Recomendations for 1 airplane hgr battery chargers

In our NiCad to VRLA swaps, its pretty common to see a 8-12 # penatly per battery.
 
bnt83 said:
I just chec6 yesterday and found the Gill 35 (regular aircraft flooded lead acid) was 5 pounds lighter than a Concorde RG35 VRLA which uses AGM.
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Usually, the equivelent battery is much smaller and much lighter.

Look at the specs on an Odyssey 680 used in most RV's with 4 cylinders. ......

3.1 thick x 7.2 wide x 7.5 tall. 15 pounds. 3 1/8" wide!


Odyessy recommends a specific battery charger. :dunno:

Do what you want.
 
Geico266 said:
Do what you want.
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Indeed.

I've had very good luck not doing anything special with the RG35 condcordes. But this battery is in the tailcone kept nice & cool during grounds ops in the heat of the summer where is HOT under the cowl.
Also pull it out and wash with a dab of dish soap and fresh water every annual to keep it clean.
 
bnt83 said:
I just checked yesterday and found the Gill 35 (regular aircraft flooded lead acid) was 5 pounds lighter than a Concorde RG35 VRLA which uses AGM.
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Same thing when we looked for the Skylane. The AGM approved/STCed for Skylanes is denser and heavier than the regular battery. Not lighter.

I've been following AGM for a long time. They got made originally for race cars where they're used once and not charged throughout a race. They're lighter for one blast of similar cold cranking amps.

Hams have played with all sorts of batteries in real world abusive applications. AGM don't hold up any better than Flooded when you beat on them. The best stuff out there by far are Lithium Ion. There's a reason Tesla uses them.

Battery tech just hasn't changed that much over the years. There's a lot of hype from manufacturers desperate to keep charging a lot of money for lead acid stuff, but rarely can they back it with scientific proof. They'll tell you their AGM does miraculous things but if you ask them to prove it on a load tester and publish the results, you'll notice the sales guy disappears.

Ask them to show you a longevity test where they put a flooded against an AGM and the AGM wins by whatever today's price margin percentage is. If the AGM is 20 % more expensive, it performs 20% better right? Again, they'll disappear.
 
The biggest problem with regular flooded lead acids is lack of mx. Not keeping them full and not keeping them clean.

If you have a regular flooded lead acid under the cowling, baking in the summer heat and engine temps, you need to watch the electrolye levels much closer than once a year
 
Thanks for all the useful insights. I will read the data that came with the GIL 35 battery that is in the airplane. I should have done that anyway.

I was just hooking my very old sears craftsman charger up to the battery while I had the power on for light troubleshooting and PFD/GPS training.

A couple cells did over-flow and the amp meter on the charger didn't drop as fast as it did a week ago.
 
Now I will say that those Sears style battery chargers are crap. They don't regulate voltage well at all and what's coming out of them rarely is DC. It's usually got a significant AC component to the waveform. They're junk for any serious battery care plan.
 
denverpilot said:
Now I will say that those Sears style battery chargers are crap. They don't regulate voltage well at all and what's coming out of them rarely is DC. It's usually got a significant AC component to the waveform. They're junk for any serious battery care plan.
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What I decided to do is buy the charger GIL recommends in the CMM and a hydrometer and some electrolyte. The current battery is 2 years old, and unfortunately my plane has been sitting on the ground for the last 3 weeks while I wait for parts and time to work on it. It's just now starting to chill around here too.

I didn't leave the Sears charger on for extended periods, but I recognize some battery service is needed to get the most out of it.

I'll do the best I can for this one and when it does come time to replace, the charger I bought will probably be the best choice for starting out right with a new one. GIL is OK with leaving it on for extended periods too. I may still pick up a timer, I don't know.

I really don't expect to go through many airplanes in my lifetime, this one is going to have to last me for the duration. I don't mind tooling up properly, and following OEM recomendations.

The GIL charger is cheaper then the battery minder.
 
Yup. At the end of the day, all these chargers and what not are really cheap compared to filling the tanks with avgas.
 
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