New Odyssey battery. What to do ?

[vents]

So I've got this brand new Odyssey 545 battery and it's reading 12.85v . The battery hasn't been installed yet . 

Should I connect a maintainer or not ?    

[fotoguzzi]

I would not. In all my years of owning oddesey batteries I don't remember  using any kind of charger.  I have a heated garage so over the winter the battery lasted just fine and fired them up no problem after maybe 3 months.

[po18guy]

There are threads about charging/conditioning the batteries. Here is he primary:

For an AGM, Odyssey batteries are rather idiosyncratic. They need like 6 amps to properly charge (very few charger-maintainers will do that). But Odyssey also recommends "conditioning" which means draining to almost zero and "immediately" recharging. Zero volts does not measurably damage the battery - it is the amount of time it spends at zero volts that cause damage. Think of it like breathing: you can completely exhale and immediately inhale with no harm Exhale and remain so for 10 minutes, well, that's quite another story.

Oh, and 15V is the max when charging or conditioning, so it is good to monitor the charge voltage. Not wanting to spend $200 on a charger, I modified a Schumacher wheeled car charger for motorcycle charging - manual/timed only. I added a 10AWG SAE connector so that it would carry the load without worry. 

Here is the "official" procedure for charging and reconditioning.

https://www.odysseybattery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ODYSSEY_Battery_Reconditioning_Charge_Procedure.pdf

[Lucky Phil]

12 hours ago, vents said:

So I've got this brand new Odyssey 545 battery and it's reading 12.85v . The battery hasn't been installed yet . 

Should I connect a maintainer or not ?    

Follow docc battery conditioning thread procedure. I leave mine hooked up to a trickle charger but only turn it on monthly for a day and then off again.

Ciao

[GuzziMoto]

As I recall, 12.85 volts for an Odyssey AGM battery is fully charged. So you should be fine installing it without topping it up. 

12.2 volts is 50% charged.

Charging voltage is higher than 12.85 volts, but at rest a fully charged Odyssey battery should be around 12.85 volts as I recall.

[kerowako]

To confirm, is Odyssey PC545 the right one for a V11?  Their website battery finder doesn't list V11, only California models.

[docc]

54 minutes ago, kerowako said:

To confirm, is Odyssey PC545 the right one for a V11?  Their website battery finder doesn't list V11, only California models.

Correct: PC545

[kerowako]

Thx docc!

[docc]

11 minutes ago, kerowako said:

Thx docc!

Usually they arrive about 50% (~12.50 volts) and should be "conditioned" prior to installation. Even a PC545 showing up 100% (12.84v), I would discharge it with a light bulb or such and monitor where the voltage stabilizes after 2-3 minutes, then after it fully recovers with no load (probably minutes to an hour). If below 12.65v,  apply 6 amps minimum until it reaches 15.0 volts maximum.

 

[vents]

The dealer charged it before I picked it up so who knows what procedure they used . I got a couple of rides in this weekend and it performed flawlessly . Just checked it and it's at 13.0 v .  It was 12.84 before I left . So far so good . Thanks guys!

[sunbeamtim]

Ok guys, battery quandary for the 2000 Sport. New bike , replacement fuel pump arriving today, and a US wide shortage of Odyssey batteries. One local supplier says he is getting some next week, so do I wait out the week/ten days to take new bike for a ride, or go for something cheaper ? The options are 15L batteries, one Powersonic, one Dekka, both AGM, both offering higher CCA than the PC545, both 1/16" wider, both way cheaper than the Oddyssey. 

[docc]

My vote is for the PC545. It's the battery you'll have for the next ten years.

[sunbeamtim]

Thanks Doc,thinking that  way too, but may go for the cheapest option first to keep as a spare for other things.That way I can have a play with bike this week,will see.Interestingly, the bike came with a PC545 of unknown age, the two previous owners had been having major issues with no power. Putting it on charge with a smart charger, the battery looked to work fine, but kept topping up. Left it on and it nearly exploded, blew up like a football. Battery guy tells me that that would indicate a bad cell, possibly from new. 

The bike, which had been a non runner for three years, started right up when hooked up the the larger Odyssey out of my Cali 1100.

Again, interestingly enough, I bought the Cali from a friend who had spent 1500 bucks chasing an intermittent total loss of electrical power over two years, I replaced the (red dog? mad dog ?) battery with Odyssey pc925 and it hasn't missed a beat in 20k miles.

[Gmc28]

5 hours ago, sunbeamtim said:

Thanks Doc,thinking that  way too, but may go for the cheapest option first to keep as a spare for other things.That way I can have a play with bike this week,will see.Interestingly, the bike came with a PC545 of unknown age, the two previous owners had been having major issues with no power. Putting it on charge with a smart charger, the battery looked to work fine, but kept topping up. Left it on and it nearly exploded, blew up like a football. Battery guy tells me that that would indicate a bad cell, possibly from new. 

The bike, which had been a non runner for three years, started right up when hooked up the the larger Odyssey out of my Cali 1100.

Again, interestingly enough, I bought the Cali from a friend who had spent 1500 bucks chasing an intermittent total loss of electrical power over two years, I replaced the (red dog? mad dog ?) battery with Odyssey pc925 and it hasn't missed a beat in 20k miles.

doesn't hurt to have that spare.  not necessarily the best cost option, for a diminishing/expiring part, but obviously nice to have on hand.  I use mine to power my clay pigeon flinger :-)

The MotoBatt i removed from my sons Gran Canyon did the same thing... was failing, then bike no-start, so i grabbed the bike from his place and brought it home and began an attempt at a revival process, but ultimately it also started to get hot and balloon, so i punted it and grabbed a new battery.  its also an AGM, and has a similar following as the Odyssey from bike (etc) enthusiasts.