charging piper 235 battery

M

muleywannabe

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Cherokee235
I made the rookie mistake of leaving the master switch on. I know my piper has the round plug for a charging system.

What should I buy to charge the battery up? I would like to put it on a charger if possible rather than jump starting it because I am typically by myself when I go to the hangar.

any suggestions would be awesome!
 
Take the battery out, put it on the bench!!! You'll not be able to charge it through the ground receptacle anyway.

When it is on the bench, the "best" charger would be a BatteryMinder. Almost any other charger will do.......but not as good.

Buy one of these chargers now and it will save you money in the long run.

When you start to charge your totally discharged battery, open the top caps if it is a liquid acid type. Don't FILL it discharged, but make sure at least the plates are covered. The battery acid level will rise during charging. If and when the battery is fully charged.....then add fluid to the recommended level.

Do all the safety things, eye protection, gloves, ventilation.

These batteries are small, light, and cheaply made....even though expensive. It is probably toast!
 
Pull battery top off cells with distilled water and use 12v charger, or use you Aux plug hooked to 12v charger and leave in plane. First option is better because you actually service the battery.
 
Read the POH carefully for info on the 'round plug for the charging system' - chances are that system only energizes the starting circuit unless the master is on.

What type of battery does the 235 have? flooded cell, glass mat? The charger needs to be appropriate (or have appropriate setting) for the type of battery in the aircraft. BatteryMinder brand is good but so are others.
 
kgruber said:
Take the battery out, put it on the bench!!! You'll not be able to charge it through the ground receptacle anyway.

When it is on the bench, the "best" charger would be a BatteryMinder. Almost any other charger will do.......but not as good.

Buy one of these chargers now and it will save you money in the long run.

When you start to charge your totally discharged battery, open the top caps if it is a liquid acid type. Don't FILL it discharged, but make sure at least the plates are covered. The battery acid level will rise during charging. If and when the battery is fully charged.....then add fluid to the recommended level.

Do all the safety things, eye protection, gloves, ventilation.

These batteries are small, light, and cheaply made....even though expensive. It is probably toast!
Click to expand...

I often thought that as well, the battery may be toast. It was getting a little sluggish the past several trips, this might have done it. I asked my A&P and he said to jump it but I might just replace it, just because.
 
The plug may or may not charge the battery. On some aircraft, you need enough juice from the battery to trigger the master solenoid to be able to charge through the jumper connector. Some aircraft (some models of 172s for example) have a circuit that will charge the battery even if it can't close the master.

Jumping may start the engine, but without some way to close the master solenoid, it won't charge the battery (but your mechanic would know how to make it work - you can "jump" the solenoid itself).

People will tell you to never charge the battery in the airplane, but the fact of the matter is that the battery is charged by the alternator every time you fly. And the engineers that designed the above mentioned 172 specifically made the system capable of charging through the jumper plug.

There is some risk of connecting a 24 volt jumper / charger to a 12 volt system.

Trying to charge a frozen battery can result in, um, trouble. That starts with T which rhymes with B which stands for Boom.

Running it flat once shouldn't render the battery forever unusable unless it already had one leg in the grave. Do it a dozen times and said battery is now a nice bookend.

I just use a cheap ass charger that I have owned, like, forever, and I connect it directly to the battery.

Ventilate.

Don't flick your bic to check the electrolyte level. Really.
 
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+1 for the Battery Minder idea. We have aircraft-grade units (make sure the unit matches both your specific battery type and voltage) on each of the airplanes, as well as standard grade on the garden tractor tug.

The units come with wiring to your battery terminals that has a quick-connect to the actual charger, which resides outside the airplane. The unit maintains the optimum charge and desufates the battery

Ours are attached any time the a/c is on the ground.

Jim
 
Clark1961 said:
Read the POH carefully for info on the 'round plug for the charging system' - chances are that system only energizes the starting circuit unless the master is on.

What type of battery does the 235 have? flooded cell, glass mat? The charger needs to be appropriate (or have appropriate setting) for the type of battery in the aircraft. BatteryMinder brand is good but so are others.
Click to expand...

The one to be most careful with are the Gell Cell batteries. Above 14.1 volt from the charger and you pretty much destroy them quickly, and they're expensive. The chargers I use have 2 settings, and they run flooded and AGM on one switch setting, and the other for Gell Cell.
 
Henning said:
There is nothing special about these over any AGM battery.
Click to expand...

ya there is too...they have an incredible service life compared to the Pink power garbage...I have experienced this first hand over a fleet of aircraft..Gills dont even come close in the extreme cold.
 
taters said:
ya there is too...they have an incredible service life compared to the Pink power garbage...I have experienced this first hand over a fleet of aircraft..Gills dont even come close in the extreme cold.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Switching from Gill to Concorde was one of the best investments we made in the plane in terms of $$s to usefulness.
 
taters said:
ya there is too...they have an incredible service life compared to the Pink power garbage...I have experienced this first hand over a fleet of aircraft..Gills dont even come close in the extreme cold.
Click to expand...

What type of battery was it, AGM, flooded cell, or gel cell? Concorde may build a better battery than Gill, but their technology is not unique was my point. They aren't doing anything only they have a patent on.
 
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