AVOID THE STRESS OF A FLAT BATTERY
Whether you own a Sea-Doo, Can-Am Off-Road or On-Road vehicle, it is essential to understand the importance of how to maintain your battery and get the most out of your BRP products.
What is the purpose of the battery?
The battery makes your vehicle start. It converts chemical energy into electricity and supplies it to the starter. After your vehicle has started, the battery continues to work as it provides a constant voltage to keep the engine running and powers other accessories like the iBR, VTS, sound systems, lights, and other electronics.
Problems arise when the battery is dead, which means the energy that is stored within the battery has dropped below 11.8V. The battery can be recharged if it is still healthy. This means it is basically reversing the chemical reactions that led to its depletion. Battery chargers begin to charge at 2-3 volts (depending on the model). Some models are equipped with a SUPPLY mode which is designed to add energy to batteries even if the voltage goes below 2-3 Volts. It is gentler for the battery and the electronic components to charge than to jumpstart. We will show you how to recharge your battery using battery chargers.
There are steps you should take before carrying out the process, to ensure your safety and smoothness of the operation.
How to recharge your battery using battery chargers:
Make sure the area where you are charging does not have any source of flame, smoke, or sparks. You should also check to see if the battery ports are not corroded. If there is a greenish substance on the ports, then corrosion has taken place. You can use a brush to clean them up so that it will not take more time than necessary to recharge the battery.
Steps:
- Connect the charger to the battery. But make sure the charger and the vehicle are both switched off. Then fix the positive clamp (the red one) to the positive terminal of your battery. You will see a plus (+) sign indicating the positive terminal. Next, you attach the black clamp, the negative clamp, to the negative terminal of your battery.
- Switch on the battery charger. Most chargers require you to plug them into a power source so be sure to do that. If you do not have a CTEK charger there is a risk that it cannot stop charging automatically, then you will have to monitor the gauge to determine when the battery has been fully charged. Or you may have preset how long you want the charging to last. But with a CTEK charger that is not a problem – it can be connected for months if the charger has accepted the battery as OK.
Wrapping up
Once done, turn off the charger and disconnect it from the power source if needed. With battery chargers that are not CTEK chargers you might need to pay attention to the process of removing the clamps because they must be removed in the reverse order to the connection steps. First, remove the black, negative clamp, and then the red, positive clamp. But with CTEK, you don’t need to think about this.
If there are no issues with your vehicle battery or the electric wiring itself, it will start with no stress.
Sometimes, your battery just won’t hold a charge and there is nothing battery chargers can do about it. In such a case, you may need to have a qualified technician to examine it. It may be time to replace the battery.
Now that we’ve got you thinking about battery chargers, why not check out these top-quality CTEK XS 0.8 chargers available from Cronulla Sea-Doo & Can-Am? Get in touch with our team on 02 8515 0660 if you have any questions or to secure your battery charger.