]

+1 on a modern AGM battery and a good quality computerised charger / smart tender.
I have just realised that the battery on one of my bikes is coming up to 9 years old and, when I'm not riding the bike, it sits connected to an Optimate IV.
I left if off the tender, unusually for me, for the last two weeks. Rolled the bike out and it spins up the big motor 1st push.
Worth whatever it cost way back in the mists of time.
I killed off my last lead / acid top-up battery a few years ago on finding two cells near dry, and I'd hardly used the bloody bike since fitting it! cheap yes, but expensive if I manage to mangle it every year or two
Cheers,
Miike

[Alan H]

Motobatt 'yellow bricks' take some beating.

[Coyote]

The replacement battery I ordered off eBay arrived today. I bought from an outfit called Chrome Battery. The clowns put a full size label on the thing and covered up the fill lines! I peeled the label off and most of the fill lines came off with it. There was just enough left to use a straight edge and a Sharpie to replace the lines. Peeling the label also revealed the name in the battery. Leoch. Anybody ever heard of Leoch? It's the typical Taiwanese basement produced battery. I swear all these batteries come out of the same basement - just branded differently.
The really frustrating part about the label is the back side of the case is blank They could have put their label on that side and covered nothing. I guess they just wanted to cover up the Leoch name
I take all that back. This one is made in China. Woooaah It came loose in an unmarked cardboard box. No name anywhere and no pamphlet was included. The snout on the acid bottle poked a hole on the top of its box. Lucky it didn't bust open. So, how was your day?

[yeadon_m]

Hmmm.....a sense of pay cheap, pay dear occurring? stump up for a Motobatt and you will be happy you did (IMO) having been through the low-cost lead / acid refillable batteries myself.
Mike

[Coyote]

Motobatt must be a UK thing. Never heard of it.. I guess Yuasa batteries were very good at one time, coming out of Japan. I see they are now made in Taiwan. Mus have expanded the basement.