TOPIC:

Bought a new gel battery this past summer. Its been in the 10's and 20's Fahrenheit temps here lately and my battery showed 6 volts when i tried to start my bike last night. Brought the battery inside and it charged up to 13+ volts. Ive never seen a new battery be so affected by the cold. Any ideas?

I bought one before and returned, if that's the same we are talking about. It was so much smaller and lighter, and I was very happy picturing the extra space.
But I read more and people said these batteries perform very badly in cold weather. They simply go dead. They are good for warm climates. I think that's the nature of the beast, not an anomaly. For cold climates, like here in Canada, it's not good.

StanG wrote: ..But I read more and people said these batteries perform very badly in cold weather.

I think you're referring to' Lithium Iron' batteries which are much smaller and lighter. Their output voltage drops as the temp drops but they the can be brought back by just warming up a bit - say by leaving the headlight on for a bit before starting.

Best bang for the buck (as far as I'm concerned) are AGM batteries. They're less than half the cost of a LiFe battery, about the same size and weight of conventional Lead Acid batteries but they loose only about 1% of their charge per month (while resting) - i.e. no trickle charging required.

Its not a lithion ion its just a gel battery. Not sure if being made in china affects how it reacts to the cold...

I think you're referring to' Lithium Iron' batteries which are much smaller and lighter

Yes, that's the one, exactly Ballistic Performance EVO2 Lithium-Ion Battery. I think I jumped to conclusion that it has to be this one hence the drop of performance in cold temperatures has bee discussed and sounded exactly like described by rdbhere2.
I agree, AGM are great. I have two! I park outside. Sometimes I had to break off the ice on top of the bike cover and the bike had been sitting for a month. Started right away.
Still, go fast down if you park it with parking light on in cold weather, but that has to be normal.