For any thinking about building one of the little de-sulfaters as a project:
I found this link which describes on man's project complete with schematic and parts list.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Desulfator-for-12V-Car-Batteries-in-an-Altoids-Ti/
Otherwise there are commercial units around with a little looking on the internet.
I do think that motorcycles in general lose lots of batteries simply because of prolonged storage.
My interest in this all started from planning an off grid source of electricity for a house. Since the sun aint shinning at night, using solar panels requires a storage of energy when not getting direct sunlight. That's done with a bank of batteries and gets expensive. I found that one can find plenty of old 6 volt commercial batteries that can be given new life if you don't mind taking the time to restore them. The alternative is, thousands of $$ in new batteries every few years. All the talk about alternative energy sources is fine and makes sense on the surface but when you actually look at it, it take a lot of effort and maint. to keep it up. My thinking is, people are not going to go to that much trouble regardless of how committed they are to "green issues"
As far as all the trouble some are having with the AGM bike batteries, I would not know exactly what is causing it but, the only real way to factually know what's going on with a particular battery is an individual cell test, like with a hydrometer after a load test shows failure. You can also test each cell with a multimeter by putting the probes into two cells at a time which will measure the strength of the individual cell. (I wouldn't stick my probes into the acid but use a couple cut off wires from a coat hanger on clips attached to the probes) I think all the AGM's are sealed so that means having a way to cut plugs into each cell and re-fit it with removable plugs.
All those methods and ideas are really a bit of a PITA unless you are a tinkerer and like that sort of stuff. (old and guilty here) Some guys have small side business' restoring and selling the used batteries for about 25-30 bucks each. To me that's way too much work and having a shop and yard full of old batteries would freak out my neighbors. :headscratch:
Somewhere I have a link for what I though was a really good charger with a built in de sulfater at a reasonable price. I will look around some more and post it here when I find it.
Bottom line is ....... if the bike is going to sit for any length of time, most of these problem can be prevented with a maint. trickle charger. Everybody has a box of old wall warts from all sorts of toys and other small electrical devices. They all show the volts and amps of output. If you have an old 12 volt one of these you can just cut the plug off and wire some small alligator type clips on the ends. Identify + _ first and use one of those. Two things to be aware of with these wall warts. One: they will provide the volts and amps at all times and there is always the possibility of over charging. Two: You have to make SURE it is plugged into the wall outlet before hooking it up to a battery because there is no blocking diode to prevent current from the battery from flowing into the wall wart and frying it as soon as the voltage gets to it. Learned that the hard way by killing a couple of these before I did the head slap and realized what was going on. I have an old 185 Twinstar that is 6 volt and couldn't find a 6 volt charger so that's how I charge that old bike using a 6 volt wall wart. When that battery finally croaks I'm going to just put a 12 volt in that bike and change all the bulbs over. It should work fine as long as it can keep the thing charged and I think it will because I intend to convert it to all led's.
Anyway, all this is something to think about when going through battery saga's .............. :mischief:
