I need a good replacement battery

[yamahansolo]

Tada......

http://www.etx18l.com/

I think Marty it somebody else mentioned thus battery...it was 99 at the parts store in 07. My wife didn't know to search online. Could be cheaper now

[jetmechmarty]

Maintenance free?

As far as maintenance free, I'm not sure I know what you folks are talking about. What technology is it? Are we talking about a sealed lead-acid battery? AGM?

I find it a PITA to check the electrolyte on the XS11. I wasn't doing it often enough. So, I don't get good service life from the Wal-Mart battery. YMMV

I bought a made in the USA AGM battery with more than enough CCA. FWIW, Yuasa and Deka AGM batteries are made in the USA. (IIRC, Pennsylvania) I put the link in my last post.

I have been no less than thrilled with AGM performance in my XS650.

[somesuch]

just to clarify, one of the batteries that I got great life from was OEM Yuasa YTX12-BS....never charged/maintained it at all during this time, it was on a 2003 GSXR1000, similar results on a 2001 GSXR1000

[cywelchjr]

Ok... ran and took a qwik pic. With my droid . These things are awesome!

Any who didn't see the name but it has part number. You can read it and probably Google it. Also the last photo shows that while being sealed it lookalike you can pop it open... it is working great right now so I am not going to pop it open till I research it. When I get a min ill see if its an issue to open it and ill check the level in there.
I am not sure who all you guts are talking to about sealed batteries nit being great but I am almost positive that all modern bikes come with sealed batteries.
You guys that are having issues with sealed batteries. Are you treating it like a regular maintenance battery? Ie are you charging them monthly or weekly? Maybe that's the issue. Maybe the constant charging is killing them?
Also I noticed several others besides me had great luck with sealed. Did you guts charge your ever or on what schedule? Any way

here are the pics..

You didn't get it clear enough for my droid to read the barcode, but google googles was able to actually read the part number and do a lookup online. There seem to be a couple of places online I can order one from around $120, but it's still a lead acid, which means it's still last centuries tech, and only the top 20% or so of capacity is really usable (at least for cranking, this is true of ALL lead acid batteries) where lithium ion and lithium iron provide almost full cranking power to almost 0 charge (down to like 10% or so, possibly 20%) which is why they work so well for laptop computers and with lithium iron for power tools. They also still weight pretty much the same as the standard battery, instead of almost half, which while yes a drop in the bucket, every little bit helps. Lithium iron/lithium ion unless there is something defective in the cells, will last longer than lead acid in almost every instance, and they can sit with no charge being applied for over a year and still start the bike like it was run yesterday (lithium ion batteries aren't as stable on voltage loss.

The big thing for lithium batteries of any type is charging current. Over current can overheat them and then they can catch on fire, this is also possible on discharge, but from my reading lithium iron is much more stable and FAR less toxic than lithium ion tech. The problem with ANY lead acid tech battery is there is NO way to make lead safe, it will leach into water at the slightest excuse, and it requires special disposal, and they are getting harder and harder to get rid of. Around here, if you don't buy your battery locally, which requires the store where you buy your battery to take your old battery in trade, nobody will pretty much touch your old battery, which means your stuck with the thing unless you can find someone you can pay to take it off your hands.

[jetmechmarty]

which means your stuck with the thing unless you can find someone you can pay to take it off your hands.

I've been selling my old batteries to a recycler. They pay more than the deposit. What's up with that?

[yamahansolo]

I know it says it has sulfuric acid in there. I guess my post didn't go? I added a link to the manufacturer its a delay battery. Agm technology.
Even if its old school tech. It has still lasted longer than all my conventional batteries and it was 100. When my wife bought it.

[yamahansolo]

Well if you go to my link it says its 94 bucks with free shipping. And in the list of features it says" maintenance free". Of course you'd have to maintain the posts. Also Agm was supposed to be something new. Absorbed glass matt.
I can't remember the name but the new battery in one of the motorcycle mags I got weighs like 1 pound and is tiny. A bit pricy though but for serious drag racers 15 pounds is alot. Not to mention the space you'd have. You could install a lock box or something.

[yamahansolo]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRLA_battery

Awesome! Agms have a 10 year lifespan. And interestingly they are very susceptible to overcharging. It says they charge much more rapidly than a conventional battery. And they make there own water. This article has alot if info. Very interesting. For 94 bucks you can have it delivered to your door and if you don't charge it too much should last you 10 years.