new battery woes

[Blank Slate]

New AGM canadian tire battery. It came charged and worked great at first. Then it died overnight. I cleaned as many connectors as I could find and it worked great again for two days, stayed fully charged. Last night it died again. Goes down to like 10% on the charger needle. Now what should I do? Return battery or do tests on systems?

[DiverRay]

I would suspect the battery. Quick sanity check is to fully charge the battery, measure the voltage. Then check voltage about once an hour or so for a day. Do this with the battery outside of the bike, on a bench or something. Voltage should NOT drop more than about 0.3V, and most of that will be the first two hours as the battery cools after the charge. If it does drop a lot, battery has an internal short and is bad. I've had a bad AGM, put it in the bike and hit the starter button, everything went out!

[Blank Slate]

Hey Ray, I have a multimeter but what should I set it to? I dont see 12v on it!

[Blank Slate]

I forgot to mention the weirdest part of all of this . when I connect the charger to the battery the charger does not appear to charge anymore as if there is not a complete circuit.

[bikerphil]

Hey Ray, I have a multimeter but what should I set it to? I dont see 12v on it!

Set it to 20v DC.

[Blank Slate]

https://postimg.cc/gallery/3hqg4esgi/

i have two chargers and neither can get the new agm battery to charge anymore. worked great at first. hopefully there isnt something wrong in the bike that will kill any new battery i put in.

[DiverRay]

As bikerphil said, set the meter to 20V. Put it on the battery and measure the voltage. Wait two hours and repeat. See if the voltage reading drops.
For charging AGM batteries, you NEED a charger designed for them. I could not read the big charger to see if it did say AGM on the auto setting. If it does not, it will not charge the battery because it takes a different voltage/charge curve, and the charger doesn't know it. You could put it on 12V., 1Amp manual charge and try that for about five hours. DO NOT try and charge it above 2Amps!

[Blank Slate]

Wow, Ray... the battery didn't come with instructions or anything. they just assume I'm supposed to know this stuff. this is so sad.

[Blank Slate]

-so yes my trickle charger is an agm approved charger. 0.9A
-Cdn tire checking the battery now, they say it’s a good battery but it was “decharged”.
-i guess something on the bike is draining the battery.
-will do some tests and cleaning of connectors

[DiverRay]

OK, once you get the battery back, do NOT put it in the bike! Test the voltage at the shop when you pick it up, and again about an hour later after you are home. Then check again after about three more hours. The reading should NOT drop more than 0.1 Volt, and no more than 0.05 Volt after you have it home.
The trickle charger will charge the battery, but it will take about two days from dead. This is assuming you still show about 8 Volts on the battery.

[skids]

If your battery checks out with Ray’s method and you install it, check for stray currents with your multi meter set on mamps. Pull fuses one at a time and jumper the leads with the meter (replace the fuse each time). This might help you find a starting place for loss of electrons.

[Blank Slate]

rssults of battery test, bad cell. they will give me a new battery.

do i run the tests ray mentioned before putting new battery on?

[DiverRay]

I would if you don't mind spending a few hours before the install. But, when the first battery did the same thing on me, after the replacement got here I just installed it and rode away. I figured they were going to be SURE the replacement was good.

[Blank Slate]

3pm 12.70
4pm 12.67
5pm 12.67
7pm 12.68

new battery seems good?

[skids]

rssults of battery test, bad cell. they will give me a new battery.

do i run the tests ray mentioned before putting new battery on?

Good catch! There is too much crap being sold.