Modern Vespa

So I installed the permanent plug for the battery tender on my bike.

My question is this; Can you charge the battery with the seat down? I know that proper ventilation is suggested, and I read a post on MV (can't find it now) where someone says "the bike is charging with the seat down while you ride it", but in that scenario there is a good amount of air passing thru and around the bike. So can I charge it when its sitting in my livingroom/garage/et cetera with the seat down?

CHEERS!!

No one has the answer to this?!

REALLY?!

Darn good question..I hadn't even thought of that. I had planned to charge it with the seat down and locked, since I only have a carport to store the Smrfmobile.

I hope someone has an answer

(insert crickets here)

Our LX and GT both charge up with battery tenders with the seats down and locked. My wife's LX was stored like that last winter in a carport.

You should be fine , unless the battrie was over filled nothing to worry about ,

and yes when you ride your engine is maintaining your battrie

I will call you guys when the bike explodes in my living room.

HAHAHHAHA

Thanks!

CHEERS!

the battery is the biggest problem....can you full it on the road?

Moved to General Discussion for more visibility

Batteries off-gas Hydrogen gas, esp. when charging. If charging it's smart to have the seat open so the gas can vent. There is sufficient airflow to the battery compartment when the scooter is in use, but over an extended period, you could get a considerable build-up of Hydrogen if the seat were closed, one spark and you're the Hindenburg!

Lots of cars today locate the battery internally instead of under the hood (which has plenty of airflow), in these cars, either the battery compartment is vented, or the battery itself has a vent tube to the outside to rid itself of the gas.

The GTS battery is located under the floorboard. Is that vented? Be a pain otherwise as it requires four screws to be removed to lift off the cover.

most of the new batterys are seal so you should not get this problem

so the final answer is?!

My dealer threw in a battery charger and hooked up a pigtail to connect.
There was no advice to keep the seat open. I charged it all last winter and I had no problems.

Can you charge it with the seat down? Yes. Should you? I have, but for minutes (usually takes less than an hour) and not days or weeks. YMMV.

My GT's battery is under the floorboard. There may be vents under there, but I don't know for sure. I am also not sure of what good may come of leaving the seat open while charging. My wife's LX has the battery located under a plastic cover under the seat. The cover has vents, so I can see the possible benefits of leaving the seat up in this case.

However, both batteries are sealed. So, is leaving the seat open a precaution against seal failure in the battery?

I use the Battery Tender Jr on my GT 200 and LX 150 and with the seat down and have never had a problem. The Battery Tender Jr is only delivering 750mA (less than 1 amp), I don't see how this is going to cause any problems whether the battery is vented or not. I would have some concern if the charger was delivering a considerably higher amperage. The LX 150 is an unsealed battery (it has little caps for adding water) and the GT 200 is a sealed battery. I have used the Battery Tender Jr. for over two years now and it has been great.

I think it's fair to conclude that men can leave the seat up and women can leave the seat down.

Did you leave the battery compartment cover off when you installed the pigtails? Leaving the seat up or down is not going to affect ventilation if the battery compartment cover is on, but the battery is a sealed unit and should not need ventilation one way or another.

My tender is attached thru a 12V outlet. battery compartment cover in place and seat down. 5 years, same battery, no worries.

I think even sealed batteries have a membrane vent of some sort. I have used the battery tender jr every time I get back from riding. The reason I do it every time is so I won't forget it! It also has the benefit of restoring the battery to full charge if it isn't with very little charging time - prevents the sulfation of the battery- and extends the life of the battery considerably! If the battery does not need much of a charge it goes to the float condition where it monitors the charge condition. Sooo- if you if you hook it up every time it wont generate much hydrogen gas - and unless you are in a airtight garage or your living room it shouldn't blow up. Mine hasn't yet (in the garage).

I believe the answer would be it depends: on the bike, on the battery, and on the charger. If the bike has the battery squirrled away in some semi-air tight container and its a non-sealed unit and you use a normal trickle charger you could be looking at some science experiments. That said, large-frames have it in the floor boards, use a sealed unit, and a battery tender (real ones) are smart chargers that never boil the battery to begin with. Now I'm a lazy bastard who had not quite gotten around to installing the pig-tail I bought for the GT several months ago but from other bikes I've had that have sadistically hidden the battery deep in the body work, I can assure you that a sealed unit with a smart charger should not be a problem. Set that puppy out in say 20F below for a week or two not noticing that the plug
has been knocked out, now that's another matter entirely.

you guys are all RAD.

thanks for the insight!

If you are going to leave your trickle charger on for more than a few hours, be sure to use a "smart" type charger such as a battery tender (there are others). The charger needs to cycle down to some sort of minimum charge rate when the battery is fully charged. Some of the economy units do not do this and will cook your battery. Most of the new generation "smart" charges can tell what type of battery they are charging and will set the correct voltage for that battery; gel, acid glass matt, acid/lead, it all makes a difference. I am a seat down guy, no problems. Same issue with my motorcycles, batteries deep in the body works and still they get their dose of charging in the winter. beech

I did some research last fall on batteries for my wave runner. It can become very technical. I found this site to be most helpful with regards to extending the life of a all types of batteries. http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

Good reading for those that are seeking the technical side of batteries.