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Winter storage odyssey battery

Dreamin9

Active Member
I have an RV9A with Odyssey 680 battery. It will be hangared and unused near Buffalo, NY for about 3 months.

After each flight I normally attach a BatteryMinder 128CEC1 set at 8 amp to the battery.

For long term winter storage do you recommend leaving it attached at 8 amp, or lower at 2 or 4 amps, or just disconnect the ground and leave it until spring?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Carl
 
Connected

Keep it connected. I don?t own that charger, but the little I just read on it says to use the 8amp setting for that battery. The charger will taper the amps to keep the voltage (temperature compensated... good for upstate) where it should be to keep a full charge. Lead batteries really need to be stored fully charged. Checkout Battery University if you are interested in knowing the fine details.
 
You're fortunate it still works; many have had very short lived Odysseys from using sustainer chargers. Many chargers like that will repeatedly 'top off' the battery, and every time they do it, it's similar to another charge cycle (all lead-acid batteries have a finite number of cycles). Suggest going to the Odyssey website & reading their docs about their batteries.

For all practical purposes, an Odyssey is just a lead-acid battery, but it has a *much* slower self-discharge rate than a wet cell battery. At normal temps, it would still start your plane after sitting unattended for at least a month or two. Since it will be in a freezing environment, if it were mine, I'd remove it after the last flight of the season and store it at home or another consistently heated space. Assuming it's a healthy battery, in all probability you could re-install after 3 months and it would start the plane.

edit: Here's a link to their doc:
http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/US-ODY-TM-002_1214.pdf
I'd read the whole thing, but Page 12 is probably what you're most interested in at the moment.

BTW, don't get distracted by references to managing the battery in 'deep cycle' applications; that's not us. Unless you have an alternator failure or a *serious* starting issue, you'll never discharge an a/c battery below around 90% state of charge.
 
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Odyssey battery charger

I called Odyssey customer service several years ago about what charger to use, and was told that only a CTEC (and another charger?) were the only only ones that would adequately charge their batteries.
 
I called Odyssey customer service several years ago about what charger to use, and was told that only a CTEC (and another charger?) were the only only ones that would adequately charge their batteries.

That is for charging, not sustaining. I am sure odyssey would recommend against the practice of using it for a long term period. These SLA batteries have VERY low self-discharge rates and do not need a constant float voltage like a wet cell lead acid battery to keep from going flat.

Larry
 
I have an RV9A with Odyssey 680 battery. It will be hangared and unused near Buffalo, NY for about 3 months.

After each flight I normally attach a BatteryMinder 128CEC1 set at 8 amp to the battery.

For long term winter storage do you recommend leaving it attached at 8 amp, or lower at 2 or 4 amps, or just disconnect the ground and leave it until spring?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Carl

If you want your battery to die an early death, just keep on charging it the way you have been doing. :)

If you want the PC680 to live a long life (unless you have already mortally wounded it) keep the charger in your tool box and let the plane charge the battery. Trickle charging a PC680 by uninformed pilots with good intentions has killed a bunch of good batteries......
 
I have a '66 GTO with a trunk-mounted PC925. I routinely let the car sit for 3+ months without starting/driving it. (I know, such a shame). This last time, it was 5 months. Started up without any issues. I never charge it other than what the alternator provides. And, that PC925 is now 8 years old.

I'd say don't bother with any external chargers for Odyssey's.
 
If you want your battery to die an early death, just keep on charging it the way you have been doing. :)

If you want the PC680 to live a long life (unless you have already mortally wounded it) keep the charger in your tool box and let the plane charge the battery. Trickle charging a PC680 by uninformed pilots with good intentions has killed a bunch of good batteries......

Like Sam says . . . but if you really don't fly enough, get a timer and run the charger periodically. An hour every 5th day, the like. I have some stories if you wish.
 
There's a chart in the Odyssey doc I linked that specs storage time vs temperature, before charging is needed. Worth a look.
 
Charger

After 1 year, my battery died. I had an older model Odyssey charger that was defective. Apparently ruined the battery. I kept it on the battery all the time I wasen't flying the plane. I called Odyssey and they sent me for free this new model charger/maintainer. https://www.amazon.com/ODYSSEY-OBC-...67236&sr=8-5&keywords=odyssey+battery+charger
The tech said that this charger can always be connected to the battery. It is designed for their batteries. Other trickle chargers will kill an Odyssey.

It's been a few years now and my battery is still strong. I still connect it to the charger when not flying.
 
The whole concept of keeping a battery on charge comes to us courtesy of bad old battery technology. In the days of carbon-zinc "Eveready 9 Lives" batteries we would put them in the freezer to slow down their decay. Would you do that with the new Energizer lithium cells? Nope! Why on earth would you treat your new-technology absorbed gas mat battery the same way you treated your ancient flooded cell battery? Heck, if you're going to do that you might as well go back to castor oil, too!

As has been mentioned before here, the Odyssey batteries bring us extremely low self-discharge rates. They simply do not need to be kept on a charger because they don't discharge. Plain and simple - flooded lead acid batteries self-discharge and need to be recharged from time to time, but AGM batteries are different. No periodic recharging is necessary over reasonable storage times such as a few months.

Do your battery a favor and disconnect it so no parasitic loads in the airplane can discharge it over the winter. If you want to be really kind to your Odyssey, take it home and store it in a warm place (not hot, room temperature does quite nicely).

My little airplane is running an 11 year old Odyssey PC680 which has never had a charger other than the aircraft alternator hooked to it, and it's still going strong! And yes, sometimes nasty winter weather means a month or more between flights - no problem, get in, hit the start button and she cranks with vigor.
 
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The Iiliad and the...Odyssey?

I have an RV9A with Odyssey 680 battery. It will be hangared and unused near Buffalo, NY for about 3 months.

After each flight I normally attach a BatteryMinder 128CEC1 set at 8 amp to the battery.

For long term winter storage do you recommend leaving it attached at 8 amp, or lower at 2 or 4 amps, or just disconnect the ground and leave it until spring?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Carl

Carl;
Great info from the group.
I agree, an AGM battery stored at extended periods near room temp will last a long time.
The PC680 in my RV4 was purchased in 2002. It lasted until the new owner recently installed a Lithium/Ion. I only charged it once after an extended overseas deployment and only at 2A for 6 hours.
For you (as mentioned above) I suggest removal, place it on a shelf someplace and re-install next Spring.

From odysseybattery.com:
ODYSSEY batteries should be fully charged prior to storage. Fully charged ODYSSEY batteries can be stored for up to 24 months at 77ºF (25ºC). Battery voltage naturally decreases with time and with increased temperature. The battery voltage should be checked periodically. If the battery voltage drops to 12.0 volts (35% state of charge) it should be recharged immediately to avoid permanent battery damage. The following can be used as a rough approximation for the potential storage times at different temperatures.
A manual charger typically puts out either a single voltage or a trickle charge. Voltage should be 13.5V to 13.8V. It should never exceed 15V.


V/R
Smokey
 
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