battery tenders and cold weather By tvnacman (Read 2,469 times)

[tvnacman]

Hey , guys
my scoot sat for a few weeks the battery went dead . I pulled it out and slow charged it for 8 hours , the charged complete light on the charger was lit , I reinstalled the battery all was well . I rode the scoot home and it sat out overnight in low 30's in the morning it was hard to start (I adjusted the valves this morning) I had to charge the battery to get it started (I heard some tapping from the valves so I readjusted noise is gone). The valves needed to be adjusted , that scoot never started as well as it did before the valve adjustment .

So I left the battery tender on the battery connected to the scoot . I went out for several hours it is in the 30's I'm not sure the tender had a good connection .

My concern is do scooter batteries have enough juice to crank in the cold ?

What should I expect from a tender I measured the voltage from the battery after it ran about 5 min with the engine shut off 12.5 and with the tender plugged in and connected 12.8.

Are the above numbers good ? should I look into a new battery ?

What do you guys think ?
at this point I will try to electric start in the morning if not I will kick.

Thank you in advance

[erictheviking666]

No I don't think that's so good. After the battery's been on the charger for any length of time you should register over 13 volts. Mine was reading around 12.66 last year and I was having problems starting as well. It ended up my battery was just a little weak. I think your battery is on it's last leg and you should be looking for a replacement.

[Cruiser]

After the battery charger indicates a full charge, disconnect and let the battery set for a couple of hours. The voltage reading should be at least 12.8 volts. Any lower than this usually means that the battery is getting weak and will not hold enough charge for cold weather starting.

[erictheviking666]

Dec 5, 2010 17:06:14 GMT -6 tvnacman said:

What should I expect from a tender I measured the voltage from the battery after it ran about 5 min with the engine shut off 12.5 and with the tender plugged in and connected 12.8.

Yeah and I see yours was only reading 12.8 volts with it PLUGGED IN to the charger. Definitely sounds like your battery has about had it. Oh well winter is always hard on batteries and if it's already a little weak, a little cold snap will put it over the edge.

[sprocket]

>>My concern is do scooter batteries have enough juice to crank in the cold ?

These tiny scooter batteries do not work well in the cold. They simply don't have the crank power. Do yourself a favour and get a 20Ah or larger battery for a riding mower, ski-doo etc and mount it under the seat.

Pepboys, Walmart sell them. You will also need to buy better and longer battery leads.

Most people here in Canada run at least this size battery in winter...

[Alleyoop]

What you need is the Cranking Power something near 200 or over. You can get 12V 14ah 210 cranking power batteries. They are not cheap but they do have the cranking power to turn over a little scooter engines over with no problems. Also make sure you are not running heavy oil. If the temps by you do not get lower than say -20 ,10W or 5W will do you 10W-30, 10W-40, 5W-30, 5W-40. The lower the number before the W is good for COLD weather it is thinner oil for easy flow.
Alleyoop