What do peeps use to keep the battery topped up, optimate or something else. I did hear something about a Ducati charger that connects to a purpose made socket under the seat ?
just got an optimate in the end had to change the lead off the battery but not a big deal, was told about not disconnecting within a certain amount of time after turning ignition off ask nelly he told me,
Optimiser but don't use it unless its been sat a while or the battery is a little flat (not new bike, the others). Haven't needed it on multi at all.
not totally convinced about these optimates. you here alot of people with them still having screwed battery's. a wee charge every now and then over the winter, no probs.
Various Optimates except for the D16 which came with a Ducati branded charger with a different socket. From appearances it doesn't seem to be very sophisticated. I would use an Optimate instead but it seems to do the job and changing it would be a right faff as the battery is a bugger to get to.
Only thing it does better is plug in to the original socket under the seat, don't need to put connectors on battery and it's much smaller not that it really matters. Thats about it.
I top my battery up every two weeks during the winter with a optimate,and I've never had a duff battery.top tip by nelly
I vote for the two-week top-up too. I don't like the idea of leaving it on permamently. This appraoch has kept my battery alive for 6 years so far. I use an Accumate which is similar to the Optimate - I think I chose it because it appeared to be up to the job of doing a car battery too, not that I have had to use it for that.
In terms of charger, I used optimate/datatool for many years. I recently took a long look at what was about and chose to move to Ctek. The stragedy they used for monitoring and charging the battery is pretty clever and I now use a couple in the workshop and sell them. I'm a big believer in using the charger for a few days every couple of weeks rather than leaving it hooked up for weeks on end. My take on it is that the older wet batteries could stand being left hooked up for weeks on end and if they did sulphate, they could usually be 'cleaned' up and brought back to life with a short sharp shock of higher amp charge than usual and then a maintain charge. The problem with gel type is that a hit of high amps can't induce a 'fizz' in the acid which can clean the plates up and help recover a sulphated battery. Once they've gone they're pretty much useless. Leaving them on a permanent charge means that they get dribbled a low amp charge and this promotes sulphating. A short charge duration on a low battery means that the charger can feed some amps in as well as charging to a target voltage. Ctek chargers do this quite cleverly cycling current and voltage to keep the battery in good nick. Interestingly the new optimate 7 seems to have employed this strategy so there must be something in it....
Hi Neil, seeing as you're awake. What's the cranking amps that a 1098 draws? looking to get the tiniest one I can get away with. Ta, Andy
Does anyone know if a connector/adapter exists to covert the standard 2-pin Optimate plug to the Ducati one under the seat. Trying to avoid fitting existing Optimate lead to the battery.
Never built a charging lead. I use these to build diagnostic connectors. It would be a simple job to put an inline blade fuse holder between the +ve wire and the connector. In the above picture from left to right 1. +12v 2. -ve 3. Can + 4. Can -
