Charging Hawker battery?

[Mouse]

Over the weekend I fitted a new battery to my GS, a Hawker Odyssey PC535. I've been reading in various places that you can't charge this battery with an Optimate charger, as the charger doesn't supply anough current.

Does anyone know if this is true? Is it the case that the Optimate won't charge this battery at all or will it just charge it very slowly? Is there a chance of actually damaging the battery by using the Optimate?

Cheers chaps

 

[sparkplug]

Hi Mouse,

I heard the same and I think Gecko explained it all at length somewhere but I don't remember exactly.

The long and short of it is that I haven't had the need to use a charger on the Odyssey in about a year and a half of having it. The bike lives outside and has never had any problems starting even when I've obly used it on short runs in the cold and dark (BTBR lights and heated grips blazing).

From what I can tell you tend to give your bike fairly regular use in all weathers so I just don't think this will be an issue. In fact you can probably sell your optimate now

 

[Rob Farmer]

I don't think the optimate will charge the hawker from a completely discharged state because of the lower charging current. I had a Hawker on my 1100, used with an optimate, without any problems.

 

[wessie]

I have an Optimate (one of the original ones) and used it to top up the Hawker battery when I first fitted it. It worked fine. I haven't needed to use the charger again as the battery has maintained a good charge since fitting it in Dec 2004.

This is from the makers of Odyssey batteries:
http://www.enersysreservepower.com/odycharg_b.asp

It states that a low current (0.6A) charger like an Optimate will be fine for keeping the battery charged e.g. to compensate for an alarm. However, it opines that you need a charger rated at 6A to recover a deep discharged battery.

 

[Mouse]

Thanks all - basically unless I somehow deep discharge the battery I don't need to worry

 

[Frank Warner]

Thanks all - basically unless I somehow deep discharge the battery I don't need to worry

Yep. If you do totally discharge it - put it in parallel to a car battery for 30 minutes - then charge it.

 

[Steptoe]

Read the information sheet that comes with the hawker battery -

All you need to know is on it