Battery woes!

[Tommycupra]

So the first thing has gone wrong with my atom! Took it out yesterday for a spin, parked it up and returned 5 mins later, no power! Lifted the nose cone to find that the negative battery terminal had swollen and cracked! Causing the terminal connection to lift and not sit properly! One cable tie later and I was back on the road, new battery ordered from Ariel arriving tomorrow!

Question is: has any one replaced there battery directly? I had a look over it quickly tonight and can't for the life of me see any mountings or clamps, looks like it's just wedged in! (Bosh battery).

[John]

I've not ever had any battery issues and mine is nearly seven years old. Out of interest how much is the new battery ?

[Sir Nick]

It is indeed a tight fit!  Best way I found to get it out was to use the bolts with a section of old webbing to form a handle between the terminals, then just pull it up.

N

[Bruce Fielding]

There's meant to be a rubber band sort of thing that ties it down. When I've needed to replace batteries I usually cut it as it's too fiddly to undo. The factory can send you a new one. The battery sits fine in there without securing but it won't pass race scrutineering if that sort of thing bothers you....

[Tommycupra]

Yea it seemed to be wedged in there! Was about £120 I think plus about £30 in postage!

[meladdo]

Do you use a battery conditioner or trickle charger through winter?

The gel battery supplied bt the factory is as about as high quality as you can get! and reflects the standard the factory adhere too in the build process.

[smokin]

Mine has two p-clips secured to the base that the rubber bungee that Bruce mentioned used to hold the battery down. My bungee has long since perished so I now use two long, heavy duty cable ties joined together to keep the battery in place.

Not sure if the factory still fit the Odyssey Extreme Racing 25 - PC680, but I replaced mine last year and demon-tweeks charged £96 delivered

[Tommycupra]

[quote="meladdo"]
Do you use a battery conditioner or trickle charger through winter?

The gel battery supplied bt the factory is as about as high quality as you can get! and reflects the standard the factory adhere too in the build process.


[/quote]


It's the first winter I've owned it, but no as I start it up and run it every few days, the garage it's kept in doesn't have any power to run a charger from...yet. I'll have to try giving the battery a good tug as it seems wedged in there! 

[autobackup]

Another alternative is a Varley Redtop 25 racing battery - also available direct from Demon Tweaks and Merlin Motor Sport.

The battery used in an Atom is a gel battery which really hate freezing temperatures - it conceivably might be that the gel in your battery partially froze which could possibly have caused your terminal to swell?

However that said I would really recommend that you seriously consider going ahead ASAP with installing a mains supply cable to your garage and I would also strongly recommend investing in a CTEK intelligent battery conditioner/charger (or something similar) and leave your Atom permanently connected when not in use - CTEK chargers come with +ve and -ve ring connectors and a quick plug which allows a 'flying plug' quick connect lead to be permanently connected to the battery terminals.

http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/CT5%20TIME%20TO%20GO

[meladdo]

[quote="Tommycupra"]
[quote="meladdo"]
Do you use a battery conditioner or trickle charger through winter?

The gel battery supplied bt the factory is as about as high quality as you can get! and reflects the standard the factory adhere too in the build process.


[/quote]


Start - up puts a huge load on a stone cold battery, Gel Batteries need a little care and they should last for a long time. You will find starting takes alot out, you would need to go for a half hour run out to replace what you have used just to start it.

If you cant get power to the garage you could use a solar powered trickle charger, better than nothing and will keep a good battery topped up....




It's the first winter I've owned it, but no as I start it up and run it every few days, the garage it's kept in doesn't have any power to run a charger from...yet. I'll have to try giving the battery a good tug as it seems wedged in there!
[/quote]

[GraemeW]

autobackup do you leave the Ctek permanently connected?  I read somewhere (sorry I cannot recall where), that you shouldn't? 

I have mine switched on for a week then off a week, and occasionally start the car also.  Am I doing the right thing?

[autobackup]

Digger

Yes I do and have done with no problems whatsoever for almost the last 2 years!

- you will find the reference quoted below in the 'blurb' on the right hand side (at the bottom) of this Ctek webpage :

http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/CT5%20TIME%20TO%20GO

Extract from Ctek webpage:
".............FULL CONTROL OVER CHARGING TIME - ... it is completely safe to leave the CT5 TIME TO GO charger connected 24/7, all year round..........."

[GraemeW]

tks Paul

[autobackup]

Digger

You are entirely right about limiting charging times when using a bog standard trickle charger (e.g. Halfords etc) however the latest generation of intelligent smart chargers are safe to leave connected 365/24/7 as they continuously monitor the battery state and have anti sulphation and other programs (pulse/monitor/float) built in

A couple of excellent alternatives to a Ctek charger include :

1. Sterling Power (http://sterling-power.com/products/portable-global-smart-charger)
2. NewMar (http://dcpoweronboard.com/phase-three-series-12-volt-battery-chargers/)

both of which are better known in the marine world but are both high quality well built units.

Note that a NewMar charger would need to be permanently mounted on a suitable wall close to the vehicle - I had a high power NewMar PT80 80amp NewMar charger (charging 3 banks of batteries - total of 600amp/hrs) fitted to our Morgan 38 sailing boat (now sold) and it was absolutely brilliant - the boat was permanently connected 24/7 to shore power when docked and not in use!

[phil4]

Optimate chargers are pretty popular in the tiny bit of the bike world I've seen....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/h7b/OptiMate-TM-180SAE-6-ampmatic-12V/B003L192E0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1483555047&sr=8-6&keywords=optimate

They're truly idiot proof in that there are no modes/buttons to press.

I've got one on my bike, but use CTek on the Atom, as I prefer the connector.