Westco battery not holding charge

[yamaha1300rider]

Westco batteries came highly recommended on both sides of the Atlantic so I bought one in June this year.

Mine will not now hold sufficient juice to give an open-circuit voltage exceeding 12.5V, even off the bike and connected to a tender - hence difficult to start bike.

So I conclude that either the battery or the tender is at fault - but which one?

The tender alone gives a maximum open circuit reading of 14V. Can anyone confirm if that is sufficient to get a good quality battery up to 12.8V, the normal level for this bike? The service manual suggests a reading of 16-17V is required from the tender/charger :blink:

If you guys feel my tender reading of 14V is ok then I'll get a new oem battery

BTW, anyone else had a problem with their westco?

Thanks in advance

 

[Constant Mesh]

14+ volts from the charger is fine. The output from the FJR charging system is 14+ volts. My charger/maintainer is current limited to 1.5 amps. Its voltage will rise to a max of 14.4 volts. In the maintain mode the charger voltage drops down to 13.2 volts.

A new battery must be charged to 100% before it's put into use. After the electrolyte is added to the new battery the charge is about 80%. A charger should be connected to bring the charge up to 100%.

 

[yamaha1300rider]

Thanks Constant Mesh for the info - yes I did charge the battery fully when new

What still puzzles me is page 3-77 of the 2001-2003 Service Manual which states:

Charging method using a variable voltage charger

Note: Set the charging voltage to 16-17V (If the charging voltage is lower, *charging will be insufficient*....)

 

[Geezer]

There is a difference in the charging requirements for the AGM battery that come on the FJR. Recommended charger is the Battery Tender Plus or other manufacturer equivalent. Not the regular Battery Tender.

 

[Bill]

Westco batteries came highly recommended on both sides of the Atlantic so I bought one in June this year.
Mine will not now hold sufficient juice to give an open-circuit voltage exceeding 12.5V, even off the bike and connected to a tender - hence difficult to start bike.

So I conclude that either the battery or the tender is at fault - but which one?

The tender alone gives a maximum open circuit reading of 14V. Can anyone confirm if that is sufficient to get a good quality battery up to 12.8V, the normal level for this bike? The service manual suggests a reading of 16-17V is required from the tender/charger :blink:

If you guys feel my tender reading of 14V is ok then I'll get a new oem battery

BTW, anyone else had a problem with their westco?

Thanks in advance

YEP!

I installed a Westco in my Blackbird and it died after 4,000 miles. I then reinstalled a three year old Yuasa and it's still going strong after 7,000 miles and 11 months. When I was at the local BMW shop having a set of tires installed, I mentioned the Westco battery to the Service Manager and he told me that he'd seen several failures of Westco batteries on his customer's bikes.

I doubt that I'd try another one either in my Blackbird or in my FJR. I do keep both bikes a Battery Tender Plus whenever they're parked in my garage.

 

[Warchild]

I was one of the early adopters of the Westco battery, and used to strongly recommend it. This was circa 2004-2005.

Singing a slightly different tune now....

The Wesco in my FJR has actually been fairly good... actually, I would say it's been excellent. It is going on it's fourth winter, and has about 45,000 miles on it, and it still spins the FJR's motor at a right fair pace, even when it's sub-freezing in the garage.

But similar to Bill, I did NOT enjoy the same level of success when I put a Westco in my Blackbird. in the fall of 2006. The following summer put an awful lot of miles on the bike in a pretty short period of time

but then I let it sit for a good period afterward. By Sept 2008, it was dead meat. Replaces it with a Western Power battery since I was placing it on consigment.

Event though the Westco has been fairly stellar in the FJR, come time to replace it... it'll be a Yuasa, most likely.