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Unread 04-15-23, 09:23 AM
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n86121 n86121 is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Potomac Airfield~!
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Drilling down

Being a nerd I drilled down on this a bit.

Basically, different battery chemistries have slightly different ideal float charges.
But not so you would really notice.

In theory,
if your float voltage is too high it could boil off electrolyte.
Similarly, if you were charging with so much current as to overheat the battery.

But in reality, once you are at trickle charging level of a few milliamps,
losses would be somewhere between imperceptible to negligible.

Chargers are just current sources with an intrinsic upper voltage limit.
Once the voltage of the charger and the battery get close, the current becomes negligible.
aka 'float'

--

I go with concord sealed batteries.
Concorde's have 14 AH (when new) vs Gill at around 10AH.
And no screwing with juice.

----

BTW, a cheap car battery is 50AH.
A strong marine battery is 100AH.

Aircraft batteries are intended to be 'just enough' to start the engines.
Any more capacity would be more weight, loss of payload without benefit.

--
I spoke w Concord. Their batteries can handle "lots of peak current."

All that said, I bought the specific 24 volt, desulphating one for Concorde anyways.
Intrigued by, but not convinced, of the 'de-sulphation' feature.

---
For convenience,
I have the passenger side socket wired direct to battery / clock circuit w 7A fuse.
So I can charge through the socket.

I've made up a tie down thing that gives me recharging / AC power on tie down.

When I ran battery too low updating avionics the other day,
I simply recharged the battery through its lighter socket.

Same arrangement on my boat.

Necessity may be the mother of invention...
But laziness is the grand-mother!

Presto!
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David Wartofsky
Potomac Airfield
10300 Glen Way
Fort Washington, MD 20744
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