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Odyssey PC680 Alternative?

rockitdoc

rockitdoc

Well Known Member
Patron
I put the Odyssey PC680 in two years ago while beginning the wiring of my bird. It has been used for little other than checking circuits. I use an external power supply while learning the Dynon HDX. So, why is the Odyssey dead, dead, dead and cannot be revived after so little use. Oh, my shop is climate controlled. So, no cold winters.

Very disappointed in this battery, unless there is something I did to cause this.

Any thoughts appreciated and any alternatives that are more reliable appreciated, as well.
 
This is the one I mentioned today. It gets charged by my Norco. I figure if it goes TU, it was cheap. If it survives, I'll use it.
Mighty Max Battery ML18-12GEL - 12 Volt 18 AH, GEL Type, Internal Thread (INT) Terminal, Rechargeable SLA AGM Battery https://a.co/d/8oIkYLh
 
I've bought and installed 4 of the Odyssey PC-680's in 10 years of flying my RV-9A. They don't seem to last much beyond 2-3 years. I don't normally keep the battery on the tender, and I live in a very mild climate (San Diego area). My current battery failed me a couple of times this last month, so I decided to move to the EarthX.
Read all about it in my Blog: https://flyingoverthehills.wordpress.com/2024/09/04/battery-upgrade/
 
rockitdoc said:
I put the Odyssey PC680 in two years ago while beginning the wiring of my bird. It has been used for little other than checking circuits. I use an external power supply while learning the Dynon HDX. So, why is the Odyssey dead, dead, dead and cannot be revived after so little use. Oh, my shop is climate controlled. So, no cold winters.

Very disappointed in this battery, unless there is something I did to cause this.

Any thoughts appreciated and any alternatives that are more reliable appreciated, as well.
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Batteries do not like sitting around and not being used. You probably should have used it more and occasionally charged it. You say it cannot be revive. How did you try to revive it? Traditional battery charger or one from Odyssey?
That being said, There are multiple threads here on the forum about recent issues with the Odyssey battery after for years been considered pretty reliable. I have used 4 Odyssey PC680s in my 20+ years, including the build, and have had very good luck. My current one has been in for 6 years and never put on a charger or battery tender. I fly once or twice a week all year round.
Obviously YLMV
(I am now going to the hangar to see if my plane will start as I probably just jinxed myself)
 
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Definitely not the OPs issue, but I know the battery seems to get the bad rap often. I had what I thought was a failing 680 that was 6 years old. Obvious choice was replace it. After doing so, the plane started great for a few months before getting harder to start again. Turns out that the firewall starter solenoid had so many pits on the contact plate from arcing I constantly had a bad connection. For S&G, after replacing the solenoid, I put the old battery in and it started strong. I ended up buying a battery for no reason and I had a false sense of improvement because of the marginally higher CCA of a new battery.

I put my 680 battery on a maintainer for a few hours anytime I am doing my CI or other system maintenance. Outside of that, I fly almost weekly. Knocking on wood this battery will give me years of strong starting.
 
My airplane has been utilizing two PC 680s in parallel for a decade. I’ve only had one battery failure, and that was death by overcharging when it was six years old. I’m a big fan
 
I have a RV8 with an IO360-A1 B6. The battery is in the back. I initially started out using the PC680. I was replacing them every two years. When it was cold (below 40 F) it would just barely crank the engine. I switched to a Concord and solved the cold crank problems, but now had heavy weight battery causing CG concerns. Also, I still had to replace the battery every 4 years. I finally broke down and got an Earth X battery. The difference is like night and day....... the engine starts and runs better than ever no matter what the temperature is, and It is so light and small that it has practically no effect on the CG. Worth every penny in my opinion !
 
IMO Odyssey batteries are junk. Super expensive and not worth it. I went through two before seeing a reference on here for an APEX now sold through Battery Sharks. 12 volt 22 amp hour for $34.00. The Odyssey batteries even when new were VERY poor performers!!! The Battery I use now turns my prop over with GUSTO and lots of it. Been using the apex for 8 years or so. Just my experience. Only difference with these is I had to put a block in the bottom of the mounting tray. For some reason they will only drop in about 3/4 of the way before wedging tight. So it sticks up a little above the top of the tray.
 
Just swapped mine out for new at 9 years. Was still cranking strong.
Got 9 years out of the last one. Go figure…..
 
If you decide to go to the EarthX, I suggest you consider the 900. A little more money but way more pawer with an almost identical size and weight.
 
Paul 5r4 said:
IMO Odyssey batteries are junk. Super expensive and not worth it. I went through two before seeing a reference on here for an APEX now sold through Battery Sharks. 12 volt 22 amp hour for $34.00. The Odyssey batteries even when new were VERY poor performers!!! The Battery I use now turns my prop over with GUSTO and lots of it. Been using the apex for 8 years or so. Just my experience. Only difference with these is I had to put a block in the bottom of the mounting tray. For some reason they will only drop in about 3/4 of the way before wedging tight. So it sticks up a little above the top of the tray.
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What Apex model did you buy?
 
Tooch, I have the 12220 battery. When I first switched they were black with green APEX on the side. Now that Battery Sharks sells them they are white. The white one is what I have now. Looks like it is mfg by Sigmas Tek. 22 amp hr. I am actually on the second one. The original I removed just because it had been 5 years of use and the new was only 35 plus shipping. When I took the old one out it was working the same as the day it was new. The old one I use in my workshop for 12V power.
 
My PC680 was getting long in the tooth -- it was installed in 2017 and was still in the airplane in 2023, but cranking was definitely slow -- so it was swapped out for PC925 (aka ODS-AGM28L). Larger and heavier battery, to be sure, but my aircraft has an aft-ish CG anyway, so this helped a bit. I can feel the CG improvement in the flare. And it cranks over the 195hp IO-360 so fast that even the worst hot starts are no issue. It just lights up no matter what.

The battery box did require modification, but the PC925 will be (relatively) easy and inexpensive to replace.

I considered EarthX, but as with many RV-6 builds, my battery is inside the cockpit and I wasn't happy with the idea of having it there and needing to vent it, or the work of modifying the aircraft to put it on the other side of the firewall. For what it's worth, I also have a smaller secondary battery adjacent to the primary.

--Ron
 
Hangar 1271 said:
If you decide to go to the EarthX, I suggest you consider the 900. A little more money but way more pawer with an almost identical size and weight.
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I just swapped out my PC680 with the EarthX 900. The EarthX is lighter and way better than the PC680. 400 cranking amps vs. 150. The PC had a hard time turning my prop over (IO360), whereas, the EarthX starting power is awesome. Engine starts right up and no prop "stall" on start. The EarthX is a direct replacement to the PC.
 
Hangar 1271 said:
If you decide to go to the EarthX, I suggest you consider the 900. A little more money but way more pawer with an almost identical size and weight.
Click to expand...

While the ETX 900 does provide more "power"( measured in Amp hours, ~15.6Ah vs the 12Ah of the ETX680), it does draw more amps to recharge. The ETX 680 will draw ~60+A when discharged, the ETX 900 will exceed +80A, the ETX 1200 will exceed +100A. While these draws won't blow the ANL (if you have one), it does put stress on the alternator circuitry which *might* reduce the alternators useful life...

YMMV
 
My first PC680 seemed to crap out at 1 year. I did the recommended refresh procedure and it went another year no problems. Then it really crapped out no recovery. Did some research and I don’t know why it matters but if I leave the odyssey tender connected when hangared it does great. It’s only if it sits too long off the tender that it seems to lose its way.

I can say that two weeks in winter Fargo was too long. It’s never had a days trouble off the tender when temps over 70 in the summer. The threshold of failure must be somewhere between these extremes.

And there was 10d in Fargo and I thought I’d have trouble, but the newly installed engine heater got the whole engine compartment up and the batter did great.

Some data points…
 
Has anyone been stranded with an earthx due to circuitry cutting the battery off? That’s my only concern, if it dies it dies. If a 680 does I can start it with a lithium jump starter or go to any battery store to find one on the road.

That’s the only thing that has kept me on the fence. I hate how my 680 will struggle on the first compression stroke when it’s cold out. I’m sure earth x would be far superior.
 
Majorpayne317641 said:
Has anyone been stranded with an earthx due to circuitry cutting the battery off? That’s my only concern, if it dies it dies. If a 680 does I can start it with a lithium jump starter or go to any battery store to find one on the road.

That’s the only thing that has kept me on the fence. I hate how my 680 will struggle on the first compression stroke when it’s cold out. I’m sure earth x would be far superior.
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The EarthX seems to be a good product. It’s capacity/unit weight is impressive to say the least. I believe the fleet will continue to slowly transition to non-lead based storage; final form and chemistry TBD.

That said, the inability to start/standed scenario was the way lesser of my concerns. Having the BMS take one off -line no matter how low the risk, would produce a myriad of complications from relatively benign to catastrophic; depending on aircraft system(s) configuration. It’s a well beaten argument with lots of “xxx hours and no issues” anecdotal “proof”. The decision for what is acceptable will be complex and should be matrixed across the entire operational regime.

Choose wisely and safely. Don’t let fanboys from any side influence you.
 
If you don’t lIke the PC-680, take a look at the PC-625. A little lighter, a few more CCA and Amp-hrs. I’ve been running two in my RVs for over 20 years and never had one go bad, or for that matter never had one go weak. I replace one of the two every 3-4 years so the oldest is not over 7 years. The pulled batteries are happy in retirement in local John Deer tractors and such.

I do not mount these on the firewall, and do not use any sort of “battery tender”. I have two to achieve my risk mitigation for IFR. While my RV engines are not electrial dependent, two PC-625s can provide a foundation for a redundant electrial power design to support any RV running ship power dependent engine systesms.

It would be nice to run an EarthX and a PC-625 for some installs where W&B would be better, but EarthX tells me the two batteries cannot be run in parallel. Not sure why as both charge at the same 14.2vdc, but I’ll go with their expert advice.

Carl
 

Someone asked what charger you're using. That makes a difference. I've had PC680s act like they're dead and an overnight reconditioning with an approved charger brings them back to new again.​

​

I've been an Odyssey PC680 battery user for decades and haven't found anything overall better for the money they cost and how they perform. My current plane came with the bigger PC1200s but as soon as I need a battery I'm switching to a pair of PC680 (or PC625) if there isn't something better out there at that time.​

 

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EarthX tells me the two batteries cannot be run in parallel. Not sure why as both charge at the same 14.2vdc
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I think that if connected in parallel, the EarthX would discharge into the lead acid battery when the alternator is off.
I agree with Carl that it should not matter while the alternator is running because a load (battery in this case) always draws current from the highest voltage source.
The two battery types could be automatically connected together when the voltage is above 14VDC by using a contactor that is energized via a VOLTAGE RELAY. Disclaimer: I have never tried this and am not necessarily recommending doing it.
 
Mich48041 said:
I think that if connected in parallel, the EarthX would discharge into the lead acid battery when the alternator is off.
I agree with Carl that it should not matter while the alternator is running because a load (battery in this case) always draws current from the highest voltage source.
The two battery types could be automatically connected together when the voltage is above 14VDC by using a contactor that is energized via a VOLTAGE RELAY. Disclaimer: I have never tried this and am not necessarily recommending doing it.
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EarthX doesn't let you connect two of their same batteries together, parallel or series. In my case they want to sell me their 24v battery, I wanted two of their 12v.
 
Pilot135pd said:

Someone asked what charger you're using. That makes a difference. I've had PC680s act like they're dead and an overnight reconditioning with an approved charger brings them back to new again.​

​

I've been an Odyssey PC680 battery user for decades and haven't found anything overall better for the money they cost and how they perform. My current plane came with the bigger PC1200s but as soon as I need a battery I'm switching to a pair of PC680 (or PC625) if there isn't something better out there at that time.​

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I tried bringing mine back with the CTEK 7002. No joy.
 
rockitdoc said:
It started the charging process, then after 12 hrs, it quit and gave me a '!' symbol. My other chargers did the same thing.
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I've had that happen too. I just keep restarting the charger and on some batteries it seems like it kept adding more and more until it finally went through and charged completely. Of course I only use that battery in the lawn mower but at least it's working. Another battery I just ended up throwing it away after many tries and no luck.
 
When the PC680 first came out, there was a lot of discussion on chargers. There was only one “approved” charger at that time, which I bought. I am not at the hangar and can’t remember who made it. Simple white box with a black rotary for off,12v, or 24v.
That is all the battery has ever seen and I rarely use it to trickle charge as a fly enough to keep it charged.
Another comment about charging. Many automatic chargers struggle with dead AGM batteries. If your automatic charger isn’t working on a dead battery, it has been suggested to use a manual charger to put some charge on it and then use the automatic charger to protect in AGM mode. I have had to do this with a Genie lift I have as the built in automatic charger won’t work when batteries are totally dead. Put a little charge on them, and the auto charger works. My brother in law managed a battery plant and led me to this when I had an issue.
There is now a pretty large list of battery chargers Odyssey has now.

All that said, our aircraft charging system is pretty darn rudimentary so, go figure….
 
Pilot135pd said:
EarthX doesn't let you connect two of their same batteries together, parallel or series. In my case they want to sell me their 24v battery, I wanted two of their 12v.
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Earth X lets you connect 2 of the batteries even if different capacities in parallel but not in series. I discussed this with their engineers as the Z-14 diagram does exactly that when the interconnect relay is closed. They recommend not to do this for obvious reasons in series 24v applications.
 
dmattmul said:
Earth X lets you connect 2 of the batteries even if different capacities in parallel but not in series. I discussed this with their engineers as the Z-14 diagram does exactly that when the interconnect relay is closed. They recommend not to do this for obvious reasons in series 24v applications.
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That's good news for those needing to parallel them for backup, not good news for me, and not what they emailed me (they told me no parallel or series).
 
Pilot135pd said:
That's good news for those needing to parallel them for backup, not good news for me, and not what they emailed me (they told me no parallel or series).
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There latest very inclusive documentation does not detail if there is an issue with batteries in parallel, only series and that seems to pertain to different manufacturers and chemistry.
 

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dmattmul said:
There latest very inclusive documentation does not detail if there is an issue with batteries in parallel, only series and that seems to pertain to different manufacturers and chemistry.
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I'm not saying you're not correct, I'm just saying what they told me.
 
Full River HC 20 is a direct replacement for the over priced ‘brand name’ Odyssey, just not sure whether they are available in Yankyland😉 I’ve used several, half price and gutsy👍
 
Capt said:
Full River HC 20 is a direct replacement for the over priced ‘brand name’ Odyssey, just not sure whether they are available in Yankyland😉 I’ve used several, half price and gutsy👍
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This one claims to be a FullRiver HC20 replacement but I can't find CCA for it.

FULLRIVER HC20 12V 20Ah Battery with M5 - Insert Terminals

FULLRIVER HC20 12V 20Ah Battery. High quality fresh new replacement for the FULLRIVER HC20 12V 20Ah battery. 1 Year Warranty included!
www.upsbatterycenter.com www.upsbatterycenter.com
 
Looks like Duracell has one to compete with the Odyssey too but I can't get CCA or other info on it either. It is a lot cheaper than the Odyssey and has brand name recognition so it might be worth the try for those needing one now.

 
Recently purchased a Full Throttle FT230 to try, still sitting on the bench though...
 
Pilot135pd said:
Looks like Duracell has one to compete with the Odyssey too but I can't get CCA or other info on it either. It is a lot cheaper than the Odyssey and has brand name recognition so it might be worth the try for those needing one now.

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Duracell was an American company who was purchased by a Chinese firm probably 10 years ago. The American version of their AA batteries never leaked, the new ones do.
 
I just found another good name brand: ENERGIZER and it says 310 CCA for just $74 ! Looks like there are lots of generic ones the same size as the Odyssey since my last research but they would probably be more of a gamble as to reliability.

 
PilotjohnS said:
Duracell was an American company who was purchased by a Chinese firm probably 10 years ago. The American version of their AA batteries never leaked, the new ones do.
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I use Duracell golf cart batteries that I bought at Sam's Club for my solar system running the 4 hangars and they work great. I also have them in one of my golf carts, no issues. Maybe just the little consumer batteries leak.
 
Pilot135pd said:
This one claims to be a FullRiver HC20 replacement but I can't find CCA for it.

FULLRIVER HC20 12V 20Ah Battery with M5 - Insert Terminals

FULLRIVER HC20 12V 20Ah Battery. High quality fresh new replacement for the FULLRIVER HC20 12V 20Ah battery. 1 Year Warranty included!
www.upsbatterycenter.com www.upsbatterycenter.com
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I've used (and am currently using) various "brands" of inexpensive PC680 semi-clones over the past 20+ years and none of them have had CCA ratings, probably because they weren't intended to be used as a starting battery. But overall I have had good service from them. If I decide to replace one after two years (and some last considerably longer) it doesn't hurt my feelings as much as replacing a two-year-old Odyssey. :)
 
Sam Buchanan said:
I've used (and am currently using) various "brands" of inexpensive PC680 semi-clones over the past 20+ years and none of them have had CCA ratings, probably because they weren't intended to be used as a starting battery. But overall I have had good service from them. If I decide to replace one after two years (and some last considerably longer) it doesn't hurt my feelings as much as replacing a two-year-old Odyssey. :)
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The ENERGIZER shows 310 CCA so that's an improvement on info available. On that size, weight, and price I can replace my 2 Odyssey PC1200 (total 76 pounds) with 2 or even better with 4 of these batteries (total 17 pounds) and it's still cheaper and weight is a lot less helping my tail heavy COG !

That's my exact opinion on mattresses !! I went just mattress shopping and damn if they haven't gotten so expensive !!! I figured ok I'll bite the bullet for my back to be comfortable but every time I entered a store all they showed me started around $3,000 and up from there. So after many days wasted driving and testing I went back to what I know. My current full memory foam says 10 year warranty (useless) but lasted just 5 years. So I figured I can buy a new mattress every couple of years and still it would take me over a decade to spend what I would spend now on just one, that most likely won't last their 10 year claims either.
 
I’ve had a Full Throttle installed for 4 years now with no issues. About 60-65 hours per year
 

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I recently switched to a FT230, works great so far, but only a few months on it.
-Greg
 

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rockitdoc said:
I put the Odyssey PC680 in two years ago while beginning the wiring of my bird. It has been used for little other than checking circuits. I use an external power supply while learning the Dynon HDX. So, why is the Odyssey dead, dead, dead and cannot be revived after so little use. Oh, my shop is climate controlled. So, no cold winters.

Very disappointed in this battery, unless there is something I did to cause this.

Any thoughts appreciated and any alternatives that are more reliable appreciated, as well.
Click to expand...
I have two 680s in my Lancair since 2022. One died, and now the second one is dying. Granted, I have 400+ hours in 2 1/2 years, but I am not impressed. Also looking for alternatives.
 
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