Apollo AV-2 14ah batteries? where to get.

[MitchFtLaud]

I've seen pairs of batteries taped together to make a 14ah battery for the Apollo AV-2 but can't seem to find a pair of 12v 14ah batteries with the right dimensions to make one. Does anyone have one that they share the brand and model number off of the battery with us please? I know I can buy one already made, but I hate to pay $400 for a battery I know I can make myself for less than half that. Thanks and if anyone else is curious about the puzzle battery compartment is about 6.9 inches, by 5 inches by 6.5 inches.

Thanks.

[jamesb]

Two Odyssey PC 545 taped together fit perfectly. More expensive, 12 AH, but much stronger than cheap batteries. They last 55 minutes continuous and I get over 200 cycles from them.

[MitchFtLaud]

Thank you, this is why I love this place!

[darkriver]

Does anyone know of any other options or any other battery combinations for an Av2 (that will fit) without this metal thing they have on there stock batteries.I normally dive like 3 dives a day and to own $900.00 worth of batteries, just doesn't make good sense to me. I've had an Av1 for a long time and never had to own more than about $250.00, in 3 batteries and could run it from daylight to dark.. almost.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

[MitchFtLaud]

I cut a piece of thin square wood the size of the bottom plate of the frame and duct taped my two battereis to that. I had to add a 2lb weight to get the same bouyancy as the metal framed battery set and add a piece of foam on top, but it works just as well as the factory one with metal frame. Total cost was two 12ah batteries, scrap wood and tape.

[Jon Nellis]

Try Batteryspec.com for SLA batteries. I've purchased a number of batteries from them over the years and have always received good units that lasted as long as they should have or longer.

TD14-12   Tempest Deep Cycle AGM, 12V 14Ah

Cheers,
Jon

[MitchFtLaud]

Thanks for the heads up, it dosn't look like two of those batteries would fit in an Apollo, but it looks like a good site for batteries in general.

[jamesb]

I have been using a special order battery assembled by Tenergy.com made up of 40 NiMH D cells with spot welded connectors configured into 24 volts and 20 amps.

Square NiMH 24V 20000mAh 4x5x2 w/ Bare Leads

It weighs 14 pounds, I use 4.5 pounds of lead melted into a weight that fits under it to be neutral, and a shaped foam spacer in the nose. NiMh are fussier in some ways than a SLA battery and self discharge by comparison. It will run 90 minutes on high nonstop.

I also put an AV2 heat exchanger and transmission from a damaged scooter into a 12 volt AV1 and reconfigured the NiMH battery to 12 volts 40 Amps. It runs over 80 minutes on medium nonstop without overheating ( a big AV1 problem). It is a bit faster on medium than the AV2 on high. It is even faster on high but I don't have anything to keep up with it on an hour dive so I haven't tested it thoroughly.

[jamesb]

Note when you are buying batteries the amp rating may be given in a 1,5,10 or 20 hour rating. The Tempest quoted above says it is 14 amps but that is the 20 hour rating. The one hour rating is 8.4, and it says 9 pounds. The Odyssey PC545 is 12 amps for one hour and weighs 11 pounds.

[danl289]

I have looked up the dimensions for the Odyssey PC545 battery as mentioned above but it seems to be 3mm to big to fit into my AV-2 compartment. The depth of the battery is 130mm and the size of the compartment is only 127mm. Has anyone tried these batteries and got them to fit? Did you have to make any slight modifications?

Cheers Dan