Battery charging,not too dumb i hope.
 

i have a 12v motorcycle battery that i charged 2 days ago overnight.I went to use battery today and not enough juice.I have checked the output of charger only with no battery attatched with a trusted source volt meter and the charger is only putting out 11.04v. Am i right in thinking that it should be higher than this as in how a car outputs at 13+volts.
The battery is sat at 10.94volts. is it time for a new charger?

Sounds more like new battery

Depends,

If its a smart charger, it may be set to trickle charge at a lower voltage to prevent damage to the battery.

A car under load is driven by an alternator, which is a different kettle of fish to a charger.

To determine if the battery is Kaput, you need to do a load test.

it may give 12V, but sod all amps which is what you need from a battery

Mart

Its needs a higher voltage than the normal battery voltage when the charger is off load, or it will be unable to push any charging current into the battery. When the charger is connected you should expect to see a slightly higher voltage than 12v in this case. As the battery becomes charged its own higher voltage will reduce the output from the charger.

It is the current being delivered to the battery which charges it and the amount of current is dictated by the charger's voltage.

A motor cycle battery is not very large of course and you should use a dedicated motor cycle battery charger to avoid overcharging of the battery.

Les

A car battery needs to kick out 12.6 volts to work properly so I assume a bike battery needs similar I have lost my volt reader thingy or I would test one now and tell you

Most car chargers I have tested have about 14v when not connected to the battery.

Les

Smart chargers will charge at about 14.4v whilst replenishing the battery. Once the current demand has dropped the smart charger will hold a voltage of about 13.2-13.5volts, this prevents sulphide build up.

A good battery will generally hold a voltage of above 12.6v once charged, if your voltage is less than 12.6v then it would indicate a weak battery. Obviously a load test would also help, but not essential.