Odyssey Battery & Accumate Charger

[Krismuss]

Are they compatible?

 

Just reading the 'blurb' on my new battery and Motor Works (battery supplier) recommend a CTEK charger rather than a constant current charger.

 

Is my newly purchased Accumate suitable?

 

(yes I will check tomorrow with Accumate tomorrow )

 

Chris

 

my caterham blackbird

 

 

[Mike Molloy]

Been doing some research on this as my Odyssey is fcuked...

 

Accumate = 1.2A max.

From Odyssey Tech Manual:

"Low power 2.0 amp chargers for storage charge will keep a fully charged battery fully charged but cannot recharge if the ODYSSEY battery becomes discharged."

 

Light reading:

here, and

here

[Krismuss]

Cheers Mike,

 

Read the bumpf and may have to get one of these:

 

here

 

(the one at the top)

 

Unless anyone else knows different.

 

Chris

 

my caterham blackbird

 

 

[Shaun_E]

The CTEK and Accumate work in the same way for the main charging cycle. They both charge at a constant current until a preset voltage is reached at which point they swap to a constant voltage until the battery is charged. They appear to differ in the way they deal with sulphation and the way they maintain the battery once charged. The CTEK uses pulses in both cases whereas the Accumate uses high voltage if sulphation has occured and in maintain mode it just repeats the bulk charging stages until the required voltage is reached.

An Accumate will work well with an Odyssey battery as will a CTEK.

 

Yellow SL #32 - member of Drowned Rat Racing

[Mike Molloy]

From one of the documents above:

"Another class of chargers is designed specifically to maintain a battery in a high SOC. These chargers, normally in the 3/4 amp to 11/2 amp range, are not big

enough to charge a deeply discharged ODYSSEY battery. They must only be used either to continuously compensate for parasitic losses or to maintain a trickle

charge on a stored battery, as long as the correct voltages are applied. It is very important, therefore, to ensure that the ODYSSEY battery is fully charged before

this type of charger is connected to it."

 

So the Accumate (and my own "Optimate") are not quite man enough for the job if your battery is even partially flat...

 

Oooh, just figured out the calculation...

"C10" is the "10-hour" battery capacity in Ah.

My PC535 is rated at 13Ah, so C10 = 13Ah.

The graph for Odyssey charging shows the initial phase ("Bulk Charge") has to be at a *minimum* of 0.4*C10 = 5.2A.

Ergo I need a 6 amp charger (or larger).

 

The bumf says:

"Note the charger current in the bulk charge mode must be 0.4C10 or more."

But it doesn't explain why!

 

 

 

Edited by - Mike Molloy on 28 Oct 2008 14:01:19

[Krismuss]

Mike,

 

I came to the same conclusion too i.e. Accumate & CTEK not enough 'oomph' to recover deep discharge.

 

Sadly can't find Odyssey's own chargers for sale in the UK though the link above seems to offer a similar 3 stage unit with 2.7A charging current.

 

Chris

[Ian B]

here

 

---

Ian - Slightly Vider SVelte model 😬

[Mike Molloy]

I was attracted to the Odyssey by the claims that it would withstand long periods of storage with no detrimental effects. I thought with the FIA switch pulled it would happily endure winter storage.

Unfortunately my battery doesn't seem to have lived up to the claimed "8 - 10 year life"!

My fault, I guess, as I let it discharge too far (due to infrequent use of the car) and then tried to charge it with my weedy Optimate. When that didn't work I used a higher current charger, but must have inadvertently damaged the battery as it no longer behaves as per spec.

Ho hum.

Anyhow, lesson learnt and time to buy a pukka charger!

Looks like only the most expensive one from Powervamp meets the "3-stage" and ">6A" requirements...

 

Once again it looks like you have to keep on top of your trickle charging if you want to leave the battery connected when the car is stored (e.g. to power alarm/immobiliser etc.)

 

Edited by - Mike Molloy on 28 Oct 2008 15:51:10