Looks like the internal battery on my Bravo BST12HP is knackered. It doesn't hold a charge, and gets hot while it's on charge. Had to resort to the good old Quicksilver double-action elbow grease pump at the weekend!
It's an easy enough job to get hold of a replacement battery and fit it, but I'm wondering what caused the problem as I don't want to make a habit of this.
It's about three years old. I charge it sporadically, and don't really keep track of how long it's on charge for. I suspect that longer may not be better, but there's nothing to indicate the charging progress.
The only chargers I have found that make batteries last a long time are the ones with lots of stages, but it would cost more than the battery and you would need to pull it out every time risking physical damage.
In my experience, the biggest killer of lead acid batteries is letting them go flat - if you can keep them charged at a reasonable level (i.e. over the winter put the battery on a top up charge every 6 weeks or so), then you can usually achieve 6 or 7 years life.
