Battery Minder Recommendation

[gasman]

Originally Posted by Chkaharyer99

Jeff,

Looking for some clarification.

Was the Battery Tender described using over a twelve year period on the same battery? Was that battery an Odyssey PC680 by chance or something else?

I used a $5 Harbor freight maintainer on a Concord battery in my Warrior for 10 years on the same battery..... it did great. But it was not controlled so I don't use them for AGM batteries AKA Odyssey.

[Driftdown]

Originally Posted by tomkk

I'd contact Odyssey and see what they say. I don't think they recommend battery minders, they do have a process that will sometimes rejuvenate a battery and, the last time I looked, they identified chargers that charge the battery to their specs.

This is what they recommend:

CTEK (56-864) MUS 4.3 12 Volt Fully Automatic 8 Step Battery Charger.

It is available on Amazon. Very reasonable.

They do not advise "rejuvination" by ANY chargers, due to issues with heat management. Therefore, they recommend using only the "snowflake" mode, when using this charger.
I've owned one for 3 years . . . a great (little) portable charger that goes with me on every cross country trip.

[tomkk]

Originally Posted by Driftdown

This is what they recommend:

CTEK (56-864) MUS 4.3 12 Volt Fully Automatic 8 Step Battery Charger.

It is available on Amazon. Very reasonable.

They do not advise "rejuvination" by ANY chargers, due to issues with heat management. Therefore, they recommend using only the "snowflake" mode, when using this charger.
I've owned one for 3 years . . . a great (little) portable charger that goes with me on every cross country trip.

Sorry, shouldn't have used "rejuvinate". The procedure was to desulfate the battery: http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...09&postcount=1. Don't know if that's useful for you.

Also, approved chargers: http://www.odysseybattery.com/docume...V_chargers.pdf

[Driftdown]

Originally Posted by tomkk

Sorry, shouldn't have used "rejuvinate". The procedure was to desulfate the battery: http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...09&postcount=1. Don't know if that's useful for you.

Also, approved chargers: http://www.odysseybattery.com/docume...V_chargers.pdf

Thanks Tom.

When I talked to the Odyssey Rep, she told me they did not recommend desulfating the batteries. I ask why and she indicated there was an issue with internal overheating during the desulfating process. With the Genex charger, the only mode I have ever used (or needed) was the Snowflake mode, which is listed on the Odyssey charger list.

[rockwoodrv9]

I have the 680 and got one of these. I left my panel on for too long one day and tried the trickle battery tender to charge, and it did not charge. I ordered this and it has worked fine - as far as I know. Any thoughts?

http://www.batterymart.com/p-obc-6a-...e-charger.html

[John-G]

I purchased the Odyssey OBC-12A charger to charge the PC680 and one feature it has is a built in extended maintenance mode.

I don?t have the manual in front of me at the moment, so I will paraphrase from my not so fertile memory ? If memory serves me correctly, the manual says after the charger has stepped through its various phases of charging and the battery has obtained a full charge, if the charger is left on the battery, the charger automatically switches to a float/maintenance mode.

In addition, if the charger is left connected to the battery for an extended period of time, eventually the charger will turn itself totally off for a month ? then will turn itself back on and go through the charging phases once again. Apparently, this prevents damage to the battery from being kept on a constant trickle charge and keeps the battery conditioned properly.

Happy flying,

[Jeff Vaughan]

It was used on two PC680 over the twelve years

[tomkk]

Originally Posted by John-G

I purchased the Odyssey OBC-12A charger to charge the PC680 and one feature it has is a built in extended maintenance mode.

I don?t have the manual in front of me at the moment, so I will paraphrase from my not so fertile memory ? If memory serves me correctly, the manual says after the charger has stepped through its various phases of charging and the battery has obtained a full charge, if the charger is left on the battery, the charger automatically switches to a float/maintenance mode.

In addition, if the charger is left connected to the battery for an extended period of time, eventually the charger will turn itself totally off for a month ? then will turn itself back on and go through the charging phases once again. Apparently, this prevents damage to the battery from being kept on a constant trickle charge and keeps the battery conditioned properly.

Happy flying,

That's the one I use as well but I don't leave it connected all the time ...

[Raymo]

This one has a setting for Odyssey and provides the amperage recommended by Odyssey (8 amps from another thread. Trying to confirm...).

[JimMac]

Thanks, guys, for everyone's participation in this thread. This has been a very informative discussion. I think I will try the Odyssey OBC-12A for my Odyssey PC680 battery. If anyone has a reason why this is a bad choice, please respond and let me know before I order it. It's $148 or so at Amazon.com.