Tecmate Optimate4

TecMate OptiMate4

First aid for batteries

CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. BEEN THERE, experienced that. A dead battery, that is. Don't want to relive that moment? TecMate may offer a solution. The OptiMate4, TecMate's latest battery char ger, is designed to diagnose and bring back to life discharged sealed, filler-cap-equipped or gel 12-volt lead-acid batteries rated up to 70 ampere-hours.

First, the OptiMate4 performs a brief test to determine if the battery's output is at least 2 volts. If not, only the green "Power On" light at the top left of the LED panel illuminates-time to buy a new battery. Otherwise, the battery may be rechargeable using the standard multi-stage "Recovery" desulfation, wherein a 16-volt charge is applied. Or it could require the 22-volt "Turbo Re covery" treatment. The latter, limited to two-hour spurts, only works if the battery is disconnected from the bike's electrical system.

A multilingual instruction manual explains the various stages of each operation

and decodes the 10 lights on the LED panel. Absent that clarifica tion, the panel is just a series of bright colors. Read the manual. We tested the OptiMate4 on four batteries. Two were too far one to recover; the others-one sealed and one not-were so flat they couldn’t start their respective engines. Those two recharged overnight and have performed well since.

DETAILS

TecMate North America 1100 Invicta Dr., #22 OakviIIe, ON L6H 2K9, Canada 905/337-2095 www.tecmate.com Price.. .$70

Ups

LED panel details status of charging process

Maintains batteries, too

Metal-eyelet and alligator-clamp connections included

bowns

More expensive than some new batteries

Tiny-print instruction manual hard on older eyes

Can't work miracles

Vroom. Vroom. Now, that’s a sound everyone likes to hear. □