Oxford Optimiser misery?

[Simon_100]

So, my Alp doesn't get much use in winter so last year - 2016 - I bought an Oxford Optimiser and it worked fine.

But this winter when I came back to use the bike last month it was a total deadster. Then after I took the battery out of the bike - which was fitted with tailings to get easy access - the LED's that show the state of charge didn't work, just the one confirming the polarity was OK.

Again, no charge. I've since bought a new battery but looking on various forums, reviews, etc. I see two things, a) the Optimiser is s**** according to some and b) you can 'confuse' it by giving the battery 'jolt'.

I have an old charger that I used in the '70's but was advised on here last year that it would fry the battery. But is it worth go? Not much to loose now but I don0t ti k Ill get any money back for the Optimiser as I bought it in Andorra ...

Any thoughts you clever peeps?

Regs

Simon

[Redmurty]

I've been told that they kill new style batteries :pinch:

I only use mine on acid type batteries (thumbs)

cheers Spud

[Simon_100]

I've been told that they kill new style batteries :pinch:

I only use mine on acid type batteries (thumbs)

cheers Spud

Oh, I think the Alp has an old style battery but a good point! Cheers Spud (thumbs)

Regs

Simon

[Redmurty]

the old type charger will kill a gel type battery so I've been told, I think there is a new type charger out for new type batteries ? :whistle:

cheers Spud

[Simon_100]

Yup, It's an acid battery, the Yuasa YTX7L-BS 12V 6Ah

How's the DR coming along?

Regs

Simon

PS go on, admit it - you're listening to The Archers who you have lunch ...

[Redmurty]

Get Dr back tomorrow 2 mechanics have said they suspected a lump of shite in the carb, which would makes sense as to how it died and I had just filled it up :whistle:

more news to follow shortly (thumbs)

cheers Spud

[Simon_100]

Get Dr back tomorrow 2 mechanics have said they suspected a lump of shite in the carb, which would makes sense as to how it died and I had just filled it up :whistle:

more news to follow shortly (thumbs)

cheers Spud

Yup, Moroccan fuel ...

Si

[-Ralph-]

I have an Oxford Oximiser 600 (note "Ox" not "Opt"-imiser)

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/motorc ... imiser-600

Bought before I learned that nearly all Oxford products are cheap shite.

I find it cannot detect a battery that has fallen too low on voltage and hence doesn't start charging it. It also find it stops charging at 12.5 volts, whereas some bikes need more like 13v to start.

It's OK for maintaining a healthy battery on a modern multi-cylinder bike while a bike isn't being used, but my XT600E which I assume needs more power to turn it over given it is a big thumper, the Oximiser just didn't do the job.

So I spent £50 quid on a CTEK charger and it did the job.

You won't do any harm putting an old simple charger on it for a few hours, just to get the voltage up to a level the Oximiser can work with.

[one-two-three-four]

used a couple of "oxford" products - all burnt out/died after a year or so. Then purchased CTeks and still have 3 of them running fine after many years, one on 24/7/365.

[AlanHolt]

Having lived completely off-grid for the past 2 years, i've learnt an awful lot about wet batteries. To keep a battery healthy, they need to be 'equalised' every 30 days. This means not only bringing them back up to 100% charge, but then overcharging them for a continuous 2 hours.
Battery optimiser are supposed to partly discharge and then recharge a battery every xx days. In doing this, sulphur deposits are left on the plates, which over time reduces the capacity of the battery. Equalising cleans the sulphur from the plates and re-energises the acid. This is why optimiser kill batteries, and why cheap battery chargers can't recover a dead battery.
When we bought this farm, we had 9 dead batteries in our solar system. The previous owner used to manually equalise them, and when he died, his widow didn't know how to do it, so the batteries gradually deteriorated. We forced the system to equalise the batteries (which is basically putting in 115% of the normal voltage). We did this for 3 whole days and the batteries recovered fully (which saved us over €8000 for a new set). The system is now set to automatically equalise every 30 days. Anyway, a bike or car charging system will always overcharge and clean the plates (hence why a car battery with a voltage of 12.8v will rise to 14.4v when the engine is running), an otimiser will not. And neither will cheap battery chargers. What you need is something like this, or run the bike every 30 days.