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Odyssey battery problems?

hcccs

hcccs

Well Known Member
I have a 5-6 year old Odyssey PC680 battery which was installed new in the final stage of building my RV4. Atter that it has been in the hangar for a year during final assembly. I have been doing some engine running last summer and then have had a battery charger connected all the time. Skyview has shown 13.7 volts when it is fully charged. Yesterday I started the engine and ran it for 10-15 minutes and after that Skyview showed 10.3 volts. I suspect the battery has gone bad but I'm not sure. Isn't this discharge too quick for a healthy battery?
 
hcccs said:
I have a 5-6 year old Odyssey PC680 battery which was installed new in the final stage of building my RV4. Atter that it has been in the hangar for a year during final assembly. I have been doing some engine running last summer and then have had a battery charger connected all the time. Skyview has shown 13.7 volts when it is fully charged. Yesterday I started the engine and ran it for 10-15 minutes and after that Skyview showed 10.3 volts. I suspect the battery has gone bad but I'm not sure. Isn't this discharge too quick for a healthy battery?
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You should never leave a charger on these batteries continuously. Best maintenance procedure I've found is to charge with the recommended charger once per month and discharge the battery for 15 minutes with a 5A load (old car headlights works well) before beginning the new charge. I got 11 years out of mine the first time around. 5 years on the second one so far.
 
I've been though many over the years. If you don't charge them properly they will start to lose capacity after 4~6 years. These are dry cell batteries and require special charging. I finally went to Lion. The good news is the Odyssey can still be used for other things less demanding until it goes completely dead.
 
All the above, plus, if I'm reading your symptoms description correctly, your alternator isn't working.
If the alt is working, you will see ~14v regardless of battery condition.

Charlie
 
Last edited:
Visit the Odyssey battery web site

And look at their technical manual ....

Checking an open circuit voltage on the battery after SIX HOURS of not charging or discharging, will show you amount of charge.

12.8V = 100 percent

11.7. = 10 percent,.....

Also they call for immediately charging any battery that is at 12.0 V,... to avoid damage

There are some details on recovery of deeply discharged batteries


Meanwhile I?ll vote with rest on swapping out with new
 
rv7charlie said:
All the above, plus, if I'm reading your symptoms description correctly, your alternator isn't working.
If the alt is working, you will see ~14v regardless of battery condition.

Charlie
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Thank you all for your input. I'll get a new battery and make a fresh start.
Charlie, I think you put the finger on it, an alternator or a wiring problem. I have suspected it myself at times and now I have check the wring and voltage regulator.
 
Call me lucky... 7 years on my PC680 so far. No-load voltage after sitting for a day or so was 12.7V during last summer's inspection, and it seems to have no capacity problem.

That said... pretty sure we're living on borrowed time, and as noted this battery owes us nothing. It will get replaced this year.
 
My PC680 is 10.5 years old! I plan on changing just because of its age but it has never let me down. I find others that have used trickle chargers continuously almost always have a shorter life.
 
I seem to be killing batteries in my 7. I can only get about two year out of them. I don't put them on a charger and fly regularly. I haven't searched the forum but will shortly.
 
Have you checked for any "parasitic current" drains that might be discharging your battery prematurely? Many useful videos in this regard on YouTube -- see: "parasitic current draw test".
 
Skybolt said:
I seem to be killing batteries in my 7. I can only get about two year out of them. I don't put them on a charger and fly regularly. I haven't searched the forum but will shortly.
Click to expand...

What's your aircraft voltage, should be around 14.5 - 14.7.
 
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