Odyssey Chargers

[rleffler]

I dropped my Odyssey battery charger and it hasn't work right since. I started looking for a replacement. I noticed that all the OMAX models were out of stock and all I could find were the TMAX marine battery chargers.

So I called Enersys to find out the difference between The OMAX and the TMAX units. I found out that they were the same, just different labels and marketing. I thought I had it made, then the tech dropped a bombshell.

The reason you can't find the OMAX units is that Enersys dropped the OEM manufacturer and is working with another manufacturer to release a new product. I asked what differences are going to be with the new product line. The tech didn't completely know, but did say that several states now require additional certifications. She couldn't articulate what that meant. The gotcha was that these aren't anticipated to be on the market until September.

She then told me if I had an immediate need, they had a list of compatible chargers on their web site. She asked what battery I had and specifically recommended the Batteryminder aviation model. Unfortunately that model is twice the cost.

I'm not sure what my decision will be. Buy a TMAX now, wait for the new product, or buy a battery minder. I guess I have some research to do.

[TCONROY]

I ran into the same issue a couple month ago. Van's now sells a battery charger that they say is blessed by Odyssey (Enersys). It is a NOCO Genius G3500. I bought one and it seems to do a great job charging my PC680. I did call Enersys myself and they confirmed that is a good charger for our batteries.

[DanBaier]

Picked up one of these (NOCO 3500) myself. Very impressive. Put it on an 8 year old PC 680, and it's like it was new. Put it on a 4 year old Concorde in a Cherokee and same result.

Dan

[Larry DeCamp]

Forgive the ignorance guys. I have an Enersys Ultimizer. I have followed the PC680 threads that detail the discharge / recharge protocol using the compatible Enersys charger that "hard " charges compared other styles. That works. The 680 appears to hold a charge well when inactive.

So, if you fly once in a while, why does the 680 need charging ? I have B&C SD8 system and PC680. Shouldn't this be stable from flight to flight without charging ?

[Canadian_JOY]

Larry - there is a lot of info on this site, some of it seemingly conflicting. What one person says may not make sense because we may not have the full context.

In your case, charging the PC680 during flight, you should be OK. I say 'should' because you will need to have some electrical generation capacity above and beyond the demands of your aircraft's systems. that "excess capacity" is what's used to recharge your battery. If you have an SD8 and your aircraft is going to be drawing a steady state of 6 or 7 amps, you don't have much excess capacity for recharging the battery. This means you'll need longer flights to allow the battery to fully recover.

But coming back to your original question, the short answer is that a flying aircraft really doesn't need a battery charger on the PC680. The battery holds its charge very well between flights, far better than the flooded lead acid batteries you experienced when flying Cessna trainers and the like.

The PC680 in our airplane is now 6 years old and has never been on any form of charger other than the B&C 30 amp permanent magnet alternator installed in our aircraft. It still starts the airplane like it was new, including in some cold weather starts this past winter. I remain amazed by the PC680 and now have installed one in my wife's Mazda Miata and in our garden tractor. Yeah, the garden tractor battery was supposed to have been installed in the airplane as a preventative maintenance activity... then the garden tractor battery died and I needed a battery immediately, so the new PC680 was installed. Such is life.

[N941WR]

Bob, I bought an earlier version of this charger from my local big box store. It is rated for our batteries and has worked great!

Amazon has them for $19.99, if you can't find one locally.

It is so small, I toss it in my tool bag when taking long cross country trips, "just in case".