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Battery Charger


Runtoeat

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I currently use a CTEK smart charger for my Odyssey battery. Recently, I bought another charger for my boat AGM batteries. This charger is also a smart charger. It can be put on a AGM battery and left indefinitely. This website is currently offering reduced shipping and also offers a $12 off coupon for the charger. Total price for the charger is $44.95 - $12 coupon +$7.50 shipping = $40.45 if I did my math correctly. Great price for a "set and forget" AGM charger that's temperature compenstated.

http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-products/g1100.html

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I purchased a larger model of this charger for a different purpose - the 3500. It does larger batteries but has a small AGM battery setting. The electronics and the way it cycles and maintains are impressive. Track down a manual on-line to see what I mean.

Doug

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Hi Doug. No need to convince me. I've studied most of these chargers and the CTEK and your NOCO Genius chargers are very similar in capabilities and both are impressive. My friend just purchased a new 'Vette and this came from the GM factory with an AGM battery and a CTEK charger to use for charging and maintaining the battery. I purchased the smaller NOCO to handle small watercraft AGM batteries and can use either this or the CTEK chargers for the Odyssey battery in my CTSW but these lighter duty chargers can also be used to maintain motorhome storage batteries. Truly "set and forget" chargers/maintainers.

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Appreciate the heads up Dick.

 

My charger went TU about 3 months in. Aircraft Spruce replaced it. The replacement lasted 13 months and they said too bad, it has a 1 YR WARRANTY.

 

Couldn't bring myself to buy another of that brand for $80, but just ordered one of these.

 

Thanks again :D

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I currently use a CTEK smart charger for my Odyssey battery. Recently, I bought another charger for my boat AGM batteries. This charger is also a smart charger. It can be put on a AGM battery and left indefinitely. This website is currently offering reduced shipping and also offers a $12 off coupon for the charger. Total price for the charger is $44.95 - $12 coupon +$7.50 shipping = $40.45 if I did my math correctly. Great price for a "set and forget" AGM charger that's temperature compenstated.

http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-products/g1100.html

It is a well done charger for that price but it isn't temperature compensated. Also can't leave it exposed to the elements.

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Kurt, you know electonics but the literature for the NOCO charger says "temperature compensated". This is a new charger for me and hasn't arrived yet so I haven't personally looked at it to verify. Also cannot verify if the NOCO is weather resistant. My CTEK 3300 seems to have circuitry which adjusts for ambient temps. It is weather resistant per the attached link. The CTEK was recently left out in the rain wile charging a lead-acid standard battery and it took a pretty good soaking with no ill effects noted.

My link

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The CTEK lowers power when the circuitry gets too hot, like many chips can do, but does not compensate the charge voltage for different temperature (or they would say so. It's a nice feature) The NOCO doesn't either. It has button where YOU can tell it to compensate for a cold battery if YOU think it is cold, whatever that means.

http://www.geniuschargers.com/images/dl/manuals/G1100_Multilingual_Manual.pdf

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Hi Kurt. Thanks for posting the manual for the NOCO. Looks like both chargers have a cold setting to charge standard and/or AGM battery. Although you indicate these don't have temp comp circuitry, so far my CTEK seems to do a good job maintaining my AGM battery. The more I try to understand batteries and chargers, especially the lithium batteries, the more complicated things seem to get. One thing I came away with after reading the manual for the NOCO is that the company is in Cleveland although I'm not sure if the charger is made here or China?

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I currently use a CTEK smart charger for my Odyssey battery. Recently, I bought another charger for my boat AGM batteries. This charger is also a smart charger. It can be put on a AGM battery and left indefinitely. This website is currently offering reduced shipping and also offers a $12 off coupon for the charger. Total price for the charger is $44.95 - $12 coupon +$7.50 shipping = $40.45 if I did my math correctly. Great price for a "set and forget" AGM charger that's temperature compenstated.

http://www.batterystuff.com/battery-products/g1100.html

i have a ctsw,, can anyone tell me why we have to keep the batteries on charge all the time,,, there are other light sport airplanes on the field,, they never plug thiers in & leave them for 3 or 4 weeks at a time between flying & they have no problem,,,, i have the oddessey in mine & i've owned this aircraft a little over a year & had to put 3 batteries in it,,,,, PLEASE HELP,,,

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Hi Mike,

 

We have 6 CT's at my field. The only guy that ever has battery problems is the one that leaves his on the Lockwood supplied battery charger for the Odyssey battery. I never put mine on a charger unless I'm gone for 3+weeks then it's on a timer for only 3-4 hours a day. Unless you have a battery drain from something then you should have no problem for 2-3 weeks at a time. Sounds like you need to find a darin problem.

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Hi Mike,

 

We have 6 CT's at my field. The only guy that ever has battery problems is the one that leaves his on the Lockwood supplied battery charger for the Odyssey battery. I never put mine on a charger unless I'm gone for 3+weeks then it's on a timer for only 3-4 hours a day. Unless you have a battery drain from something then you should have no problem for 2-3 weeks at a time. Sounds like you need to find a darin problem.

thank you ,,,,, you are right,, i did buy mine from lockwood,,, & yes they sold me that certain charger,,, i had the battery tested today and they said nothing wrong with it,,, 13.1 volts in it,,, then i put it back in my plane & it wouldn't turn????? the machanic said must be the amps... don't know much about it,, do you think that battery is gone??

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Mike, the information I have for the Odyssey battery is this has a tremendous shelf life. If left in a full charge state and if there is no equipment drain ocuring with the battery, my understanding is this battery can be left for months without charging. For peace of mind and since the "smart" chargers like the CTEK and NOCO will monitor and only charge a battery if it may get to a determined minum voltage state during storage, I keep my Odyssey on charge after each flight. My understanding is an AGM battery is a different animal compared to a lead-acid battery and the "smart" charger is designed to provide a higher maintenance charge. The CTEK or NOCO charger does absolutely nothing while connected to my battery normally because the battery has been kept fully charged by my engine generator and there appears to be almost no drain to my battery while the CT sits in my hangar. When connected to the battery after a flight, the charging light goes to "green" seconds after it has been connected and remains at this point during the times between my flights with no current input to the battery. Roger knows best with his "fleet" of CT's and the numerous CT's that he works on. It appears that when a CT is flown on a regular basis, there should be no need to have a charger connected to the battery. For me, I just keep the charger connected and for the past 3 years in high heat or sub zero cold my battery has been in a maximum state of charge when I go flying.

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  • 3 years later...

New things I'm learning about the CTEK and Noco chargers.  Recently, I had a "no start" with my CT.  Although my battery was on charge with my CTEK charger, it would not turn over my engine.  I put my battery on charge with my standard car charger for about 20 minutes and re-tried to start.  The motor turned over reluctantly at first but it did turn fast enough to start.  After flying and returning to my hangar, I checked the voltage with cables disconnected.  It showd 13.7 volts after the charging my CT gave the battery.   I tried a couple of restarts and these were quick and normal.  Reading the literature for both my CTEK and NOCO chargers, The literature seemed to indicate that neither of these chargers will go into full charge mode which takes a battery back up to 14+ volts until the battery voltage drops below 12.8 volts.  This didn't seem right to me but this is what the literature says,  All along I've thought that if my CT's charging circuit doesn't fully charge my battery due to a broken charging system or perhaps I've used too much equipment and didn't fly long enough for the system to bring the battery back up, I'll just put my charger on the battery when I put the plane away and it will correct this.  I'm apparently mistaken on this.  If the battery voltage has not dropped down to 12.8 or below, both the CTEK and NOCO will wait until the voltage drops below 12.8 before they go into a charge mode.  This means one could have a partially charged battery - say 13.0 volts, and neither charger would care.  Apparently my battery wasn't at or below 12.8 volts when I put it on charge and my CTEK didn't go into it's charge mode.  My battery wasn't charged much above 12.8 volts and I played with some instruments before starting the engine which further dragged the voltage down.  This is probably why I had a "no start".  Due to this, I called both companies their tech support verified that the chargers do not charge batteries with 12.8 or more voltage,  No switching into "full" charge to 14+ volts until the charger "sees" battery voltage below 12.8 volts. The one battery charger I have found recently which appears to provide a full 14+ volt charge to AGM batteries is the Battery Minder Plus Gel.  I have not personally verified this but say this based on the tech support person I spoke with stating "this charger will bring a AGM battery up to full 14+ volt charge irregardless of the battery's state of charge".

http://www.batterytender.com/Chargers/Battery-Tender-Plus-GEL-12V-1-25A.html

 

I would appreciate comments on this.  When it comes to batteries and charging them, it seems whenever I feel I'm starting to understand things, a curve is throw my way.

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I'm not sure I see a real problem here...12.8V should be enough to get the plane started.  Also, I'm not an electrical engineer, but some battery types don't "like" to be topped off to 100% after every minor discharge.

 

As a data point, I replaced my 7 year old Odyssey about 1.5 years ago.  I get in it and turn the key, it has never failed to start quickly and I have never put it on a charger between flights.  I do fly quite regularly, which is probably better than having the battery sit a couple of weeks between each flight.   

 

YMMV of course.

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12.8 volts is the open circuit voltage. When we load a battery, the internal resistance becomes a factor. If it's designed for a higher open circuit voltage and we don't charge high enough, then it will have a higher resistance when loaded due to the partial discharge.

 

The batteries that do not like to be constantly topped up are those that suffer from battery memory problems. Lead acid is not one of them, rather lead acid suffers from gassing problems when charged too rapidly at the end of cycle. This is why constant current chargers are bad towards end of cycle on lead acids.

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Andy and Corey, thanks for the replies.  What was confusing me was the open circuit voltage on my Odyssey was 12.8 volts after being charged and I thought the voltage for a fully charged AGM should be high 13 to low 14 volts, based on the normal "bulk" charge voltage being 14.4 to 14.7 for the CTEK and NOCO chargers.  This combined with the recommendation that we should have a charging system in our CT's that delivers 13.7 to 14.2 volts and I'm thinking our Odyssey batteries should show this level of voltage to be 100% charged.  I know that a "normal" voltage per cell of a lead acid battery should be in the 2.1 volt range but thought the AGM batteries had a higher charge density.  Not so I guess.  I read more about Odyssey batteries today and find that they should have the same "open circuit" voltage as a normal flooded battery of 12.6 to 12.8 volts to be considered 100% charged.  Looks like my CTEK and NOCO chargers are working OK.  The load test done on my 5 year old Odyssey indicates it doesn't have the original reserve so I will replace this with a new Odyssey I bought this week.

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12.8 volts is actually about 1/5th discharged for the SBS-8 battery (6 cells). 12.6 volts is about 70% of capacity.

 

Source

 

In my experience, these batteries don't seem to last more than 1-2 years in the high utilization that we have. Using noco chargers has certainly lengthened the life though by another year or so. The absolute worst enemy of a lead acid battery is cold weather and not being fully charged.

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Corey, thanks for the correction. Odyssey says 12.84 volts is "full" open circuit voltage per page 9 on the following link.  I this found this document to be educational and a good reference.  Some more pieces to the battery puzzle for me.

http://powers.media.mit.edu/wiki/upload/Odyssey-application-manual.pdf

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Corey, thanks for the correction. Odyssey says 12.84 volts is "full" open circuit voltage per page 9 on the following link.  I this found this document to be educational and a good reference.  Some more pieces to the battery puzzle for me.

http://powers.media.mit.edu/wiki/upload/Odyssey-application-manual.pdf

 

 

That sounds like they are talking about a charged battery still with a surface charge... 

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Bradley, the 12.84 is the voltage recommended after allowing the Odyssey to sit for 6 to 8 hours. As stated before I'll always be one step behind when it comes to battery knowledge but referring to the document I've provided a link to and looking at page 9 the 12.84 volts is shown as the state of charge (SOC) measured only after allowing the battery to sit with open circuit for 6 to 8 hours.

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