Battery

[habs10]

Anybody have any feedback on Odyssey batteries?

[VX KAT]

Anybody have any feedback on Odyssey batteries?

I'd never heard of Odyssey until you mentioned it. But when researching more on the Optima, I found a few posts on the Toyota 4Runner forum about it, thought I'd share it here. Don't know how accurate it is. ** Remember this is from a Toyota 4Runner forum so it's not pertaining to our VX...just some brief input on Odyssey batteries**

6/20/08 -So here is some interesting info I thought I would put here, as I did not read it in my searching. We have a Group 31 main battery. Typically they are used for commercial use (big rigs etc), and Marine applications, not light trucks. YEAH TOYOTA! Optima now makes batteries in this size, but typically they are special order, stores seem to carry the standard/original size Optima. I have provided the spec's for the stock battery, my Die-Hard (PC2150 essentially) and the Group 21 Optima Yellow Top.

Odyssey PC 1700
875 CCA
1700 CA
142 Minutes Reserve Capacity
68 Amp Hour or 3.4 amps for 20 hours

Optima Group 31 (Yellow Top D31T w/studs or the D31M Blue Top with posts & studs)
900 CCA
1125 CA
155 Minutes Reserve Capacity
75 Amp Hour Battery or 3.75 amps for 20 hours

Die-Hard Platinum (Essentially an Odyssey PC2150)
1150 CCA 2150 CA
205 Minutes Reserve Capacity
100 Amp Hour or 5 amps for 20 hours

Despite the hype the Odyssey 1700 is not better than the stock battery except for cranking power and construction type. It has 22 less amp hours, and 23 minutes less reserver capacity
The Proper Odyssey Battery would be the PC2150. Why buy it though when you can get a Die-Hard that is the same battery for less $$$?
The Optima's are a great battery, and perform better than stock by a lot (in the right Group 31 size) but are not the equal for the Group 31 Odyssey/Die-Hard Platinum
Marine Batteries are rate for deep cycle and for some reason are also rate to be able to be fully charged in less than an hour. Presumably this means they can take high current recharging better than standard battery's, or Yellow Tops even. They also seem to be rated to be able to be fully discharged 300 times in their life, where the other types will not tolerate this abuse, again not even Yellow Tops. I cannot remember/find again where I saw this in my searching but it was very interesting to me.
Reserve Capacity is the how long a battery will go dead (below 10.2 volts I believe) at a 25amp load. This essentially simulates how long you could run your car with lights on after the alternator dies. This is NOT a measure of a battery's deep cycle capability.
Amp Hours is a strange spec. It gives us an idea of hour much load is required to flatten a battery (again 10.2 volts I believe) in 20 hours. This is THE measurement of a Deep Cycle battery. If you take the Amp Hour Rating and divide it buy the 20 hours you can see the load it can handle to last 20 hours before it is dead. Look at the spec's above, the stock battery blows the Optima and Odyssey 1700 away. I found this very interesting.

Apart from the specs listed there is a far more important aspect to batteries, and that is how long it lasts and can handle abuse. Heat, discharging to low voltage, rapid charges up to 100A or more, etc. Odyssey is rated very highly on the abuse factor and I guess we will find out over time how good they really are for our application.

Bottom-line of what I learned, as long as we choose a battery that is over the 710CCA the stock battery had we should be focused on 2 things only. We want to get the most Amp Hours in a battery we can (for winching, fridges etc) and construction type (gel etc for durability in the abuse we give it). I hope this helps the next guy/gal.