Optimal 3 charger help on 250 V Strom

[Kontiki]

Dear all
I am newbie so please laugh quietly tab the questions I am about to ask.  Bought the 250m Strom a few weeks ago and found it to have a completely flat battery today when I was planning to head out.  Not quite sure why but it came fitted with Oxford hand warmers so its possible I left them on or simply that I didn't appreciate how much juice is used with the bike on standby so to speak.

I popped into the local bike store and purchased there Optimal 3 charger and upon arriving home wired the two connectors into the battery and connected it to the charger.  The green power light is the only light on the charger that is alight...after half hour.  I did wonder if my wiring was awry so tried charging the bike with the crocodile clips simply placing the connectors on the two charging points,  Still the same green light but nothing else showing.

I'm really not sure if this is just a case of me being stupid (probably!) or I'm missing something.  Can anyone help please?

 

[Mr Nick]

Smart chargers like the Optimate will not recognise there is a battery attached if the voltage is too low. If it's completely flat then that's probably the case. The voltage needs to come up a bit and you can do that a couple of ways if you have access to them: use a dumb charger if you have one; or connect in a second battery in parallel and charge both together. That way the charger sees the voltage of the other battery and sends current, some of which heads into the dead battery and you can remove the second battery after a while when the voltage has come up again.

If you don't have a spare battery or dumb charger then you're probably looking at taking it out & see if a local garage will help you.

Heated grips that don't go through a relay to protect the battery are a common reason for dead batteries: the small drain of the bike while switched off won't drain a healthy battery within a week.

[Kontiki]

Thank you so much for your advice.  I have removed the battery and found it to be totally flat and having spoken to the local dealer bit the bullet and purchased another battery which probably isn't the worse thing to do bearing in mind I don't know the history of the one that came with the bike (although its is a '19 plate).  At least I now have charger that I will use as frequently as I can.  I've been advised that any bike should have around 12 hours top up charge every week so that's what I will aim too do.  And I will ensure those heated hand grips are properly off each time the bike gets covered. 

[Joe Rocket]

If you have a new battery then you might have to charge it initially if you're not regularly riding the bike but 12 hours per week is not necessary.

Your new charger will only top it up if needed and cut off when no longer required, probably after less than an hour with a healthy battery.

Long periods of cold is the biggest killer of batteries besides leaving equipment running or on or on standby. My two bikes are top up charged once a month and the charger decides when it's 'full'.

Edit: when you do ride the bike regularly there will be no need to charge the battery at all provided you've not got too many gadgets or equipment drawing on the power available. Besides you won't need heated grips in Summer unless you live in Scandinavia. 

[Mr Nick]

As you've got a new battery, it's worth trying to resurrect the old one as a '19 one shouldn't be too bad yet. Just connect the two together positive to positive, negative to negative, and connect the charger to both for a couple of hours then try taking the new one out of the circuit. You might find yourself with a decent enough spare that you just keep topping up from time to time.

[Rusty Nuts]

And as said,  I'd definitely get the grips wired in so they switch off with the ignition.

[Kontiki]

Thank you blokes.  I’ll be fitting the new battery very shortly after charging it upon arrival home yesterday afternoon.  I’ve kept the old one and will source some charger leads to try and revive it in the manner described above.  Finally, I will look into how to deal with the heated grips as that is beyond my capabilities but I’m sure it’s not that hard to do....is it?  Thanks again blokes...genuinely appreciated and a really nice feeling that others are there to help.

[Keith60]

The Oxford heated grips come with a “smart” Controller.  If wired straight to the battery, they go into standby mode within 30 seconds of the ignition going off, not heating.  After another couple of minutes they then shut off completely.   Test yours to see if it’s doing that, if not you can reset them.  I had to do that on mine after installation.  Can’t remember which buttons to press to reset, google it. 
I still didn’t trust then, so wired them through an ignition controlled circuit ( Bigpie's fuse box relay).  The advantage of that is it cuts all power when you turn off ignition, but the “smartl controller remembers what setting they were on and brings them back on automatically when you restart the bike.  I like that!