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Battery Charger Recommendation

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Frankster13

Active Member
I have a Odyssey Battery in my RV-14A and I am looking for recommendations for a charger. I like to have my battery on a trickle charge when I am away from the plane for extended periods to maintain good health for my battery. My last charger was an Odyssey charger but it has failed and is very expensive to replace. I am looking for recommendations for replacement charger. Any thoughts?
 
Lots of opinions on this subject but a common school of thought is it is best to not charge the Odyssey long-term. These batteries can hold most of their charge for at least six months and trickle charging has been blamed for many AGM batteries experiencing a premature demise. If you have some sort of keep alive circuits draining the battery it might be a good idea to revisit the wiring architecture to eliminate long-term drains.
 
Frankster13 said:
I have a Odyssey Battery in my RV-14A and I am looking for recommendations for a charger. I like to have my battery on a trickle charge when I am away from the plane for extended periods to maintain good health for my battery. My last charger was an Odyssey charger but it has failed and is very expensive to replace. I am looking for recommendations for replacement charger. Any thoughts?
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Odyssey has a list of approved chargers:


Odyssey has no objection to a battery being left connected to an approved trickle charger. A number of people here think it's a bad idea. I really don't know either way, I leave mine on a trickle charger in case I leave the master on, which I know for certain will kill my battery. 🤣
 
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Dugaru said:
Odyssey has a list of approaved chargers:


Odyssey has no objection to a battery being left connected to an approved trickle charger. A number of people here think it's a bad idea. I really don't know either way, I leave mine on a trickle charger in case I leave the master on, which I know for certain will kill my battery. 🤣
Click to expand...

A master contactor left energized might very well pull enough current to kill a trickle charger...............
 
I've owned my RV for ~6 years. It's had an Odyssey battery the entire time, and it's been on a trickle charger almost that entire time. The only time it wasn't on a charger for an extended period was when it sat on the ramp at KSAF for 5 weeks, and I returned to a dead battery. Nothing was left on, no loads bypassed the master, which was off.

The manufacturer has a list of recommended trickle chargers. I take that to mean that a properly functioning charger will not damage the battery. The one I use isn't on that list, but it has an AGM setting, and it seems to be doing just fine.


Form your own opinions, pay your money, and take your chances.
 
Frankster13 said:
I have a Odyssey Battery in my RV-14A and I am looking for recommendations for a charger. I like to have my battery on a trickle charge when I am away from the plane for extended periods to maintain good health for my battery. My last charger was an Odyssey charger but it has failed and is very expensive to replace. I am looking for recommendations for replacement charger. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I have two PC680s and use an Odyssey OBC-6A charger. I have a lot of seasonal rolling stock at home and keep everything else charged with Battery Tenders but I went all-out for my airplane batteries. The batteries are wired in parallel and I keep them on the charger 24/7/365. Especially given Minnesota winters, I don't want to take a change on them discharging enough to freeze, and I do get some parasitic drain from my on-board avionics. It's not much drain and I'm aware of Odyssey batteries' low tendency to self-discharge, but OTOH it's no problem to just plug the airplane in at the same time I put it on the dehydrator.
 
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Frank,

Get one of the Odyssey Chargers they make specifically for their batteries. In contrast to what some guys say I e-mailed the company about their chargers and one of their managers replied back that if you have one of their chargers you can leave it connected to an Odyssey battery all the time and it will automatically go to conditioning mode once the battery is fully charged.
 
I bought a CTEK charger because that was the one that BMW rebrands and sells for their cars. On the AGM small battery setting It worked fine for charging my Odyssey.

When the battery showed the usual signs of end of life after four years on the hot side of the firewall (multiple tries to get the engine past the first compression and slow cranking, right after charging) I gave the rejuvenation setting a try. It took most of a day to complete, and the battery worked like new again! I've done the rejuvenation cycle every spring for three more years and the battery is still working like new.

I recommend getting a charger with a rejuvenation cycle for Odyssey batteries.
 
I've always used 'Batterminder' for periodic charging without any problems, the CTEK reviews are shall we say, not so great anymore.
 
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