Unpowered garage battery charging

LaurenceR46 · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 28 Dec 2013 Karma :

Hi all,

My garage has no mains power but I have plenty of larger leisure batteries I could use to keep my bike battery topped up over the winter - I could take these indoors once and a while to charge.

I am having trouble thinking of a way to safely keep the motorcycle battery topped up from these.

Am I right in thinking that I need a 12V input lead acid battery charger? Does anyone know where you can find them with a low standby power draw or if anyone has any better ideas.

I would like for the battery to remain in the bike and use fused leads to top-it-up with.

Thanks
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chris-red · Have you considered a TDM? Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Karma :

Assuming your bike is there during the day I would go solar.
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MarJay · But it's British! Joined: 15 Sep 2003 Karma :

Just do what I do and bring the battery into the house.
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Matt B · World Chat Champion Joined: 01 May 2012 Karma :

Taught2BCauti... · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Jan 2012 Karma :

Solar is probably best for you - a leisure battery would just equalise it's voltage with the bike battery.

You can get bike chargers with a DC input, that have a separate mains adapter, but these usually need 16-18v going in to the charger.
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pdg · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Sep 2012 Karma :

Do it really efficiently by getting a cheap inverter to run off the leisure battery, then plug in a normal battery charger.

What could possibly go wrong?
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LaurenceR46 · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 28 Dec 2013 Karma :

The bike has an alarm system which I wish to remain armed (in addition to other garage alarms).

Pdg I did think of that I have an inverter but as you mentioned I'm not so sure about the efficiency of such a set-up plus the safety of use unsupervised(?).

Thanks
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Fizzer Thou · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Aug 2011 Karma :

A friend has one of these from Amazon and says that it works well

https://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-50032-Solar-Battery-Charger/dp/B0006JO0X8
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Baffler186 · World Chat Champion Joined: 31 May 2013 Karma :

LaurenceR46 · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 28 Dec 2013 Karma :

I would love to but the garage is in a block not located within cabling distance Sad

. Thank you though
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P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

Get some sick solar going on.

Rogerborg · nimbA Joined: 26 Oct 2010 Karma :

Pikeys will nick the panels though, right?
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G · The Voice of Reason Joined: 02 Feb 2002 Karma :

You'd probably be ok to connect the two batteries directly.

You could get a battery to battery charger.

Or a balance charger as used for RC stuff etc - about £15 will get you one that will run off 12v and has all sorts of configuration options.

Or about £35 will get you a 20w solar panel and a 10a PWM charge controller. Can also use this on a leisure battery.

t121anf · World Chat Champion Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Karma :

Could you not charge one in the house and have another attached.

Iirc my alarm meta 357? Lasted a whole winter without charging.

1198 · World Chat Champion Joined: 24 Jan 2013 Karma :

I had this problem previously. I would simply wheel the bike to the house and plug in a proper charger for a hour two, until the charger showed the battery was full.
(My preferred routine is actually to ride my bikes regularly - I was out on the 1198 at the weekend for instance. I don't like and don't leave a battery floating for days on end.)