Odyssey PC545 Battery conditioning

[Gmc28]

6 hours ago, po18guy said:

Have been checking into LiFePO4 batteries. Was concerned about the Lithium ion "Tesla"effect in which everything within a 50 meter radius is suddenly incinerated. However, I found a Colorado company called Earth-X that assembles their batteries in the US. They have achieved FAA certification for use in aircraft, so that must amount to something. 2 year full replacement warranty. Even though $$$, I decided to bite the battery and order one. 

   Very small, and light, as expected. 13.65v as delivered. Took some cranking to blow the cobwebs out, but once it fired off, all was good. Definitely starts faster than the Yuasa AGM that was dying. And apparently, as the battery type has more cranking amps as it warms up(?)

   All new stuff to me, but anything that starts the V11 and lightens it up is OK with me.

I have 2 of those earthX batt’s now.  well, actually one, as a failed relay on my 1200 Duc killed one of them, barely out of the starting gate, with me returning to my bike i had stored down south to find the voltage at around 1.4V.  that story is told elsewhere, but a sure scientific sign that Murphy loves to have a laugh…. spend the big bucks, high-five for how great it seems to turn out, then an apparently known Duc (service bulletin, unbeknownst to me) issue kills it.  But the 1st one is in the V11 and I am indeed quite fond of it, for its small size and lovely cranking power. 

I’ve now inherited a 2nd “no name” li-ion battery, and so far so good, which is newer territory for me.  because of the aforementioned concerns with li-ions i’d been sticking with highly rated ones when i’m buying new, but i’ve got 2 cheap/no-name brand li-ions now in different bikes i purchased used, and they’ve been great.  in fact, a 3rd one, actually a big-name unit (brand escapes at the moment…) is from 2018, and its still going strong (in KTM 990, but removed it when i sold the bike), so thats a single data point for longevity. 

Doc, where’d you find a PC545 for $148?

[docc]

2 hours ago, Gmc28 said:

Doc, where’d you find a PC545 for $148?

West Coast Batteries, Corona, California, USA

https://odysseybatteries.com/

https://odysseybatteries.com/odyssey/pc545.html

 

[gstallons]

IIRC , I got one at Auto Zone a while back and I thought it was a reasonable price . 

[footgoose]

Amazon seems to have it. free ship if you're a Prime member

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097YXY9GC/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

[Lucky Phil]

Here's something I just learned that might be of interest to all the Battery Geeks here, ahem docc are you there

A restart feature.

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+built+in+jump+start+battery+feature&oq=what+is+the+built+in+jump+start+battery+feature&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKAB0gEJMTM4OTJqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[audiomick]

28 minutes ago, Lucky Phil said:

A restart feature.

 

That's a good trick. Probably won't save you if the battery is really knackered, or if the charging system is faulty, but will protect you from you own stupidity if you're prone to forgetting to turn off the lights when you park the bike.

[docc]

On 3/8/2025 at 1:26 PM, docc said:

West Coast Batteries, Corona, California, USA

https://odysseybatteries.com/

https://odysseybatteries.com/odyssey/pc545.html

 

Delivered today, seven days from the order placed last Friday after business hours.

[docc]

On 3/14/2025 at 9:08 PM, docc said:

Delivered today, seven days from the order placed last Friday after business hours.

Odyssey ODS-AGM15L ("PC545") arrived at 12.68v, just above the recommended 12.65v charge threshold.

Discharged with a 55 watt lamp to 12.18v and charged with 10 amps to 15.0v (only a few minutes).

Enersys Optimizer for two hours stabilized at 13.41v. Installed in mySport and discharged with lights to 12.40v.

Then 24 hours on the Enersys Optimizer to "bulk charge" and stabilize at 13.56v.

I'm calling this new battery "conditioned."     

[Ratso88]

OK, wow!

Over a year and I’m just getting to update on my PC545 battery.

So, it was 12 years old. Just about as much as you can expect.

I replaced with a NOCO Lithium of approximately the same physical size.

I’ve had no issues at all with the NOCO. Starts right now! Even after sitting all winter.

I would recommend this battery as a good option, not inexpensive though.

[Gmc28]

hopefully i’m not straying too far from the OP’s thread title when i add a couple more non-Odyssey notes:

Have been unable to get one of my Odyssey back to holding a charge, using the simple version of the discharge and charge cycle process noted here. Worked for another one, but i’ve got one approx 10yr old that isn’t responding well.  I may need to read further to get beyond the caveman version of the process I had been using. 

but then, 2 Li-ion notables:  one back from the dead (maybe old news to some, but was new for me), and another one performing after 8+ years…

As noted elsewhere here, myself and Murphy combined to create the perfect snake-eyes roll, when I put a new Earth-X battery in my 1200 Duc, which after cringing at what i paid for it, then after riding it for about a week and leaving it down south at a friends place, had a relay failure causing a complete discharge of the expensive Li-ion Earth-x, down to 1.4 volts.  To use the scientific term, killed it deader-n-hell.  After replacing it with regular Batteries Plus sourced AGM (all i could find locally there) I looked at the Earth-X forlornly on the bench for the last several months.  It wouldn’t take a charge from any of the various chargers I have, not surprisingly, but including my old-school bulk charger.  But then I got a reminder/tip from one of our A&P’s at work:  jumper the battery with another charged battery, then connect the smart charger.  The smart charger will see enough voltage from good battery to begin its process, then disconnect the good battery, and see what happens.  I did it out in the gravel driveway, as there was no guarantee things wouldn’t get out of control on the batt temp.  But voila… it’s back.  holding full voltage for several days now.  (will load test it later this week)

Then, one of the old riding mowers battery died.  On a lark I popped in an old Shorai Li-ion I had on the bench, which I had pulled out of my KTM 990 about 7 yrs ago, to replace it with an Odyssey, to make it, in my mind, more reliable for shipping it off to alaska for several years.  that Shorai was in used condition when i bought the bike, and had been drained down to around 8v due to another issue on that KTM which took me years to find (via half-assed efforts, admittedly).  I had charged it back up, but assuming that from such a deep discharge, and being old, that its days were numbered. But it held a charge nicely, and used it for little projects over the years.  Now, at least 8yrs later,  popped it into the old riding mower, and it worked like new.  A couple of cold and warm starts on the old Briggs & Stratton were better then ever (lots of CCA on that Shorai).   I don’t know how the charging system on the mower will treat the Li-ion, so i’ll be watching that.   but a somewhat interesting data point regarding life span on an old Li-ion that had seen some abuse. 

[footgoose]

I bought a bike with a 2 y/o Shorai in 2018. I removed it and it's been on the bench since, untouched. Tested it 3 mos ago during my move to see if I should pitch it. 13.1v

 

I did throw out a 10 y/o Odyssey that went to 4v and wouldn't take a charge. Wish I'd known your 2 battery hack.

[Tomchri]

My 1100 Sport came with a Litium Exide. Been storing it in a ammo box during winther. Told my battery guy, you can have it, give me an AGM. Still skeptical. A reminder 4months ago, a known guy with plenty of toys, including 76 Le Mans ++, everything up in flames. Don't need that on my mind.  If only 1 dissaster in 5mill batterys, still not interested. Yeah yeah probably wrong, but my decision .

Cheers Tom.

[gstallons]

along these lines , this mechanic's forum I belong to. This guy posted about leaving these power tool batteries on the charger. There were about 5 or 6 guys that knew about shops going up in flames and the battery/charger were found to be the inspiration for the fire.  Now , when the green light comes on / the battery comes off !

[docc]

9 hours ago, Gmc28 said:

hopefully i’m not straying too far from the OP’s thread title when i add a couple more non-Odyssey notes:

 

We have long needed to have a separate Lithium battery thread. It would be quite a task to separate the appropriate posts here and not leave the existing thread discontinuous. 

With deference to the Original Topic, conditioning an Odyssey PC545 by replacing it with a Lithium ion battery is like servicing your V11 SpineFrame by taking the license plate off and backing a different bike up to it . . .

[Gmc28]

14 hours ago, docc said:

We have long needed to have a separate Lithium battery thread. It would be quite a task to separate the appropriate posts here and not leave the existing thread discontinuous. 

With deference to the Original Topic, conditioning an Odyssey PC545 by replacing it with a Lithium ion battery is like servicing your V11 SpineFrame by taking the license plate off and backing a different bike up to it . . .

Or i think i’ll put the license plate on one of my odyssey batterys.  Like a harley… larger and with less power, but thats ok because it’s heavy too!