Hello, John Talley here with Partzilla.com. Today we're going to take
a few minutes and discuss the different batteries that are typically found in
most your power sports units as well as the different chargers that we're going
to use to keep them up and ready to go. The battery in the simplest form can be
represented by this little unit on the end. This is what they call a lead acid
type battery, and you'll notice that this one is completely empty and it actually
has a vent tube on the side. This is one of the earlier designs and it's still
used in a lot of different machines. Basically at the dealership they will
fill each cell with electrolyte, which happens to be a sulfuric acid for this
type battery, and you bring it up in between these two lines. At that point
they put it under charge. A unit like this? It can withstand a fair amount of
charge amperage going into it. It's a really solid battery but not one that
can stand a lot of vibration and or changes in tilt so to speak. So something
like this would have a difficult time surviving on, let's say a sport bike.
You're going to find this on a lot of utility type machines. It's going to be
in an environment where the machine is more or less stable, not a high
performance, not where space is going to be a concern. And if any of the cells get
low, then you can add distilled water to bring it up to the proper level. Another
characteristic for a conventional battery is it's fairly easy to charge
and it's not really picky about the voltage that comes in. It can withstand
higher voltage than these other types of sealed batteries. Now the one you're
gonna find in the majority of vehicles out there it's what they call an AGM
battery-- an absorbent glass mat type system. Now there's a couple of different
types, one that you actually have to activate yourself with the container of
electrolyte. Now the third type is actually still an AGM type battery,
except it is completely sealed from the factory. Where you're going to find this
battery is in a race type environment, so that's where space is at a premium, where
you're going to have extreme loads and vibrations and different angles that
this thing is going to have to perform at. And there are a few different
variations on these batteries, but for the most part it's very close to one of
these three types. So once again is your conventional,
the AGM where you activate it, and then an AGM that is factory activated. Now the
question is what do we use to charge these and how long should we charge them?
Well let's go back to our conventional type battery. To keep things in a safe
area, the rule of thumb is you want your charge amperage rate to be 10% of what
the amp hour of rating is. So in this case, it's 14 amp hours, 10% of that
1.4 amps. That's what you want to charge it at. As far as the charger, this one
does not require that you use what they call a smart charger, so you could
actually use what they call a direct current charge or a constant current
charger like this old unit down at the end of my bench. But be careful with that.
This is not going to know when the battery is charged. It is going to send
that constant current for as long as you leave it plugged in. Even on the lowest
amperage setting, which is 2 amps, it's going to eventually destroy this battery.
Worst case? You plugged it in and put it at the 50 amp start, and probably burn it
up in less than 20 minutes. And I can only recommend using this type of
charger if it's the only thing that you've got available to you and you have
to get that battery charged to get out on the trail. Now conversely, with the AGM
type batteries, both of them they are very particular about their charging. One,
they don't want to lose their charge, and if they do, they'll sulfate. Second, if you
charge them above 14.1, 14. 4 ,somewhere in there? You're gonna destroy them. They
want to see a low and slow charge current and it actually has to taper off
as it finishes the charge. So what type of charger do you want to use? Well the
opposite of a dumb charger is a smart charger, and there's a lot of them out
there that can get this accomplished. Once again, you don't need a huge charger
that can deliver 10 amps because that's not what you want to do with an AGM type
battery. Take this YTZ 10 as an example. Well it's 10 amp hours. One amp
per hour. Pretty simple math here, so that would need to charge for... 10 hours.
Pretty simple. Same equation for the YTZ 14. One am per hour, we're wanting to get
to 14 amp hours? Gonna be 14 hours. It's pretty simple to do when you think
about it in terms of 1 amps per hour. Now can you push these other batteries to
two, three, maybe even four amps? Yes. But if you've got the time, let it take the time
so it can get a full charge that first time you activate the battery. It'll last
a lot longer if you start off with a low current charge on the initial charge. Now
the factory activated one, there's only one check that you need to make. This one
should be good to go. They have a long shelf life. What you're looking for here
is about twelve point four volts. Twelve point four two. This one is going to be
good to go just like it is it doesn't need to have a top off charge. This
particular charger right here, it'll actually do what they call a quick
charge and then it's got the standard charge. The standard charge is one amp
per hour. With the quick charge, it can ramp it up to four. And that's helpful if
you're working with some larger batteries. Now if you're only working
with smaller power sports batteries? This is a much better option.
This one charges at one point two five amps, and that's a good middle ground to
get an effective charge going into your battery. This one down on the end? Well,
let me show you what that reminds me of. The one on the end is a breaker bar.
Smart charger is a digital torque wrench. Now both of these accomplish the same
task. They tighten a nut or a bolt but they do it in two very different ways.
This is more like in the caveman approach. This is the new wave digital
age approach where you're going to get an exact readout. Well that's what you're
looking at when comparing an old type direct current, constant current battery
charger versus a smart one. World of difference: they accomplish the same
thing, but this one does it in a much better, safer, required fashion when we were
dealing with an AGM. Now you don't have to have a calculator in your back pocket
to figure out how long and what amperage you should charge your battery at
Especially with the Yuasa. They've already got it printed directly to their
batteries, the best amperage and the best length of time to actually charge them
at. So let's take a little closer look at the YTZ. What does it say right here?
.9 amps at five to ten hours. If you're going for a quick 4.5 times
1-hour. Looking at the YTX 14, it's printed right
along the top. Standard charge rate of 1.4 amps at 5 to 10 hours, or quick at 6
amps for one hour. Listen if you need a charger for your machine, why don't you
check that link in the description below and it's going to carry you to a cart
that has the different chargers that I've shown you here today. Well alright
guys, if you need batteries or chargers for your machine or any other parts for
that matter, why don't you come see us at Partzilla.com and we can get you taken
care of. You have any questions or comments?Leave
them in the section below and I'll do my best to answer. We just want to say thank
you for shopping here with us at Partzilla.com.