Concord battey

[Jim Peace]

3 hours ago, Ragsf15e said:

Does it get capacity checked at annual? Good chance it’s below capacity mins if it’s starting noticeably slower.  Do you fly ifr?  Possibly worth knowing, possibly not.  Up to you.

not sure how it was checked last annual....I doubt they checked it...I do fly IFR....so I will change it out....

[Jim Peace]

Does anyone remember if you can change out the battery just by pulling off the left cowling cheek?  Or does the top have to come off?  If so I may just wait until oil change time....

[Hank]

On my 1970 C, I remove the top cowling. But your seams are different. 

Take off the left cheek and see if there's room to lift the battery out of the box. if I was a betting man, I'd put lunch on "no, there isn't room." Besides, you need to reach inside the battery box with a wrench to undo the cables first.

[Brian E.]

4 hours ago, Jim Peace said:

Does anyone remember if you can change out the battery just by pulling off the left cowling cheek?  Or does the top have to come off?  If so I may just wait until oil change time....

On a 65C you have to pull the top cowling off.  No way to replace through the batt compartment door or left lower panel.

[A64Pilot]

For whatever it’s worth Concorde is a family owned US company and the batteries are US made, the family name is Godfrey. if you look at he company telephone roster, the name Godfrey is listed several times.

They are very approachable and it’s easy to get to talk to one of the company heads and they will answer any questions about their battery.

They really are honestly all about building the best possible lead acid battery and spend money not taking short cuts.

Buying a fully US designed and manufactured product is worth something to me.

Unfortunately battery charger desulphators don’t work they are snake oil. the only way to desulphate a battery is a controlled intentional overcharge. Most of the time that’s called an equalization charge. Google it.

Concorde calls it a conditioning charge and it’s on page 34 I believe of the CMM

https://batterymanagement.concordebattery.com/BatteryDocs/5-0171.pdf 

It’s section 8 anyway.

The self discharge rate of an AGM battery is very low, making battery tenders / minders usually unnecessary, if you use one, be sure or check that its voltage isn’t too high, many are.

‘From memory a Concorde should charged at 14.125V but float voltage is of course lower than charge voltage.

Float voltage is I think 13.3 plus or minus .1V.

Here a link to Concorde’s FAQ which covers maintenance chargers among other things.

https://www.concordebattery.com/knowledge-base/faq.html

[Rocket 305]

I have two RG-35AXCs. I keep them on a BatteryMinder anytime the plane is in the hangar. The BatteryMinder is showing they aren't fully charged but the voltage is usually between 13.7-13.9V. They still crank my TSIO-520 to a start in 2-3 seconds. No complaints, I bought them in early 2009!

Who gets 11 years out of a pair of batteries? Kudos to how they build them. And, say what you want, I personally believe that the BatteryMinder is the critical difference.

[Jim Peace]

changed out my battery today and all I had to do was take the cheeks off both sides and then just lift the top cowling up a bit.  I did not have to take off those two bolts in the forward part of the cowling. If I had to do that it would have been a 3 hour job.  Instead it only took like an hour at most....

[Hank]

1 hour ago, Jim Peace said:

changed out my battery today and all I had to do was take the cheeks off both sides and then just lift the top cowling up a bit.  I did not have to take off those two bolts in the forward part of the cowling. If I had to do that it would have been a 3 hour job.  Instead it only took like an hour at most....

Wow! It takes me about 2 minutes to remove my top cowl, and generally less than 5 minutes to put it back on. Is the '64 design that different from the '70?

[philiplane]

On 9/26/2021 at 11:31 AM, Rocket 305 said:

I have two RG-35AXCs. I keep them on a BatteryMinder anytime the plane is in the hangar. The BatteryMinder is showing they aren't fully charged but the voltage is usually between 13.7-13.9V. They still crank my TSIO-520 to a start in 2-3 seconds. No complaints, I bought them in early 2009!

Who gets 11 years out of a pair of batteries? Kudos to how they build them. And, say what you want, I personally believe that the BatteryMinder is the critical difference.

Battery life is mostly determined by the "storage" temperature. Cooler climates, batteries last longer. Take the same battery and move it to South Florida, and it will last 3-5 years, tops. Because most of the year, the battery is between 85 to 100 degrees, sitting, in a hangar, or on the ramp. They don't recommend storing a battery above 85 degrees, yet in a plane, it exceeds that often.

[Andy95W]

3 hours ago, Hank said:

 Is the '64 design that different from the '70?

Yes, very different design with no Camloc fasteners- but about 80 screws instead.  (There are times when I long for my 67 M20C cowling.)

[Jim Peace]

12 hours ago, Hank said:

Wow! It takes me about 2 minutes to remove my top cowl, and generally less than 5 minutes to put it back on. Is the '64 design that different from the '70?

it is different and I have one bolt on each side near the prop that can take about 30 minutes to re install per bolt...there is like ZERO room to work with....most of my labor charges for mx have been due to those two bolts...

[Hank]

2 hours ago, Jim Peace said:

it is different and I have one bolt on each side near the prop that can take about 30 minutes to re install per bolt...there is like ZERO room to work with....most of my labor charges for mx have been due to those two bolts...

Wow. I have two bolts on the front corners (one per side), they go in and out easily. Getting both front corners of the cowling properly placed between the cheek panels and the lower cowl gives me grief, but I've never spent five minutes on it.