BMW Gel Bat. charger?

[longtmrdr]

HI,
question on the BMW gel battery charger. The units green light flickers while connected to the bike. I see on the chart on the unit flasing green = a +80% charge.
Should the green light be a steady flashing if all is right and then go to a solid green or is this flickering green normal? It is hard to see that it is even lit.
The battery and charger are both about a year old and the battery is a bmw gel battery. Thanks Denny

[PMitchell]

My charger is usually red when I first plug it in. It then goes to a flashing green and finally to a solid green.

This may take up to 24 hours. This is a tapered current charger and doesn't "jolt" the gel cell.
I left it on all last winter, and the bike started up first try in the Spring!

[Hilton]

There are 6 LED's.
On the power side two
Green for "Power"
Red for test of unit. "Error"
On the battery side four to indicate charge state.
Red "0"
Yellow "1/3"
Yellow "2/3"
Green "3/3"
Can't say I've seen any of them flickering, but it works well.

[akordon]

The whole Gel vs. AGM and the right charger is quite unclear to me. From what I can see BMW has two Gel chargers: one that looks like a fish tank pump (color blue, the grey one is for AGM batteries) and one that looks like a battery tender by deltran (becuase it is made for BMW by Deltran). From what I can gather, both chargers work fine for gel batteries but the deltran version needs to be connected to the battery directly to the poles if you have a bike with the new can-bus electrical system (meaning you sould not charge it through the accessory socket). The fish tank type charger should allow you to charge through the socket without damaging the can-bus, but now I can't find them for sale. To further complicate the issue there is much confusion about which battery is in which bike. I have seen posts were people say that if your bike is 2005 or newer it will come with a AGM battery. This is not true. I have an '05 R1200RT that came with a gel and I know somone with an '06 that came with a gel. Even dealer and official BMW info conflict in this area. I am so confused......

[longtmrdr]

Thanks for all the input....
I called Deltran today and talked with a very helpful rep that told me when the charger is plugged in to the outlet the red indicator should light first.
Mine did nothing the unit was less that a year old and he told me to return it to the place of purchase or send it to them.
I returned it to the dealer and he did an exchange no problem. I did need the receipt which I did have.
The tech explained some of the BMW bikes have the power outlet that can turn off or power down if the bike is not turned on for a set period of time but was unsure of the time frame. In this case he recommended the charger be connected directly to the battery.
Denny

[rglassma]

I have a BMW Gel battery on an '03LTC and have been using the deltran version for almost 2 years. Mine always has started up solid red and then it goes to green blinking and then solid green. That usually occurs within 12 hours.

Never had a problem with it. That is the succession it should be from what I understand. I also have another deltran tender for our other bike, a 96 magna. It works perfectly like that as well.