Dead Battery (dumb-ass)

 I left the ignition key on & I drained the battery. According to the
manual on my V-star 650, it says the battery is a 12v 10amp.

I have an old automatic solid state  battery charger that is 12v
10amp. Settings are Conventional/Low maintenance & Maintenance Free.
Can I use this to charge the battery or should I avoid using such a
charger & take the battery to the Yamaha dealer to have it charged?

Thanks,

Rick

 

If the charger puts more than 5 amps into a 10 ampere hour battery on
a 2 hour quick charge, the battery can be damaged from internally
overheated.

I have an old dumb charger that puts out 3 amps, and I can quick
charge my 14 ampere hour battery at 6 amps, according to the sticker
on the battery.

But 3 amps on the low setting is too much for a trickle charge, so I
use a wall blob that was intended to recharge NiCad batteries.

It puts out 600 milliamps and will charge up my 14 ampere hour battery
in about 24 hours, raising the voltage from 12 volts to 15 volts in
the process.

After removing the battery from the charger, the voltage falls off to
12.8 volts,  indicating that the battery is fully charged.

 Harper wrote:

Keep the water level up in the cells, black is ground side (-) on the
Yamaha, Red is the Plus side.

That battery is probably NOT a Maintenance Free unit.  I would stick it
on Conventional.  But, do monitor it as it charges.  No smoking or
flames.  charging releases Hydrogen gas, and we all remember the
Hindenburg!

If living in cold climate, and the bike gets parked, get a trickle
charger to keep the battery up while parked for extended periods, like
more than a month.  Lead Acid Batteries lose about 1% of their charge
each day.