battery

[hharney]

I know the Concorde costs a little more but I think the program is worth it. It's a sealed battery and that eliminates the maintenance and any potential acid spill that will happen. I have seen a lot of battery box locations and they are normally a mess. No worries with the Concorde RG24-11.

The cold crank amps on the Gill is 106 and it's 160 on the Concorde. The rated capacity is 8 hours and 11 hours respectively. The Concorde is also half a pound lighter. I went back and checked my log book and I have averaged about 5 years on the Concorde without a battery minder. I still may change my replacement schedule based on the fact that I used to change the battery when it died and I am thinking that is not the best PM. As I said above in the other post, how long is the battery going to last when you are IMC at night and the system goes down? I will probably change it every four years minimum now that I have the battery minder to condition the battery. The battery minder de-sulfates the battery. Keeps the plates in top condition.

It's a no brainer in my mind, Concorde RG24-11

[rmorris]

pulled my battery out to charge it up, and low and behold I did get a Concorde put in...logbooks show Jan2014, so 1 1/2 yrs, on a Concorde RG24-15 Platinum Series battery. So as with most things aviation, it appears your mileage (and battery life) may vary.

I know my previous Gil batteries lasted much longer than 1 1/2 yrs.

Now, to be fair, I have made a lot of electrical changes, and how I use things. eg:
I replaced my entire avionics stack to now include two Avidyne IFD540s, they are big units and I went for the extra power 16w comms on them, etc...plus I keep my lights on and flashing at all times now...I replaced regular lights and went all LED, AeroLED to be precise...with wig wag...so the draw should be low, given they are LEDs...they supposedly have a lifespan of some huge number of hours of use, so I decided to just leave them on an wagging all the time, along with AeroLED beacon/strobe, nav/strobes, plus my older belly strobe (yes I am lit up like Christmas all the time). But it makes my bright yellow bumblebee pretty darn visible when others have to find 'traffic'.

Anyway, I digress....with all above going on, I need to hook up an ammeter and figure out my actual load....seems like if I leave that all on after landing, I barely have enough juice to fire up again. If I turn it all off right after landing, and idle for a few minutes, I have enough juice....that was making me think it was time for a new battery, but maybe it is just me.

In any case, I may give the new Gil technology a try if they have the approved new version that replaces the 242 avail at OSH.

Still love other pireps on batteries, and more importantly, why. These are the kind of thing that are great for a forum like this one...sharing your thoughts and opinions with others. We don't all have to agree, or use the same stuff, but it is nice to explore...

[hharney]

Agreed, it's all good information. I don't think you are using an excess of power, sounds like you have a bad battery for some reason or the charge system is not performing correctly. Also for the Recumbent Gas (RG) batteries, be careful you don't overcharge them with too much amperage. That will do a number on them. They say most automotive chargers will fry them.

[B2C2]

Hi Rob. There are a million battery stories in the naked city. here's mine.

So I too went from Gill to Concorde. I went through two Gill batteries in a year and a half. Always was iffy after sitting if Id get a start. I replaced them with a Concorde RG24-16, which had the highest rated capacity from Concorde for the 337. I also bought a battery minder and had the battery minder charging receptacle installed inside the front oil dipstick access door. I'm lucky enough to have a hanger, so the plane is on the minder whenever its in there. Long story short its now been two years of no problems whatsoever. 25.4V at start, and always happy to do so. I also swapped my taxi/landing lights for LEDs and have an ammeter in there. This dropped the current drain significantly and I leave all four lights on all the time along with the beacons. I have one IFD540, standard comms, and an Aspen as well as Whelen strobes. I too am a flying Christmas tree when I'm out there. I think the big issue is if you ever have an event that fully drains the battery, they just don't come back from that. My two years of Gills included at least one event for each one where the battery drained to the minimum. I think this kind of kills the battery and if it happens you wont get great performance out of it afterwards. In any case I have been very happy with my current setup and would highly recommend it.

[edasmus]

I would agree with your post. If the alternators are allowed to charge a weak battery, the battery will suffer, from what my studies have taught me. Alternators are fine to maintain a fully charged battery but once the battery is low, apparently they need to be brought back slowly. A battery minder will do this from what I understand. The alternators are just too quick!

Ed