Recently installed a brand new battery but the "parking" ignition position was mistakenly left on, draining the battery totally. Problem is, neither of my two battery chargers even want to know about it - they refuse to charge it. What can I do? Want to avoid buying another battery if possible..
Maybe an optimate or similar would do the trick as they have a conditioning ability. Not sure though.
As above if an Optimate or similar won't recover it then it's probably finished as it has discharged too deeply. You could try a big boost from a starter\charger but that tends to work only on larger batteries.
+1 for Red998s reply if it won' t charge and its already a bin shot, as a last resort try to use a larger car or truck charger and whack it with a large charge for a while then put it back onto an Optimate or whatever later. Worth a try if you can get access to a high current charger John
Try linking another battery to your dead one and then charging for a few minutes then disconnect 2nd batt. Some smart chargers won't start charging from completely dead.
Adding a bit to the above I had a very low battery and it wouldn't charge on an Optimate so I boosted it first on a regular car charger and it worked fine, That was good as I was about to get rid of it as I though it had gone to far. Best of luck.
Agree with the above. However, when using a "boost" charger or a car battery charger to charge a bike battery be aware that it may well generate a fair bit of heat within the battery and may "boil" the electrolyte creating gas. So - as always when charging a battery - loosen the caps above each cell to let the gas escape, only charge the battery in a well ventilated area, keep an eye on the electrolyte levels and top up with distilled water as required, and turn the charger off if the battery gets hot. Better to be safe than sorry...
Optimates won't recover a totally flat battery. It needs to have a bit of charge in there for it to work. It even states this in the instructions. Ctek chargers will recover a totally flat battery. They cost similar money and are a better product in my experience.
Thanks for all your replies folks, actually our main charger is a CTEK which displayed nothing when connected for charging (CTEK not at fault as checked on another battery). I did try a multi-charger (bike & car) but that didn't work either. I can't believe a brand new battery can be killed by an overnight drain. I'll let you know if I get any joy with it. Thanks again.
I remember hearing somewhere, a while ago, that with a totally flat battery there can be polarity problems with chargers, ie not knowing positive and negative. The remedy was to connect the battery to another battery, positive to positive, negative to negative then connect the charger to the flat battery. The charger should then supply a charge and the "donor" battery can be removed. Davy
Fantastic! I cobbled together two short jump leads with croc clips, connected up the two batteries then hooked up the ctek and voila as suggested it is now charging! Hope this does the trick and totally recovers the battery as it was literally 2 months old.. Thanks again to all.
