Hello
 

Hello. I've been a lurker here for a long time, and finally decided to join. I got my 2002 GZ250 last year...just before it got really cold. So it's been in winter storage, and I haven't been able to ride it much. Hopefully that will soon change.

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Welcome

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Welcome aboard and ride safe.


:2tup:

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Welcome, keep the shiny side up.

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Welcome aboard! :rawk:

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Still too cold to ride in Tenn?

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Good riding weather ahead, welcome to the forum.

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Alan, I was thinking the same thing.

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Well hello.

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Nah, I lost my battery like some kind of fool a while ago. I just haven't had any extra money at all, so I haven't been able to ride.

The weather has actually been really nice...it's killing me.

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I just did that a while ago for the second time in 2 years. In my case being lazy is getting expensive.

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[quote=Water Warrior] I just did that a while ago for the second time in 2 years. In my case being lazy is getting expensive.[/quote:15zpfoi0]
Hah, I know the feeling. I think I left the battery on my truck's bumper...and drove off. I searched the roads from my house all the way to town, but couldn't find it. The only thing I can think of is someone must have spotted it and swiped it.

Hopefully I'll be getting a new one this weekend. Money's just been a little too tight to spend on a battery lately.

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I let the batteries sit for too long without a battery tender plugged in. It really doesn't take much to kill a small battery.

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Remember, like I've been harping on here for quite a while - when you get a new AGM battery, put it on a charger for many, many hours to fully charge it up before first use, regardless of what the battery dealer says, that it's ready to go. Otherwise it will fail prematurely, like maybe after only one or two starts of the bike.

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Just checked the rating of my little charger/tender (that I've never had to use, yet) It says 0.6 amp. Do you think that's o.k if I have to charge up a flat(ish) or new battery, in the future? :??:

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Yes, IF......you leave it connected for about 2 DAYS and it isn't completely dead to start with.

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My battery tender is 0.75 and does a fine job when on the job.

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A battery tender is not the same as a charger.
The tenders put out a low current (like the 0.6 - 0.75 amps mentioned) that is meant to maintain a battery that sits without use and can be kept on for a long time. A charger, like for our size batteries, will put out 2 amps and is meant to charge a low or dead battery and has to be removed when the battery is fully charged. These are not usually expensive enough to have tapering charges and go into a float mode after the batteries are fully charged, and can overcharge and damage a battery if left on for a number of days.
They are two different animals and have different uses.

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Gonna have to disagree with you there...

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You should stick to medicine, Doc. :poke2: :biggrin:

A battery tender is just a specialized charger. It works absolutely fine as a "plain" charger, as long as you don't expect too much from it. If the battery capacity is 10 amp-hours, you can charge it at a 1 amp rate for 10 hours OR at a .5 amp rate for 20 hours and the end result would be roughly the same. Going to either extreme, however, introduces some problems; you can't charge it at .1 amps nor at 50 amps, for instance.

And a plain charger works fine as a tender too.....in a manual mode; you just have to remember to connect it for a few hours every week or month.

And finally, a "plain" charger automatically tapers off to a smaller charge current just because that's the way electricity works. As the battery voltage goes up, it opposes the charging current more and it charges less. A 2 amp plain charger will NOT damage a battery if it is left on it just for a few days; it takes weeks or months........unless the battery involved is extremely small, much smaller than a bike battery. You can also get away with using a really small trickle charger (.5 amp or less) as a tender BECAUSE of that taper effect; by the time the battery is fully charged, the current is down to .1 amp or less which does no damage, long term.

The advantage of a "real" tender, then IS that it will do the initial charge fairly quickly AND then will switch to "float" mode for long term maintenance. If you are trying to charge a battery that is SO dead that a tender won't do the job, you might as well give up and get a new battery because a bigger charger will only revive it once or twice......if at all.

NOW, if you have a WHOPPING big charger, that is rated at 10 amps or more, it can damage a small battery quicker but a couple of days would only result in a little lost water.

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"Battery Tender" is a specific brand name but is also used to represent a host of generic battery tenders or maintainers or trickle chargers or whatever you want to call them. Sort of like Kleenex meaning any tissue.
Patrick - you are quoting something from a Battery Tender "charger", which is not what I am talking about in the previous post or in the previous sentence.
And ER - this is all relative to price, and is a matter of semantics, but a trickle charger and a regular charger are different because of their outputs and intended uses, but they can be used interchangeably if you pay attention to what you are doing and are aware of the limitations or indications for each. So we are all talking about the same thing but using slightly different languages. It's just that when someone has a dead battery, and this really applies to the small batteries in our bikes, (it probably would never work for a car battery), but a real charger is better than an inexpensive maintainer or trickle charger to bring the battery up to speed. Unless you want to wait a few days, and that the owner may not be aware of. Is that OK now, or is there more controversy or discussion necessary about this? And you basically said the same thing I did but you had to do it in your own words. :??: :tdown:

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Yes, by all means, let's drop it because you just aren't going to admit that your first post was anything but perfect no matter HOW long we discuss it.

You started out by saying "A battery tender is not the same as a charger". and then went on to say things that left the impression that they are entirely different things......when they are NOT.

A battery tender IS also a charger.....but with additional features. They refer to the unit in question as a battery tender "charger" because it IS A CHARGER, just a specialized one.
All "tenders" are chargers; all chargers are not tenders.

Your back-pedaling was very effective in explaining that you seem to know what is what......but your first message did a very poor job of expressing it. Further, it really did nothing to answer the original question. The proper answer is YES; you seemed to be going for NO.

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Let's all go out for ice cream now.

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"They refer to the unit in question as a battery tender "charger" because it IS A CHARGER, just a specialized one.
All "tenders" are chargers; all chargers are not tenders."

WTF is the matter with you? Here we go again. Pick on a word or two, ignore the concept of what is being said. Jump in with another worthless post just to have to say something. Again,
It's like me saying red and blue are not the same thing and you saying that they are - they are both colors, but they are different.
You are always right, you are the perfect one as usual. Others are wrong. Not really, but I said it anyway.

I'm going out with WW for ice cream. you do what you want. Finish this by yourself.

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Hey skeet welcome to the forum ! :rawk: :2tup:

I recently got a new battery for my GZ250, type YTLX7 and the instructions said said that after filling with acid, to charge it with a 1 amp charger for about 6 hours (or 3? can't find them now...), until the current goes below 0.3 amp (remembered that one OK, that's for sure).
So, I bought a 1 amp charger at Advanced Auto.
The charging started at 1 amp. After several hours the charging current had dropped below 0.3 amp. Done.

And now the answer to your question: Yes. If you use another charger, the charge time will just change reciprocally (i.e. about 12 hours for an 0.5 amp charger, and about 3 hours for a 2 amp charger). I would scale the ending current linearly and stop charging when a 2 amp charger goes under 0.6 amps, and for your case, a 0.6 amp charger, when the current goes below 0.18 amps. If that should not happen after 10-12 hours (what do I know... :retard:) stop if it is lower than 0.3 amps by then.

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Hi Skeet, and welcome. I will use a Battery Tender Junior for My GZ25. I use it for my older Kawasaki 125 Eliminator, but have not used it for the GZ yet. I didn't leave it plugged in all the time. I used it during the day, and checked on it from time to time. I don't like to leave it on all the time. I used to use a trickle charger, but like the Tender Junior better. Trickle never told me I was charged and never backed off. The Tender makes it easier with the lights on it. There is also a tender (like) charge from Yusasa, but I don't remember what model it was. Again, welcome and you will find a lot of good info here. GZ Brian

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Good job of "projection" but I ain't buying it .

So far, in this thread, the vote seems to be about 4 to 0 against your original post, yet you keep doggedly defending yourself. Whom is it that always has to be right ???

How about addressing the actual ISSUE at hand instead of resorting to name calling and personal insults.....yet again.

This IS the point: "The proper answer is YES; you seemed to be going for NO."

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We're having a vote again? And you have tabulated the results? Seems like the common denominator in all of the votes on here is you, and they are not always about conversations with me.
Was this the original question you are referring to? - "Just checked the rating of my little charger/tender (that I've never had to use, yet) It says 0.6 amp. Do you think that's o.k if I have to charge up a flat(ish) or new battery, in the future?" Well, maybe technically you could have your answer as "yes". Or it could be "maybe", if you want to wait for 2 or 3 days to see if it would work, but that is not the ideal right answer even though possibly it might work depending on the state of discharge of the battery. Would you use a 0.6 amp charger to recharge a dead battery, or a higher amp real "charger"?
And just because 2 different things meant for 2 different purposes can have a use that overlaps each other if you stretch them, that doesn't make them the same. You do like to pick on a single word whenever you respond to another post, semantics and intent of the poster don't count.
So carry on, "This IS the point: "The proper answer is YES; you seemed to be going for NO."
I'm out of here, whatever you say is right.

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If all I have is a .6 amp charger, then YES, that is what I would use. He said "flat(sih) or new", not stone dead. If the battery rating is 10 AH, it would take less than 17 hours.

Glad you finally saw the light. :tongue:

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Unfortunately you never will.

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:whistle:

I like the above statement. I suggest to include it in "GZ250.com Etiquette & Protocol - All users, please read."

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:2tup: :2tup: :rawk:

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So, uh....this is a welcome thread?


:)

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If you hook it up to a battery and it supplies amps/volts to a battery, it IS a "charger".

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And your point is?
Like I said, red and blue are both colors, but they are not the same. Or a VW and a Ferrari are both cars, but they are not the same. Like a "battery maintainer" or "tender", and a "charger" may both eventually accomplish the same goal, but they are not the same.
So technically, you can call whatever you want that does supply current and voltage to a battery a charger, and you too can miss the point of what I am saying. Go out and buy a solar panel, that also is a charger. See if that will revive a severely discharged or dead battery. All these things may supply current and voltage and can technically be called a "charger" but the outputs are different and they are meant for different purposes. Why is that so hard to understand and what is the argument about, other than someone's ego and one-upmanship in this discussion and picking on a single word instead of embracing the concept? :??:

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Why do you have such a hard on to make the distinction of "tender" or "charger". Speaking of EGO.

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I really don't. I'm just trying to see if any gets what I was trying to say without jumping all over it and me because they thought it was WRONG.

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I got it, just ride every day and you won't need a charger/tender/tendercharger.

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Best solution. THE END. :2tup: :2tup: :rawk: :rawk: :) :cool: