I chatted with Noco, and spoke to one person at CTEK. Odyseey - there is no contacting, not easily anyway.

1.) Odyssey Battery Canada - no longer exists. You have to buy through a distributor.

2.) Odysee Battery USA - Contact page no longer works. I have no idea how to get ahold of them. If you click on Contact us, It says 404 - Page not found.

3.) Great Northern Battery Systems were the ones who fullfilled my order when I bought through Odyseey Canada Web site. They were good to deal with. I spoke with a gentlemen there who has been doing this for over 25 years, he has Odyseey Extreme AGM batteris personally and uses a Noco 10 charger persoanlly with no issues. He does not know why Noco would not work.

4.) CTEK - I spoke with someone in their fullfilment department, and sent an email. The Gentlemen I spoke with does not know why their chargers are no longer on the approved list. He suggestted to send an email to CTEK nad Odysee, I am wating to hear back from CTEK. If i get a response, I will post it up. Other wise he said, Odysee is just a typical AGM battery, there should not be an issue with CTEK chargers unles they have rediesgned their batteries recently to something he is unaware of.

5.) NOCO - I chatted with Tech help throught their online chat service:
As far as he was aware, there should be no issues.
As long as the battery is within the reccomended amp hour capacity range, it should work without issue.
The amp hour capacity for the ODX-AGM65 is 74Ah.
The Nono Genius 10 is rated for up to 230Ah. Well withing range of the grp 65 battery.
The Noco Genius 5 is rated for up to 120Ah. Well within the range of the grp 65 as well.

He notes to ensure the battery being charged can accept the amp charge of the charge, ie 10 Amp. - Max charging current. I could not locate anything specified or the AGM65. If you get into their literature page, they have examples for their currrent C10 ratings etc, Im sure you can do the math.
I can only assume this battery will accpet 10 amps.. the alternator puts out 100+. (Or alternately 5 amps from the Noco Genius 5)


Im buying a Noco Genius 10 or 5. Its local at Canadian Tire.

I have also been using AGM batteries from Canadian tire (Walmart locally has good deals on batteries as well). In the future Ill just use the local Canadian tire AGM batteries. They have two line of AGM batteies. Their upper line (Motomaster Eliminator Extreme) look to me exaclty like rebranded Odyssey batteries, made with grey color casings. Ive used both type/lines of AGM batteries frm Cdn Tire, they both work well. Canadian tire is nation wide, even small towns.

The Odysee batteries will get topped off twice a year with the Noco, and how ever long they go is how long they go. The only reason I switched to AGM batteies is due to rough roads around here, and being off road at times - I have been told the AGM hold up / last longer - and they work better in the winter cold temps - which I beleive they acutaly do.

 

I would do three to four times a year,

 

I’ll keep that in mind Jack, thank you.

 

Big fan of the NOCO 10x2

 

Did you mean NOCO10? I just want to be sure because I'm about to take your advice and buy one.

 

LOL - sorry. Yes, NOCO Genius 10. I'll correct the post! That 2 bank one Chris posted above is nice!

 

As far as the 2X charger. living in S Texas I hope I don't need that much charger. And I'm about to embark on upgrading the battery cable system which should help things too. I'm actually struggling a bit on that front because there is a LOT of information and I'm having problems sorting through it for a basic solution. But I'll get there...

Do you have any battery warmer blankets/pats/systems you recommend? As far as cold starts, it seems to me the battery temp is a lot more important than the charge level. Of course I realize they are related but I can have the battery full charged and cold and it still struggles. Yet above 50 deg it can sit for a week and start right up.

 

Battery temps are a big factor, but it's hard to say they're more important than the charge level. I showed how to use them in my one alternator video. I think they are more effective than the block heater in getting rpm and a quick start out of the engine, but depending on the circumstance, both can be used.

Laying out an improved cable layout isn't that complicated, and starting from scratch is better than using the layovers. However, when the original cables are still good, the layovers are an economical choice unless you want to use a popular version, which is poorly designed—well designed if you're the seller $$$.

I'll start the video at the relevant point.

 

I haven't ever used battery warmers. Maintaining SOC is important for battery longevity. Even if the engine starts fine with a discharged battery, that might not be the best thing to do for the batteries.

 

I have now been driving a 6.0 in Texas for 10 years. I have had upgraded cables, including the 1/0 block ground and 6 gage FICM grounds for five years. I have always used conventional SLA's and despite the cabling and opting for a stock 6.0 starter (which doesn't draw down the battery as much as the 6.4 and 6.7 starters) my batteries typically last 2-2.5 years. The only noticeable difference the cables made is that now the batteries die at about the same time.

It has been suggested to put the batteries on a trickle charger every 6 months to increase longevity, which I am going to start doing with these Walmart units that were replaced under warranty only a few months ago. I don't know what else to do, besides buy AGM's next time, and continue to trickle charge them every 6 months.

 

Three to four times a year is what I do.

 

Nobody ever accused you of being an under achiever, Jack.

 

My 2016 Walmart 850 batteries are still good in my truck ... it seems to be working. I've never had these results before.

 

So I should only maybe go through the block ground connection and be sure it's clean at least? And not do the cable upgrades? I keep the batteries charged pretty well and really haven't experienced any short battery life problems. But my fear is as the truck ages a hard start with low voltage will damage some of the some fickle electronics in this system.

 

The first thing to do is go all through your grounds. Next, I would add an 8ga cable between the driver's negative terminal and the grounding point by the hood strut on the driver's fender. The rest depends on the condition of the existing cables.