Shorai battery problems

So, after spending all year posting up praises of my Shorai I now have a problem.

Battery was pretty low when I tried to start a few days ago but the usual process of leaving the lights on and warming the battery up still failed to get any start. Eventually even the clock didn't light up. So I plugged in the Shorai charger and left it going over night. Both the lights were flashing on the charger unit indicating that the battery was flat and that charging was in progress.

On returning to the bike this morning the lights were still both flashing. I expected that the green one would be constant indicating that the battery was charged but it wasn't. On trying to start the bike the clocks lit up but the headlight was really dim and the engine wouldn't crank. After two tries it was back to dead.

Has anyone familiar with Shorais had this problem? Any thoughts?

I've left it back on charge but somehow I don't really think it's going to charge up.

Thanks in advance.

Life typically runs on a bell curve which means that even with the best design and best construction some things shit the bed sooner than expected. Sounds like your battery may have done that.

I have only 6 months experience with my Shorai. So far it is been working great, no problems at all. I pulled it out for the winter, I will see if it works as well next year.

Bic I think it's a Shorai in mine. Not started for a month but just tried and if cranked immediately like it had just been fullh charged.

Could yours be a dud? Do you have some small drain like an alarm or other accessory that could be emptying it over time?

Comrade Bic: At the risk of highjacking your thread I'm going to mention my story about Anti-Gravity Lithiums because I think there might be a connection.

My AG battery had the same symptoms as yours - not quite turning over then running flat rather than warming and getting more charge. I then put it on their special Optimate TM-291 charger that is guaranteed to be fine with Lithium batteries. It did its stuff overnight and eventually two green lights. While I was at it I thought I'd top up my brand new battery as well. Unfortunately, I forgot all about the second one and went away for a month but that should have been Ok because it is claimed these charges CAN trickle charge Lithium batteries. When I got back I had two batteries that appear to be pretty well stuffed. After much correspondence with Antigravity who suggested everything should be fine (and clearly wasn't) I gave up and have been thinking about Shorai.

Both of my batteries were like yours - enough charge to turn things on but not enough crank amps. Measuring the voltage showed 14.3 from memory.

What I think happens with these chargers is that they charge some of the cells (probably 4) then for some reason they don't switch to charge the rest. In my case I think there are 16 from memory. I think the charger cycles and discharges all cells for a while then charges only four as part of it's testing regime.

I've wondered what would happen if I just put them on a normal charger (with no de-sulfation stage) for a few hours which I will try in a week or so after the Bert Munro challenge.

From what I know is that Jmann is correct in stating the charger only charges a couple of cells.
This is a known problem with these batteries regardless of the brand.
To avoid this in electric cars they use complicated electronics and chargers to determine which cell drags behind and give it a charge, boost.

The only way I can think of to get a similar result if the battery has this issue is to put a significant load on it for a couple of minutes, the headlight might do but preferably higher draw than that.
Then jumper lead the bike to start and take it for a spin or use a good quality (pure DC) powersupply to charge the battery. Use limited voltage like 13.5 V but you can charge plenty of amps.
Some manufacturers websites have a warning about max voltage, DON'T go over this as it will cook the battery.
Click on the last + at the bottom voltage range.

In my opinion this will get it going fine again.
BTW Jmann, Anti gravity are very helpful if you email them your problem, they might give you some hints how to get it in shape again.
I had an AG in the 990 and never had problems, even while leaving the bike sitting there for weeks.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I'm going to remove the battery today and have a try at various things. I really need this bike on the road so I ordered a new Shorai yesterday which should be here in the next few days. This means that I either have a spare battery which is probably a good idea or the old one is past saving anyway. I might try it on a conventional charger for a few hours this morning just to see what happens.

For the record it's been fine for about three years now. In the beginning it took me a while to get used to its weird characteristics but since thin it has been OK. Basically in the summer it is absolutely faultless but in colder weather it reverts to being low on cranking power until it has 'warmed up'. This is usually about three attempts with each one getting progressively stronger until the bike fires up. Only irritating bit is that you have to reset the clock because the first fail gives a Soft error code and resets time to 12.

Faced with the usual mess of oil, road dirt, crud and muck made even worse by the fact that, (with a belly-pan and remote leads for trickle charging), this area has had very little love and care and I haven't even seen it for over a year.

Took me over an hour just to clean it all up and start checking for any loose leads or anything else that could be wrong. Battery almost dead despite being on charge overnight again.