What kind of charger for a Odyssey PC680?

[RiP]

I am planning on replacing my 2002 R1150RT battery with a PC680. I have used a floating charger in the winter on the original battery since I bought the bike. I am wondering if I can use the same charger on the Odyssey?

 

Thanks.

[No_Twilight]

Avoid the special super whammerdyne chargers that are designed to extract maximum impact on your wallet. Don't believe anyone that will tell you that you NEED a different charger for each battery. When you put your bike in the garage the battery is charged so the float function is all that really matters. I use the Harbor Freight $8 ones on my car but many BMW owners find that to be a little TOO thrifty so I noticed the Battery Tender Jr in the store the other day. Street price is less than $30 and it has a nicely VOLTAGE regulated 13.2 volt float. It'll keep your battery happy.

 

The odyssey has much less self discharge than old fashioned batteries and if you ride it once/month you won't need a charger.

 

--Jerry

[Deadboy]

Use what you have...their is no "special" charger required for gel batteries regardless of what the dealer tells you.

[Eric563]

You might look here to see what Odyssey has to say: http://www.odysseyfactory.com/odycharg_c.htm I note that their recomended charging and float voltages are higher than what might be commonly found.

[Ken H.]

It's been mentioned here before, but what it boils down to is your bike doesn't know what battery it is in it, and charges them all the same when you are riding. Why should you need to do anything different when it's sitting in the garage?

[BucksTherapy]

I have had a PC680 for two winters and have found no need to charge it at all. I am in New Brunswick Canada and our winter lay up is at least 4 months and nomally 5. I test the battery voltage every 60 days to see if it needs a charge but there has been less then 1 volt lost in four months. The dry cell technology is definitely superior to the gel or wet wrt leak down has been my experience.

 

I would put a meter on it every so often and if it drops below 12.5 volts give it a charge.

 

PS this is heated storage.

[RFW]

When you put your bike in the garage the battery is charged so the float function is all that really matters.

...and it is the FLOAT function that is what kills batteries if the float voltage is even a little in error. Flooded cell batteries, AGM (or "valve regulated") batteries and gel cells ALL have slightly different float voltage requirements. Gel cels in particular can be perminently damaged by even a couple of tenths of a Volt error in float voltage if left unattended for a long time.

 

I used to work for company known for its marine and RV chargers and inverter chargers, and all our chargers/inverter chargers had a way to select the battery type, and also the float voltage thus selected was temperature compensated. It WAS critical. In fact, we strongly recommended never to float a gel cell, since any gassing that may occur from a slithly high float voltage, will end up with entrapped gas in the gel, and reduced battery capacity as a result. AGM batteries (like the Odyssey is), are a little more tolerant, but water loss can still result and is hard to replace.

 

But floating a motorcycle or car battery for months at a time is pointless. All you need to do is top it up with a short charge every 3 to 5 weeks. after all, it will not lose significant charge in this short time.

 

Bob.

[No_Twilight]

That's one thing I like about the battery tender jr. It has a low float voltage of 13.2. I did more talking to people after our last discussion and got some opinions that the 13.5 to 13.8 number that I had was slightly high. I think the 13.2 is a good number, but opinions keep changing, including mine.

 

I like your suggestion and someone else's suggesion to check the voltage every once in a while and give it a quick charge if low. If you're using a charger w/o an automatic float just make sure you don't forget and leave it hooked up.

 

Cheers,

Jerry

[RFW]

If you're using a charger w/o an automatic float just make sure you don't forget and leave it hooked up.

Yeah ...been there and done that! Finally solved the problem by plugging the charger into a $8.00 timer.

 

Bob.