Stock battery dead?

I've been overseas for quite some time attending to business. It just dawned on me that I'm curious about something as it pertains to my Ducati.

My 2013 Panigale S has been sitting in a climate-controlled garage (under a dust cover) for nearly 3 months with no activity whatsoever. It has the stock battery. I do NOT have a DDA.

I want to fire the thing up the moment I return home, but...

What do you think? Will I have problems starting it up (dead battery?) when I return within the next few days?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

--Akshuneer

I would say dead, regardless of its pre-storage charge level.

It may recover with a smart charger, but sometimes the damage is irreversible and the battery never performs well again.

I am going on a ride next weekend, and just want to know in advance, will my clutch fail? I would rather have some opinions in advance, rather than wait and see during the ride.

I bet it's dead. Even in the summer I left My Monster 796 off the tender for about a month and change. Was dead when I tried to start her up.

Why didn't you buy a Battery Tender..Plug it in??? Cheap insurance... No???

I have a 2012 that sat from November till March and it fired up fine. I only ride in the spring and fall so it has been sitting all summer and I started it the other day no problems. Mine sits 3 or 4 months at a time and fires right up.

My 899 sat for several weeks this summer in the garage and fired right up...

I never gave much thought to a battery tender for 2 reasons.

1. It's true that I do go on business trips fairly frequently. And they typically last 1-3 weeks. But I've never had a problem with the bike firing up after one of my typical business trips.

But due to unforeseen circumstances, this particular business trip I'm on is lasting MUCH longer than I had ever anticipated.

2. I live in a high-rise condo building with a very secure, guarded underground parking garage (which I love). However, there are absolutely no electrical outlets anywhere to be found. NONE. There is a VERY long story (that involves our HOA) behind why we no longer have access to any electrical outlets anywhere in our underground parking garage. So that's that"¦

Perhaps it's time to go to a lithium ion Shorai battery?

Apartment garage life. Been there done that. Outlets cost money, and then people start storing olde arse cars in the garage instead of putting them in a storge shed somewhere instead.

1.) Get a battery tender pigtail connector chord, cut one off a $15 Shumacher Walmart charger if you have to.

2.) hang onto the charger. Put some alligator clamps on it.

3.) get a small group 26 car battery. Connect the leads to it. Connect the pigtail to your 1199's battery. Plug your 1199 into the bigger car battery when you get to your garage. Just leave the little battery against the wall or something.

Now you're connected to a large battery when your away. Like using the big battery as a charger. Will take much longer to drain both batteries. Eventually you'll want to recharge the battery, just take it to your apartment and plug it into the leftover charger.

Akshuneer said:

I never gave much thought to a battery tender for 2 reasons.

1. It's true that I do go on business trips fairly frequently. And they typically last 1-3 weeks. But I've never had a problem with the bike firing up after one of my typical business trips.

But due to unforeseen circumstances, this particular business trip I'm on is lasting MUCH longer than I had ever anticipated.

2. I live in a high-rise condo building with a very secure, guarded underground parking garage (which I love). However, there are absolutely no electrical outlets anywhere to be found. NONE. There is a VERY long story (that involves our HOA) behind why we no longer have access to any electrical outlets anywhere in our underground parking garage. So that's that"¦

Perhaps it's time to go to a lithium ion Shorai battery?

Click to expand...

Maybe next time, pull the battery out of the vehicle and put it on a smart charger in your apartment so it's always good when you come home.

It will fire right up, mine sat in the garage for over 4 months, when I was ready to take it out, it fired right up. I was sure it would be flat. These bikes go into sleep mode when they have sat for awhile. My Moto Guzzi is a different story altogether, if I don't ride that at least once a month the battery goes flat, and that's a brand new odyssey.

centeroff said:

It will fire right up, mine sat in the garage for over 4 months, when I was ready to take it out, it fired right up. I was sure it would be flat. These bikes go into sleep mode when they have sat for awhile. My Moto Guzzi is a different story altogether, if I don't ride that at least once a month the battery goes flat, and that's a brand new odyssey.

Click to expand...

Sleep mode or not, a lead acid battery loses charge at around 1% a day and once it drops beyond certain levels, damage is done to the cells. Smart chargers can reverse and recover some damage, but battery life will have been shortened.

Well, we'll just have to see what happens this weekend when I return home.

If it fires up, it fires up. I'll be as happy as a kid in a toy store and go for a ride immediately!!

If it won't fire up, I'll probably replace the battery. I don't want to worry about an OEM battery with irreversible cell damage that may or may not fire up in the future.

I've been thinking about replacing the OEM battery with a lithium-ion Shorai anyhow. I've read umpteen posts about the increased cranking power, the huge decrease in weight, and how the lithium-ion batteries hold charge so much better/longer. For a guy who is out of town as much as I am, this may be the best long-term solution.

Well...I'm happy to report that I had no problems whatsoever firing up the bike earlier this afternoon. My bike had been sitting for exactly 11 weeks. It fired up just like it does every other day.

Got off the plane, unloaded my luggage, went to the garage, prayed, stuck the key in, and hit the starter. Voila! Went for a little 25 mile jaunt.

It would appear that 2-3 months with no activity is not that big a deal for the stock lead-acid battery.

Good to hear it fired

FWIW, I have two, the Ducati trickle charger, as I wanted the special seat connector, and a CTEK, super smart car/bike charger.

I hadn't started the bike for 5-weeks, so plugged in the Ducati charger and it stayed on trickle for 24hrs, without even attempting to switch into maintenance mode.

I thought this was a little strange, so out came the CTEK, which ran through its entire programme in around 6hrs. I then plugged the Ducati unit back in, which immediately jumped into maintenance mode.

I'm sure the bike would have started, but for me, this illustrated exactly how much charge the batteries lose and how much charging they need to come back.

With my Ctek charger.
The instructions that come with it say that's it's not good for the battery, if one tries to start the vehicle with anything less than the 4th light illuminated(80% charged) on the charger. (It goes to 8 or 9 levels when fully charged).

Xbox said:

Good to hear it fired

FWIW, I have two, the Ducati trickle charger, as I wanted the special seat connector, and a CTEK, super smart car/bike charger.

I hadn't started the bike for 5-weeks, so plugged in the Ducati charger

I'm sure the bike would have started, but for me, this illustrated exactly how much charge the batteries lose and how much charging they need to come back.

Click to expand...

Hey Box, is there any long term time limit to using the under seat Ducati charger ? How long can it be left plugged in ?

Anybody have any empirical times on leaving it on there ?

NOLA

NOLA - last winter I had my Motard plugged in for 9 days straight with no issues. Don't see why if would be different on the 1199.

NOLA said:

Hey Box, is there any long term time limit to using the under seat Ducati charger ? How long can it be left plugged in ?

Anybody have any empirical times on leaving it on there ?

NOLA

Click to expand...

The Ducati unit says in can be used "long term", however, it isn't the most sophisticated charger. For example, it does not perform any analysis i.e. should the battery fail to hold charge, it switched off, rather than keep pulsing, also it doesn't compensate for temperature.

- Basically, it charges (Charge Mode), switches off when it reaches a set voltage, then restarts should the voltage drop (Maintenance Mode).


Conversely, my CTEK smart charger (MXS5.0) goes through a 4-step process:

-Desulpation, soft start, bulk charge, absorption, after which the battery can be used.

Following this, there is an analysis process to check how the battery is holding charge, followed by a 10-day Float trickle charge.

Then if the battery is still connected, it Pulse charges should the voltage drop, similar to the Ducati chargers Maintenance mode.


So, I would not leave the Ducati charger for more than a few days, since its not doing anything clever - would rather just leave it connected, then switch on every 2-3 weeks.

CTEK needs >10-days to do its thing, so I would leave for 2-weeks.

However, if we are talking completely unattended charging, then I would remove the battery and be happy to leave the CTEK for months at a time.

Always best to err on the side of caution, since the condition of the batteries plates and fluid levels are important factors when charging.

My '12 Tri sits for 4-6 wks at a time...in between tracks. Stock battery died. I had a Shorai die in my Mutley after about 6 wks. I don't leave them off chargers ever...anymore-