What is the best brand of battery?

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Colin_McKellar

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Aug 11, 2008
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I bought a cheap battery for my Commando at the end of 2008 and now it will not start my bike even though I am using a Pazon system which is supposed to work at lower voltages.

I am thinking of buying another battery but one of the brand names.

What I don't know is which is the best. Is it Bosch, Exide, Vatra, Yuasa?
 
I just went with a Yuasa. Have used them before no problems, my supplier reckons they are also good at honouring their warranty. Back up is worth it.

Good luck :wink:
 
I like a gel or glass matt style. No liquid sloshing around inside and the gel or glass matt style seem to hold a charge better and longer. I could be full of it though, but those are my observations.
 
I'll agre with Coco, I use the AGM type on a total loss system. I carry a spare anyway, but never needed to use it for the entire season last year, only topped up the charge half way through the season. The spare didn't lose any charge sitting on the shelf for a year. I got them on EBay over here....

here's a link to the shop where I got mine!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Voltmaster-Bat ... d-Chargers
 
The best? I'd say Odyssey. I'm a fairly recent convert, but I won't buy anything else in the future.
 
If you're staying conventional then I think that Yuasa are the best but there are several ranges (and pirate copies)

I've had best results from the Yuasa u-micron range (usually six or seven years).
 
I've been using a WestCo AGM 12V14L-B. (YB14L-A2) for just over 2.5 yeas: http://www.tayna.co.uk/Motorcycle-Batteries-C7.html

I've had three Odyssey batteries in the past, which I used to swap between various bikes that I own. Two Odysseys lost their starting capacity somewhat prematurely (a PC545 and PC680), and the third (another PC545) only lasted about as long as a standard lead/acid battery, so I was a bit disappointed with them, especially at around £90.00GBP each (inc. postage) !
 
For those folks living in the US, the Interstate brand is worth considering , and the offer their house brand( in many cases Yuasa), and they carry AGM and gel batteries, also they have a great catalog with dimensions and CCA figures for those folks wanting to use custom sizes, different AH specs and what not, it is a great resource.
 
nortonista said:
For those folks living in the US, the Interstate brand is worth considering , and the offer their house brand( in many cases Yuasa), and they carry AGM and gel batteries, also they have a great catalog with dimensions and CCA figures for those folks wanting to use custom sizes, different AH specs and what not, it is a great resource.
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Second that. I have Interstates running in several bikes and they are fine. The one I had in my Commando lasted 5 years. Much cheaper than Yuasa.
 
Whatever brand you use, I'm here to preach about the value of keeping the battery on a "tender" or the like between uses. I have pigtails on all my bikes, and when one comes back into the garage after use, it's immediately on the tender.

Anal? To be sure. But I almost universally get 8-9 years of use out of a battery - and I'm talking flooded lead-acid batteries; as I said I only started using AGMs lately.

Only exception was the OEM battery in my Harley, which was noticeably weak after two years, hence, my first Odyssey purchase, since replicated for another bike.

The Norton has a Yuasa that's only been in there for a year and a half, so can't really report on that yet (although I have had Yuasas in the past and they are good batteries).
 
nortonista said:
For those folks living in the US, the Interstate brand is worth considering , and the offer their house brand( in many cases Yuasa), and they carry AGM and gel batteries, also they have a great catalog with dimensions and CCA figures for those folks wanting to use custom sizes, different AH specs and what not, it is a great resource.
Click to expand...

My AGM wis an interstate. I bought it new when I first got my commando, then tore the bike much down so I never really used it. It was on a shelf for almost a year and it still had a good charge. 15 minutes on a charger and it was %100. Let a regular battery run down and sit like that and the thing is toast.

Anyone know if a gel battery is any lighter? Those AGM ones are a tad heavy.
 
I've also had great luck with Interstate batteries, usually kind of one stop shopping. They had a shortage of Gel batteries last year that I'm sure is corrected by now.
At this point I have a mix of everything out there in my eight vehicles, five are now on Gel or AGM and I may go that way in the future.
 
I switched all my bikes over to gel filled batteries and keeep them on battery tenders. I find the HD's really need a fully charged battery to turn over, the norton with the kick start, doesn't really need a full charge.

About pig tails for battery tenders, the typical quick connectors have a bare negative connector and a covered positive connector with fuse. This is fine for negative earth set ups. but if you are running a positive earth it is not so good. Bsically you just have to remember to cut and resplice the connector.

I think of myself as being pretty good with wiring/electics but......I was once again humbled when I forgot to do this and my pigtaill gounded out in rush hour traffic. Melted the one unbreakered wire, little bit of smoke and embarrasment.

Kber45
 
The one I'm using now is also an AGM. It's a Big Crank ETX15L. (Just bought it for the name.) Not really... It has worked well for the past 4 years and is equivalent to the Yuasa YB14L and Made in USA. The place I got it from was batterymart.com. Current price is $57.

Russ
 
Kber45 said:
I switched all my bikes over to gel filled batteries and keeep them on battery tenders. I find the HD's really need a fully charged battery to turn over, the norton with the kick start, doesn't really need a full charge.

About pig tails for battery tenders, the typical quick connectors have a bare negative connector and a covered positive connector with fuse. This is fine for negative earth set ups. but if you are running a positive earth it is not so good. Bsically you just have to remember to cut and resplice the connector.

I think of myself as being pretty good with wiring/electics but......I was once again humbled when I forgot to do this and my pigtaill gounded out in rush hour traffic. Melted the one unbreakered wire, little bit of smoke and embarrasment.

Kber45
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You're right! I didn't rewire, but have developed the habit of putting the little cover on the pigtail as soon as I disconnect the tender, which is something I seldom bother doing on my negative ground bikes.
 
I'm totally out of touch with my wiring harness after all these years but it should be possible to set up the accessory plug to work with a battery charger. I'm sure in the stock configuration you'd need to turn the key to make this work but a simple mod could set it up for safe trickle charging when in storage.
 
RennieK said:
I'm sure in the stock configuration you'd need to turn the key to make this work but a simple mod could set it up for safe trickle charging when in storage.
Click to expand...

No, just plug in the charger, as the accessory socket was also intended to be used as a charging socket.
 
What sort of plug do you use in the accessory socket, anyway? I like the idea of that, but my tender uses large alligator type clips.
 
What sort of plug do you use in the accessory socket, anyway? I like the idea of that, but my tender uses large alligator type clips.
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The bikes were shipped with a male plug for the accessory socket. Unless you still happen to have yours (Yea!! mine's still in the tool kit!) you may have a hard time finding one. You might find some banana plugs that will fit.

I use Battery Tender maintainers on most of my stuff, and they have an SAE plug and a matching set of alligator clips as well as a lead with ring terminals. I use the ring terminal leads and pull the SAE connector from behind the side cover to mate to the charger. Quick and easy.
 
I suppose my mistake was to buy a cheap Chinese battery instead of a brand name.

As I have a Mark 3 Commando I researched and found a bigger battery that would fit in the battery space without resorting to the hacksaw. The battery is a YTX16-BS which gives shedloads more cranking power than the standard battery.

The problem was the cost of about £80 to £90 for a Vatra and £30 for a Chinese one. I plumped for the cheap one to try it out but it just didn't last and has only started the bike on about 3 occesions.

We all learn by our mistakes so I will see which of the batteries listed here are available within the UK.
 
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