AGM and GEL Battery charging

BillN · Aug 10, 2017

I have always used an Optimate charger for the PC 680 ...... and for any other Bike or Car Battery that I have
Occasionally I have used just a "normal" standard car battery charger

A few questions:

Is this still the recommended way, particularly for GEL batteries
Is the Optimate now out-dated as a Charger

Has anyone recover a deeply discharged PC680 using the "connect to a normal battery" and then charge thru that method ........ I could only get a PC680 up to about 10v .. which is effectively "flat" using this method

ChasF · Aug 10, 2017

Sounds like you have a dead cell on the PC680. This happened to mine after only 10 months.

wessie · Aug 10, 2017

Which Optimate? There are 6 versions.

3 and above will charge AGM/gel batteries from fully discharged

1 & 2 will top up a battery but won't recover a deep discharged battery - I have a 2 and a 4.

scarf100gs · Aug 10, 2017

I have a 26Ahr golf trolley AGM battery bought from ebay 7 years ago.(about £48 now) It has started the 100gs every spring after winter layoff with no maintenance/trickle charging whatsoever but this year it wouldn't spin the engine. I hooked it up to my old (25years) car battery charger set at low(around 2A) for 12 hours which seemed to do the trick and it has been fine since. I think the idea is to not give them too much current as they can overheat. The AGM voltage was just under 12v but it wasn't flat, I think yours is so you may have a problem.

BillN · Aug 12, 2017

wessie said:
Which Optimate? There are 6 versions.

3 and above will charge AGM/gel batteries from fully discharged

1 & 2 will top up a battery but won't recover a deep discharged battery - I have a 2 and a 4.

thanks Wessie - all mine are Optimate lll's

wessie · Aug 12, 2017

then, if you cannot get the battery over 10V you have, as suggested above, a dead cell in the battery

scarf100gs · Aug 12, 2017

Your Optimate3 charger should be fine for Lead Acid Batteries in AGM and WET form but I am unsure about GEL as they need a lower charging voltage, best consult the manufacturer. Your PC680 /AGM should be fine even with your standard car battery charger but keep checking the charge state and remove when charged. Using the connecting in parallel to a standard battery method this site may help https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/support/charging/resuscitate-deeply-discharged-battery: :thumb2

Beemerboff · Aug 13, 2017

They are all different, so go to the manufacturers site, or read the instructions in the box!
FWIW Odyessy suggest a 6 AH charger for airhead small batteries , Motobatt I think are even higher, read 10 AH somewhere to recover a flattened battery.
You also need a charger with an specific curve IEE or something obscure.
Link to tech information on Odyessy is on Boxerworks forum, R65 battery topic.

Deleted account 191119001 · Aug 13, 2017

Optimate 4 is the way to go, but in all fairness when a battery starts throwing wobblies, dump it and get a new one, otherwise it will let you down at the wrong place.

AGM and GEL Battery charging

BillN

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ChasF

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wessie

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scarf100gs

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BillN

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wessie

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scarf100gs

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Beemerboff

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Deleted account 191119001

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