Battery talk.

[TwinStick]

The good, the bad & the ugly. Lets hear it.

I have been looking around at them again lately. I was just gonna go to a big box store & get one but man, they all seem to have shitty reviews lately. Seems that what was decent & good a few years back has now turned to shit according to the reviews. I was seriously thinking an Optima Blue top but based on the reviews, I just could not bring myself to do it. My 2008 Sears Die Hard Platinum is still plugging away as a 2nd battery in the Power Wagon.

So tonight, I ended up ordering one of these, in Gp 31 flavor: http://www.cabelas.com/product/boating/ ... s?slotId=6
It seems to have about the same specs as the M2/Sears Die Hard Platinum I have & the big ass Odyssey. It may very well be made by Odyssey, idk ? It was on sale, I got free shipping (74 lbs) but had to pay the $14 sir charge for weight, had a $20 coupon & got my Military/Law Enforcement discount & used about $15 in points as well. Shipped direct from Manufacturer to my house, so it saves me a trip 1 hr each way. Still, one expensive battery. I will report back later. Plan on using it for the 82 qt ARB fridge/freezer & if it works out, getting another one for the 50 qt. I already have the Cabela's Pro Angler twin 20 amp charger for them.

[Colibri]

I’ve gone to odyssey batteries in everything I own, only batteries that have been trouble free for me. Going on 6-7 years so far

[TwinStick]

The Odyssey 31M-PC2150ST is very close in looks, size, weight as the one I got from Cabela's. You can get it on sale at Battery Mart for $299.95 but then you gotta add shipping & it ends up being a wash, at least for me, ($38.50 shipping). I hope it works out. Great reviews anyways.

[TwinStick]

Battery arrived Friday evening. Reading 12.76 volts. Threw it on the Odyssey Optimizer 50 amp triple bank charger this morning. It is still going through it's cycle but is reading 13.6 volts. It is slowly increasing the volts, so it will absorb & hold the 13.6 volts, or at least that's the way it is supposed to work anyways. Had the camper Gp 24 deep cycle on a "smart charger/maintainer" & it would only charge it to 12.6 volts, so I also put it on the Odyssey Optimizer charger on bank #2. It is now reading 13.6 volts as well. Weather they both will hold a 13.6 volt charge, on their own, overnight, after being removed from the charger, remains to be seen.

[TwinStick]

Rolling Battery rack/charging station I made for the garage. Camper battery is behind the X-900. Both are currently being analyzed, charged, conditioned, auto maintained & once a month storage reconditioned by the Cabela's Pro Mariner 20 amp X 2 bank "smart" charger.


Odyssey Ultimizer 50 amp X 3,Triple bank "smarter" charger.


Tractor Supply "Dumb" charger. I really like this charger.

Bottom line, it seems a damn shame (& a royal PITA) that you really need so many different chargers to properly maintain all the different batteries I have. Sometimes, the "smart" chargers are not so damn smart at all. It will say battery needs replacing. I have brought 3 batteries back to life that smart chargers would not touch. Including my 2008 Sears Die Hard Platinum (that is still rocking strong). My 2 neighbors are also still using the batteries I brought back for them. One was reading 9 volts & the other 9.9 volts. (NOTE: I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS AT ALL-SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH CAN RESULT !) But this is what I did. Took each one, on a very windy day & put it in my garden behind the garage. Took my Platinum battery & set it about 10' away. Hooked my jumper cables to platinum battery, then touched the + jumper to - terminal of bad battery & - jumper to + terminal of bad battery. Yes it sparked big time. I did this 2-3 times & just touched them for a micro second. Windy day is good to dissipate explosive gasses. I wore heavy clothing & triple safety for eyes & face, just in case. Then, I hooked it up to the dumb charger. I would charge at 60 amps for 5 minutes (to hep desulfate the plates) & then leave it at 4 amps constant overnight. I kept doing this for about a week. Then used the Odyssey Ultimizer. Left it on that for a week. Battery came back to 12.79 volts.

[TwinStick]

So, today, I checked them both again. Both read 13.10 volts, hmmmmmm. Further investigation ensued. So, after I RTFM , I realized there is 3 separate settings. But, of course you can NOT just press a button to change them, noooooo, that would just be too damn simple. There is a teeny tiny plastic screw in the side of the unit, and 2 other teeny tiny plastic screws in a teeny tiny plastic bag. Each teeny tiny plastic screw has a different length nipple on the inside. So, I switched out the shortest one, for the longest one. One is for flooded wet cell batteries, one is for AGM batteries & one is for High Performance AGM batteries. So, I chose the one that had the highest "float/conditioning" volts. I am not concerned that I have 1 HP AGM battery & 1 flooded wet cell battery hooked up at the same time. I unplugged it & replugged it in (there is no on/off switch). It then went into "conditioning mode". I then put the volt meter on them both & they were right around 14.82 volts, which should be enough to bring them back up to 13.6 volts. They were only at 13.1 volts with the "flooded wet cell" teeny tiny plastic screw in there. This is my "pretty smart charger".

Now, I have also monitored the Odyssey Ultimizer while in charge & conditioning mode. It has shot up to as much as 17+ volts, then slowly backs it back down & repeats. It is not always 17+ volts, depends on the battery & it's condition of charge, sulfation, etc. It is my "smartest charger".

Now, on my Tractor Supply charger, it also varies greatly. on 4 amp mode, it is around 13-14 volts. On 30 amp mode, it is around 15-16 volts. On 60 amp mode, it is 17-18 volts. So, basically it will do the same thing as the Odyssey Ultimizer but you just have to do it manually. It is a "dumb charger".

I also have a few of the small single trickle charger/maintainers. Those are my "kinda smart chargers", but only for starting batteries.

Daunting, isn't it ? I think so. No one tells you that you need a special charger when you get those "special" batteries.

[Ducky's Dad]

The new Odyssey chargers must be even smarter than your smartest charger, because they don't have any settings whatsoever. Just connect to positive and ground, plug it in and away you go. Everything is automatic, from testing and diagnosis to conditioning and maintenance. Does not work any better than the old Ultimizer. I have a 40-amp three-bank Ultimizer and one of their new 20-amp dedicated chargers. Can't get my two year old G31 Extreme to charge above 12.6V. Sometimes the new charger tells me the battery is at 100% (which would be above 12.85OCV) when the multimeter says the battery is below 12.0. The Ultimizer will go through the full program, including conditioning, but the battery still stabilizes at about 12.6OCV. I get the same results whether I leave the battery connected in the truck or disconnect both leads while charging. My 7-amp Ctek gives me about the same results, just takes longer to get there. Very frustrating.

[TwinStick]

Yeah, my favorite charger is my dumb charger. I can charge, trickle charge, shock charge (on the 60 amp setting,to help desulfate the plates), and I can purposely overcharge (to get a battery to hold it's required voltage). A smart charger usually will only do that so long-before it kicks into maintain mode.

I'll be honest, I really am starting to think the way to go nowadays is, a bench charger with adjustable voltage and adjustable amps. Because all the "smart chargers" are not so smart after all. Something like this: http://www.mastechpowersupply.com/volte ... input.html

I can set the 3 bank Ultimizer to show the % of charge for banks 1-2-or 3, the volts of 1-2-or 3, or the amps of 1-2-or 3. I can also switch it between charging & test mode on any of the 3 banks. If I know it is low from using it, I can jump right into the charge mode, without waiting for it to go through the testing mode. That can take up to 20 minutes sometimes.

[TwinStick]

So, today, it is back in the maintain mode on the Cabela's Pro Mariner 20 x 2 charger & it is only readong 13.06 volts !

So, it would seem the only chargers I have that are capable of getting them up to 13.6 volts are the (no longer available) automatic/manual Odyssey Ultimizer & the Tractor Supply 4/30/60/300 wheeled manual charger.

[TwinStick]

My battery updates: My 2006 Sears Die Hard Platinum is still going strong in the 2 battery set up in my truck---hooked directly to my under hood wal mart battery. No issues there.

Camper battery was reading 84% charged ---so either the battery is starting to go bad after just 3 years (just a wet cell exide Gp 24 deep cycle) or camper charger is either not working properly or also going bad ?

Cabela's Pro Mariner 2x20amp charger is still only keeping them at 13-13.1v when i check with volt meter.

Hooked up the New Cabela's X-900 and the camper battery to my Odyssey 3x50amp Ultimizer charger 2 days ago. Put it in test mode for both. 24 hrs later, it was still in test mode ??? Switched it to charge mode for both. 24 hrs later the X-900 was reading 100% fully charged @ 13.6v & 0 amps going into it. Camper battery was reading 100% fully charged @ 13.5/6 volts & Lo amps going into it---I suspect to get it to absorb & maintain/hold, to read 13.6v ?

Overall review: Most battery chargers suck---bigtime. They get them to 12.5v & call it a day.

What is needed to properly maintain todays high performance AGM, Odyssey, Optima type batteries & deep cycle batteries is: a charger that will maintain a true 13.6v charge. One that is capable high amps when needed but not constant, and of a loooong absorbtion mode---(not time regulated & then switches to either off or replace battery). The ideal one would still be a manual, digitally adjustable voltage, adjustable amp charger, at least IMHO.

The Odyssey 3x50 charger seems pretty darn good but not perfect. It is my best auto charger. My Tractor Supply rolling manual charger ( https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... _vc=-10005 ) is also super awesome. The rest of my chargers pretty much suck, 12.5v & thats it.

When did batteries & charging & maintaining them become so complicated ???

[TwinStick]

After mowing the lawn in this oppressive heat & humidity today, I went into the garage & sat under the fan for a while. While sitting there, right next to the Odyssey Optimizer charger, hooked up to the Cabela's x-900 & my camper battery, my volt meter was also handy, so i hooked it up & turned it on. After watching it for a while, i realized it was doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing..... imagine that.....something that actually works the way it is supposed to.

Even though it was reading 100% charged, it kept kicking on bank #1 (camper battery that started out at 84%). When off, it would slowly drop to 13.45, then the charger would kick on & read Lo amps. Volt meter would rise to 13.6-.7v when it was on, then slowly drop to 13.45 when it kicked off. Not sure if it will ever take a full charge again. Been on there for a few days now. Also a problem with campers, i have no idea what type of charging it is capable of for the battery ? Does it always charge when hooked up/plugged in, or does it shut off automatically when charged ? And, how do you tell if it goes bad.....other than it boiling the water out & toasting the battery for good ?

The trouble with MANY automatic chargers is: if the voltage is below a certain point, it just reads that as defective battery & says "replace battery". I have not had that happen yet with the Odyssey Ultimizer. Between my Tractor Supply "dumb charger" (It will charge regardless of voltage in dead battery) & my Odyssey Ultimizer (to help it absorb more voltage), it seems to work pretty darn good. On our last camper (2-Gp 24 Interstate deep cycle batteries), one was reading 6.7v & the other was reading 8v-when the solar controller failed & boiled all the water out over the winter. None of my other chargers were able to bring them back (2-Sears 1.5 amp trickle charger/maintainer/desulfator) just said to replace battery & so did my 2-Schumacher 1.5 amp trickle charger/maintainer/desulfator. I had to charge them for a while on the dumb charger, then i bought the Odyssey Ultimizer, hooked them both up & let them go for 2-3 weeks or so. In the end, they passed muster when we traded the camper in, reading between 12.8 & 13v when they checked them at time of trade.

Hopefully the chargers will continue to get better.

https://shop.odysseybattery.com/home/index/7457.0 ..............only single bank though for the new ones. Glad i got a triple bank when i could.

https://www.batterychargers.com/en/prod ... ry-charger .......Looks a LOT like the Odyssey's. https://www.batterychargers.com/en/prod ... ry-charger

Single bank chargers are a PITA when you have multiple batteries to charge.
My triple bank charger is a PITA to store, with all those cables. Also, i had to get & cut some hose to go over the battery clamp ends, so they don't touch +to- or between banks. It probably has protection built in but i am not sure.

[TwinStick]

After disconnecting the Odyssey Ultimizer charger & leaving batteries unhooked & alone for 2 days, the Gp 24 Exide wet cell dcycle camper battery dropped to 12.75v & the brand new (ok, 1 year old) X-900 Cabela's battery was reading 13.01v. So, once again maintaining 13.6 volts when unhooked from chargers still eludes me. They will read 13.6 while on the charger but not once they are unhooked & set for 2 days. No deep cycle battery that i have ever had would.

[Retired BLM Rig]

After disconnecting the Odyssey Ultimizer charger & leaving batteries unhooked & alone for 2 days, the Gp 24 Exide wet cell dcycle camper battery dropped to 12.75v & the brand new (ok, 1 year old) X-900 Cabela's battery was reading 13.01v. So, once again maintaining 13.6 volts when unhooked from chargers still eludes me. They will read 13.6 while on the charger but not once they are unhooked & set for 2 days. No deep cycle battery that i have ever had would.

I'm not sure about AGM batteries, but I was taught that 12 volt acid flooded batteries are only rated for 12.6 volts max charge at rest (6 cells at 2.1 volts per cell). Anything over that would be considered a surface charge that would disappear once any load was applied. I believe a battery that maintains 13.6 volts will continue to elude you until they develop a 13 volt battery.

One of the old school tricks when cars came with 6 volt batteries, was to install an 8 volt golf cart battery and adjust the voltage regulator a little higher. They would crank over and start better and the lights would be brighter. Ah the days of old before sensitive electronics. Anyhow, the only way I can think of to achieve a 13.6 to 14 volt system would be to connect a 6 & 8 volt battery together in a series circuit, you would end up with 14.7 volts at rest.