Sea-Doo® Personal Watercraft Installations
Sea-Doo® personal watercrafts tend to transfer an electrical load to the battery while in storage. Be confident that your ODYSSEY® battery can handle it. However, if not properly maintained, you may not get the top performance from your ODYSSEY battery. Read on to ensure your ODYSSEY battery is at its best at all times.
Issue – This brand of watercraft experiences an electrical load on the battery during storage, caused by a control module monitoring the lanyard socket. If the lanyard is left installed the electrical drain is 18 ma after 10 minutes of shutting down the engine. If the lanyard is removed, the electrical drain is 7 ma. These electrical loads are continuous and can accumulate to be significant over time. At 18 milli amps, the battery will lose 1 amp/hour of capacity in 55.5 hours or 10 amp/hours (Ah) in 23 days. On a PC 625, 10 Ah is 59% of battery capacity.
Solution – For Sea-Doo watercraft always disconnect the lanyard from its socket when not riding the watercraft. Install a waterproof disconnect switch and/or an approved battery charger to help maintain a full charge on the battery. Check your ODYSSEY battery voltage periodically for full charge, which is 12.84V. Recharge whenever below 12.65V.
ODYSSEY Short Service Life in Custom V-Twin Motorcycles
Issue – The increasing popularity of the custom V-twin motorcycle with its big inch engine and high power starting requirement has introduced a new operational issue. New ODYSSEY batteries and other brands initially provide good starting power, but in a short time of use have no or poor starting power and appear to have prematurely failed.
Factory analysis of warranty returned batteries indicate these batteries have not failed and do not have factory defects. Batteries with this type of performance are at low charge levels only!
Cause - The custom bike requires 2 ½ times the starting power of stock HD engines, but have the same size battery and same 32 amp charging system. The custom bike is generally a short mileage in-town rider, with insufficient driving mileage to recharge the battery. V-twin charging systems only develop enough power to run the motorcycle until engine rpm is above 2,000, when excess power is diverted to charge the battery. Full charged ODYSSEY battery voltage is 12.85 volts. ODYSSEY Batteries with less than 12.40 volts cannot reliably start big inch engines.
Solution – ODYSSEY Batteries are a military grade design and mechanically indestructible. Military design prevents shorted cells and vibration damage. They provide deep-cycle reserve and high starting power. Use a 12V, 6A (OBC 6amp) or 12V, 12A (OBC 12amp) ODYSSEY charger with dealer or owner installed quick disconnect harness to maintain ODYSSEY at full charge for maximum performance and life. Always connect the charger to battery first, then plug into the AC wall socket. Always unplug from the AC wall socket before disconnecting from battery. Charger will not over-charge as it switches to storage charge after recharging. Consistent use of the ODYSSEY charger will assure trouble free starting power, with 4-8 years of ODYSSEY service life.
Use of the PC680 series in a car
The PC680 / PC680Mj / PC680MJT with it’s full sized battery starting power can be a great way to save weight or space in your vehicle for racing or battery relocation. There are, however, some areas that need to be addressed.
The PC680 series of batteries has plenty of starting power, but because of its small size it can have only 28 percent or less of the reserve capacity of a typical 4 cylinder car battery. Prolonged storage of vehicles with fuel injection computers, alarms, GPS and other electrical devices that require continuous battery power to support active memories will quickly drain a PC680. This power drain must be offset with a maintenance-float charger, periodic charging or disconnecting the battery to prevent irreversible damage.
Warranty issues:
The PC680 series of batteries comes with a 2 year warranty. There are however, two issues with the PC680 and the manufacturers warranty.
1. The warranty does not apply if the battery is used for an application that requires higher cranking power or a greater reserve rating than the battery is designed to deliver, or the battery capacity is less than the battery capacity specified by the vehicle manufacturer, or the battery is otherwise used in applications for which it was not designed. There are no instances where a battery the size of a PC680 is a car manufacturers recommended replacement
2. The previously mentioned battery drains which are not properly compensated can cause low voltage. A battery with an open circuit voltage (OCV) of equal to or less than 10.0V will be deemed as over discharged and will void the warranty due to misuse and/or neglect.