Best Dirt Bike Battery Charger: Complete Buying Guide


Looking after your dirt bike battery should be a part of your maintenance schedule because if you neglect it then it will surely let you down at some point, and it is always when you could do without it.

In a rush? Our favourite charger is this one from Granite, check out the latest price on Amazon here.

The most common issue is people not maintaining them throughout the winter, then come riding season the battery is dead and sometimes the only solution is to buy a brand new one.

If your lucky you might be able to revive it, but it is unlikely and probably not capable of running at 100% capacity afterwards, meaning the charge it holds becomes less and the battery depletes quicker.

Buying a decent dirt bike battery charger will mean you wont have to worry about the health of your battery, you just need to hook it up to the charger when the bike is not in use and it will take care of the rest. That is assuming its a smart charger, not an old school trickle charger.

Top Picks

Best Overall: Granite Battery Saver / Charger

The value this charger offers for the functions it provides makes this a no brainer. It gives you the ability to monitor the health of your battery, charges, reconditions bad batteries and has automatic PULSE desulfator. Buying this will mean you are covered for all batteries that you are likely to have, including your car and truck.

Best On A Budget: Battery Tender Junior

If you are looking for a charger that is simply for dirt bikes then you cant go wrong with this Battery Tender. Simple and easy to use, designed for small batteries. It does what it says.

How To Choose A Battery Charger?

When you are looking at the various chargers available you need to be aware of a few different specs to make sure you are getting the right charger for your dirt bike. You maybe have other uses for it too, such as charging batteries on a Jet Ski, ATV, Lawn Mower and even your car for example.

You may as well try and get one charger to service all of your requirements instead of having seperate chargers for everything.

So the first thing you need to do is list out all the batteries that you may want the charger for.

We are particularly interested in the voltage of the battery and how many amp hours it is.

Below is a new battery I have as a spare which is for my Honda XLR200 and you can clearly see that it a 12v battery and 6.3ah.

Taking this info you can size up the charger you need. Typically you can buy a battery charger that does 6v, 12v or both. The charger will also have an amp rating.

So for example this little CTEK charger (which is great for dirt bikes) is 12v at 0.8 amps.

On the battery it actually tells you in the charging guide section (just visible in the pic above) that for a standard charge at 0.7A it will take 5-10hrs to charge. Time will vary depending on how flat the battery is and the amp rating on the charger.

Alternatively it is saying for a quick charge you can use a 3A charger for 1hour.

Now as a rule of thumb, charging quicker will mean less performance so it’s not a good idea to go on fast charge everytime. The slower you can charge a battery the better it will retain its health and last longer.

When buying a charger you need to look at the amps it is putting out because if your battery is say 70ah then a 0.8A charger like the CTEK is going to take an age, an in that example may not even be man enough to charge the battery at all.

For a rough guide you divide battery amps by the charger rate then add 10%. So if we have a 10A charger we divide 70 by 10 to get 7, then add 10% of the result. (10% of 7 =.7hrs or 42 mins)

The equates to our 70ah battery taking 7hrs and 42mins to charge on a 10A charger from dead to 100%.

You can see a larger charger would decrease the charge time but batteries dont like being charged to quick for optimal performance.

A smart charger like the Battery Saver/Charger is capable of doing small and large batteries at the required rates without you needing to adjust any settings. It will work out the charge rate and turn itself off, or into monitor mode when the battery is full.

This is unlike a trickle charge that needs monitoring so you dont over charge the battery.

The 5 Best Dirt Bike Battery Chargers – The Reviews

1. CTEK 0.8A

Small amp charger, designed for smaller 12V batteries and ideal for dirt bikes, jet skis, and ATV’s. They do offer other models with larger amp ratings if you need something to accommodate bigger batteries.

Trickle charging happens in 6 steps with their automatic system that helps prolong battery life, and the reverse polarity protection makes it safe for your dirt bike electricals.

The unit is small and light and has been well received in the dirt bike community.

What We Like

  • Simple setup and easy to use
  • Alligator clamps and cable conectors
  • Good value
  • Brilliant for maintaining healthy batteries

2. Micro Battery Saver/Charger

The little brother to the top pick. This unit packs a punch and has many of the same features (big brother listed below).

Super portable and with an LED display for reading the battery status without the need to plug it in the wall.

It is dual voltage and includes reverse polarity and pulse cleaning to improve a batteries health as well as maintaining

What We Like

  • LED battery status reader and display
  • Dual Voltage (6v and 12v)
  • Pulse Cleaning Function
  • Super portable

3. Battery Tender Junior

This is our best budget option and I don’t think you are going to beat this for value.

Many people use these as bike battery chargers and I can see why. For the price you get a charger that will charge and maintain you battery as well as having a float mode for when the battery becomes full.

Very easy to use, you just plug one end into the wall and hook the other up to your bike battery.

What We Like

  • Incredibly good value
  • LED indicator lights to show charge status
  • Spark proof connection system
  • Reverse polarity protection included

This is a number 1 best seller on Amazon, and for good reason. You cant go wrong with this simple dirt bike charger.

4. Battery Minder 1215

This charger will service all battery sizes and is able to be mounted for a permanent setup or left as a portable device.

It comes with the desulfator function to help with battery health and is capable of charging upto 4 batteries in one sitting.

What We Like

  • Bracket mounts for permanent setup
  • Desulfator function
  • Multi battery charging

5. Granite Battery Saver / Charger

Our top pick, and worth every penny, which still isn’t much more than most other chargers!

Functions include their fast charging ability, automatic PULSE desulfator and you can link upto 6 batteries together in parrallel so it will charge them all together. Ideal if you have more than one bike.

It uses a Solid-state microprocessor technology instead of the older transformer technology which many other chargers still use. This means giving out less heat upon charging and uses less energy.

This is our top pick – check out the latest prices on Amazon here!

What We Like

  • Its a smart charger so knows how much and for how long to charge
  • Does 6v and 12v batteries
  • Desulfator function
  • Charges multiple batteries
  • Capable of reviving dead batteries
  • Portable

Dirt Bike Battery FAQ’s

Does A Dirt Bike Battery Charge While Riding?

Yes it should do if everything is working correctly.

The alternator will charge the battery as you are riding. To get a battery fully charged would take you a good few hours of solid riding.

You can use a basic voltemeter (like this one) to take a reading from the battery when the bike is not running, and then another when it is running to establish if it is being charged.

How Long Does It Take To Charge A Dirt Bike Battery?

A battery in good health will take 2-3 hours to charge. Using a smart charger to ensure over charging doesn’t happen and running a good maintenance schedule

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