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Battery Tender

Is this what I want for the RV12 with an Odyssey battery?

BatteryMINDer® Model 2012-AGM $99.95.

http://www.batteryminders.com/2012agm-12v-charger-maintainer-sealed-agm-lead-acid-batteries

Thanks. Jim

That is probably a good charger......but don't use it for trickle charging. Leaving a trickle charger on a battery has killed a bunch of Odysseys. That is a great battery that will hold nearly a full charge for several months. Trickle charging can result in premature death of the battery....do your battery a favor...leave the charger in the toolbox. :)

Many threads are in the forum archives on this subject, here is a recent one:

http://vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=165355&highlight=pc680
 
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I have Odyssey OBC-6A and leave it connected all winter long.

From Odyssey specs: Powerful enough to charge batteries quickly, yet sophisticated enough to leave them connected to your batteries indefinitely without damage...

The charger has a 6-stage process where stage #6 is:

Stage6-StorageReconditionMode: Duringthismodethe“StorageReconditionMode” green indicator will illuminate with a slow fade in and out pulse. This indicates that while your batteries are in storage the charger will automatically recondition the battery for up to 3 hours once a month extending battery life and maximizing the battery power performance.
 
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I too am in the "anti-trickle charger" crowd. Trickle-chargers have their place but not IMHO on an Odyssey battery -- I think they can do more harm than good. Of course, the best charger is to fly often. If you can't do that, the Odyssey battery seems to maintain its charge for a relatively long period of time -- over several months or more. Early on I purchased the factory Odyssey 6-amp charger and was not impressed -- it did not seem to do any trickle-charging and only kicked in to charge if the battery was extremely low on charge -- in some cases, you have to "trick" the charger into operation using a second nearly dead battery. Like for many products there are folks on both sides of the value equation (Marvel Mystery Oil comes to mind at the moment).

ps -- Living in northern California's somewhat temperate climate may play a role in my current (;?) experience. In my former upstate NY winter flying days with lead-acid batteries, use of trickle-chargers and light bulbs under the cowl was standard procedure.
 
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Early on I purchased the factory Odyssey 6-amp charger and was not impressed -- it did not seem to do any trickle-charging and only kicked in to charge if the battery was extremely low on charge .

There would be your evidence that Odyssey themselves do not recommend trickle charging. They properly set up their charger to charge the battery and shut off when finished. If odyssey thought trickle charging was good for their batteries, I have all confidence that they would have designed it to do that. Instead, they had to produce a special unit that doesn't trickle charge because every other charger out there does.

Larry
 
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+1 for NO trickle charging. I have seen several Odyssey batteries go belly up when left on a trickle charger.
 
I have Odyssey OBC-6A and leave it connected all winter long.

From Odyssey specs: Powerful enough to charge batteries quickly, yet sophisticated enough to leave them connected to your batteries indefinitely without damage...

The charger has a 6-stage process where stage #6 is:

Stage6-StorageReconditionMode: Duringthismodethe?StorageReconditionMode? green indicator will illuminate with a slow fade in and out pulse. This indicates that while your batteries are in storage the charger will automatically recondition the battery for up to 3 hours once a month extending battery life and maximizing the battery power performance.

I also use one of these and have it hooked up at all times the plane is parked in the hangar.

This is my second Odyssey battery. The first one I replaced after 9 years just because. Others were talking about after 5-7 years having failures so I figured I was on borrowed time.

The first one was continually hooked to a Mean Well charger I got from Lockwood. I keep it as a backup. I got it out the other day and it was showing 12.42 volts on the multi meter. Maybe I didn't need a new battery after all??
 
thread drift...

Only way to *know* whether you needed one is to do a load test. Charge it, hook up your typical in-flight load, and time it to Odyssey's spec for 'fully discharged' (IIRC, it's somewhere around 10.2-10.4 V). If the time comes up short of 75% of the new battery number (from their charts), it's time to replace. (Ability to start the engine tells you nothing about battery *energy* capacity; it only says it has enough *power* to spin the engine. )
 
Is this what I want for the RV12 with an Odyssey battery?

BatteryMINDer® Model 2012-AGM $99.95.

http://www.batteryminders.com/2012agm-12v-charger-maintainer-sealed-agm-lead-acid-batteries

Thanks. Jim

Have used that trickle charger since the original RV-12 battery was installed. Has been going strong after 9+ years. Have it plugged in continuously when the temperatures are below about 50 degF or when I have not been flying for a few weeks. Have been using the cheaper AGM version. Similar to this.... http://www.batteryminders.com/batte...7-12v-1-33-amp-charger-maintainer-desulfator/
 
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Odyssey publishes a list of approved chargers. The trickle charger in question is on that approved list in the trickle charger section. According to the instructions that accompany the charger, it can be left on at all times.
 
Battery Maintainers

The term trickle charger is for one that never shuts all the way down and has any constant charge rate. Over the years as a mechanic have seen them ruin many a battery most lead acid.
Maintainers do not over charge like the trickle ones do as have seen when the wrong one used, trickle, boil the battery dry. I use Battery Tender brand and have about eight of them in use during the winter and a few all year round.
Having been a mechanic all my life close to 59yrs know what works and what does not. One I would not use due to problems with them is the Harbor Freight one. The new types of batterys out there only use what the mfg says is right never just use what Joe next door says works.
 
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