bart1

This one doesn't hold a charge well anymore, would last a few days hooked up on the 993. I would recommend it for a racecar or at least occasional use car with a battery disconnect. Very small and lightweight. I had this one about 3 years and bought another to replace it.

$50 shipped?

IXLR8

Bart, that is a very short life for a battery claimed to last by the manufacturer.

I know Costco no longer carries them for that reason. That bit of info came from their buyer for automotive products.

bart1

Probably my fault. It was a weekend use car and I let it go completely down a few times. Also, was charging it with a Battery Tender Jr. Big no-no according to Odyssey. I bought a new charger when I got the new 925 (at a good dicount directly from Odyssey).

FWIW, I had a friend who built ambulances. They tested all manner of batteries because you don't want a failure there, for sure. They used Odyssey.

IXLR8

Provided the charging system and the voltage regulator are matched to the battery, sure. The problem is, it is set to low in most cars. My 993 cuts off at 14.1V. That is even a tad low for the FLA battery I am using. But they'd sooner slightly undercharge than slightly overcharge.

The Toyota's charging system which I tested regularly was set right for the OEM battery...that battery lasted 18 years, the last I heard after selling the car when it was 16 years old. Same for my present Honda DD; that battery is now in its 13th year. Both OEM batteries were/are Panasonic.

IXLR8

What make and model?

It gets quite hot in AL. I hope the charger compensates for temperature as you may be overcharging it, if not. And VRLA type batteries should never be overcharged...well no battery should, but at least you can top-up FLA batteries if needed.

Mark in Baltimore

The best charger to get for an Odyssey battery, IMO, is the SOLAR PL2208 Pro-Logix 8 Amp charger sold on Amazon for about $75. It's on Schumacher's approved battery charger list, is completely silent and can be used for standard batteries. I bought (and returned) the Odyssey Ultimizer OMAX-25A-1B, which is the Odyssey charger that has a cool, digital display showing battery health. It's a gem of a unit, but it has an annoyingly noisy fan (can draw in dirt/dust/moisture), can't be used for any other battery other than an Optima or an Odyssey and is approximately $140 (can't recall exactly what I paid, but it wasn't cheap).

IXLR8

I can't comment on it, Mark, but one thing is for sure regarding most battery chargers having done a lot of testing at work on various makes and models, its like snake oil and the charger manufacturers are as good as oil additive companies at making claims. So buyer beware.

I would suggest to anyone who cares about battery life, that they get the battery manufacturer's very detailed charging instructions. Those would include voltages during charging and float at various temperatures, charge rate, etc. This page has tables for both VRLA AGM and GEL East Penn batteries, for example.

Then I'd get charger specifications and those are usually extremely vague.

We at work found the Xantrex Truecharge 2 to be very good. It has so many user selectable features; unfortunately, not for $75.

Mark in Baltimore

Understood, but why would Schumacher have a limited approved list that encompasses other charger manufacturers if they haven;t actually tested anything? I spoke to a few people at Schumacher, and the information that they provided to me made me feel that they knew what they were talking about. The short story is that if they haven't actually tested a charger to show that it properly charges one of their batteries, then they can't recommend it as being effective, an approach that makes total sense to me.

I killed my first Odyssey battery by using a cheap Sears charger on it. I had no idea the battery was so finicky, but I like the idea of not having any battery acid spillage.

bart1

I think this is the same as the Odyssey unit (thier OEM is Schumacher, at least) and it is what I use now.

IXLR8

Maybe they tested it or maybe they just believed the manufacturer's specifications.

I tested quite a few chargers and they did not meet the manufacturers specifications.

Do you remember that Save-A-Battery charger on here. It "load tests" your battery...wow...at a whole 20 watts. Now, as far as the average consumer is concerned...it load tests a battery. Fact: hardly.

You can easily confirm numbers using a DMM.

Odyssey claims long life; you should be getting that by following their recommendations.