lightweight battery - c90

[bgorelle]

Has anyone had good luck with a lightweight battery? The battery in my pa18-95 (c90) is toast. And wondered what I should be replacing it with? is the underseat mod worth doing? Looking for advice on what light batteries work the best, and if you know where to get them in Toronto area!

thanks!

[cubdriver2]

One of my friends uses one from a lawn mower from walmart without a generator and it starts about 40 times on one charge, 29.95 and it's 5 or 6 years old.

Glenn

[Tim]

Odessey

[bgorelle]

Odyssey 11-01945? 680 amps? I was looking at that one.. Then read some problems with cold weather? Love that its only 15lbs. Seems like a good choice as long as it works as it should!

Thanks

[Icarus]

Hawker Energy SBSJ16 APPROVED FAA PMAed direct replacement for the standard Gill battery which is $233 here & $189 here in Alaska for the Hawker. Put it in the stock battery box shim it with Non Conductive material ( ie wood, insulfoam) 14 lbs less so a minor W & B change & a logbook entry even in Canada eh!

[Ken Kennedy]

We have the Odyssey in our Cessna 180 and PA-11 and they are great.We do use a BATTERYMINDER on them which I think is a good idea(if you get one make sure its the one for the Odyssey) .We have a Supercub front seat in the PA-11 with the Atlee Dodge underseat rack and a B&C lightweight starter and love the setup.

[mvivion]

I've used Odyssey (made by Hawker Energy Products) lightweight batteries in a half a dozen or more airplanes, and much of that was in Interior of Alaska. Our cutoff for flying was -40 and I flew them in those kinds of temperatures. I never used a battery tender, never used a battery blanket, never had a problem. They are FAR more tolerant of cold temperatures than any other battery on the market, in my opinion and experience.

I have one in my personal plane, and wouldn't put anything else in any small airplane. They are great.

MTV

[ag-pilot]

What Mike said!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mine is 7 years old

dave

[StewartB]

Odyssey lists their shelf life of a fully charged battery at 2 years @ 77*F. That sounds right by my experience. And since AGM batteries don't sulphate up with occasional use the battery life is much longer than that of conventional flooded batteries. Battery Minders are not necessary with AGM batteries in my climate. I can store my plane outdoors all winter and the battery has full juice in the spring without any help. Repetitive discharging won't hurt an Odyssey, either. My Cessna alternator has been intermittent for years and my battery has survived it. I really can't understand why anyone would buy an old school flooded battery these days.

SB

[Crash]

I have a PC-925 Odyssey in my C-180.

During this years Iditarod I noticed that after about -32F it would lock up and not even throw the solenoid after it cranked a couple of times. Take it out, put it on the charger and it indicates fully charged. Warm it up a bit and it cranks like crazy.

I then put a small 60 watt battery pad (AIH) under it and plugged it in along with the plane at night (-37 below) and it worked like a champ the next day.

Found the same thing with my sat phone battery. When cold soaked they will only release about 10% of their power then lock up. Heat them up and they will run an hour. I try to keep mine in a pocket close to my body so it will work when I need it.

Crash

[mvivion]

Crash,

That's interesting. When we replaced the Husky battery with an Odyssey, the mechanics failed to replace the battery heater (battery was back aft-stock position). I never really noticed for some time. Worked that airplane out of villages in the Upper Yukon, and parked outside at overnight temps well below -40 and never had a problem.

There are two problems with batteries in cold temps: One is that they typically don't have much cranking power when cold soaked. Second, though, is if the battery never gets warmed up, it won't TAKE much of a charge from the alternator. That can be a real problem when you're outside every night, and the battery never gets warmed up. One reason I like the underseat battery, or one mounted on the firewall. Nevertheless, the three Odyssey batteries I ran in different Huskys in the Upper Yukon never gave any problems at all, even when cold soaked for week or more.

What you describe is sort of "normal" battery behaviour. Maybe I just got lucky and got one of the good ones.

MTV

[StewartB]

Interesting. A battery "locking up", that is. My Cessna has the Odyssey on the firewall and that's the plane that's seen the really cold temps. Certainly the battery benefited from engine pre-heating. I do keep on old Odyssey at the cabin for chores like transferring fuel and running a heater. I mounted a small Costso inverter to the side of a diesel torpedo heater so I can pre-heat my big gennie when the temps get cold enough. The Odyssey fires that heater just fine at -40*. Well, fine is a hard word to use for anything at -40. I've used that battery for two or three years now for chores and haven't needed to charge it. That's pretty good performance. I wish my solar battery bank would work so well in the cold.

FWIW, I also have an Interstate AGM battery that's about the same physical size as my Odysseys. It can't hold a candle to the Odyssey in any category.

Stewart

[WSH]

Crash,

I have a PC-925 Odyssey in my C-180.........Crash

Is it in the back or were you able to move it to the Firewall?

Looks like they offer an "upright" model, two actually, that would work in the engine compartment and lay more flush against the firewall.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc925series.htm


Thanks

Edited: actually, after some more investigation it looks like they all can be mounted in any orientation. Cool.

[Tim]

Anyone know if an odyssey 680 will take a charge after being fully discharged? I left the Master on yesterday, it's now dead and on the charger.

[sodak]

Tim
Charge it at 6 volts for Two hours, then at 12 volts should bring it back.

[Tim]

Thanks Deano, I'll try it

[skywagon8a]

Crash and MTV,
Is it possible that the difference in performance could be traced to the starter? Perhaps the starter in MTV's Husky was one of the new light weight low current draw models and Crash's starter was one of the old high draw types?

[Steve Pierce]

Tim, Did it work?

[cubdriver2]

Saw these at Oskosh

http://www.surfsidemoto.com/store/pr...C21130259.html

Glenn

[sierra bravo]

Odyssey technical manual attached. See page 13 for recovery of a totally discharged battery.

http://www.odysseybattery.com/docume...1_0411_000.pdf

[Tim]

Yes, Steve, it did work

[Steve Pierce]

Thanks Stewart and Tim.