Which battery?

[Jerry 5TJ]

Cujet is correct  — you need a quantitative test to establish battery life.  

Although your battery may “work ok” in your Mooney for many years, it won’t meet the 80% capacity requirement once it is 3 to 4 years old. 

[FloridaMan]

I have Concorde batteries in both of my Mooneys. The one in my M20F I think was from around 2013 and is still going strong. I suspect one day I'll come out to a dead battery in it. The ones in the Rocket were replaced in December and were weak five months later in May. We found out why. Both had split wide open from failure to vent. @Cujet suspects high altitude is hard on them. 

I also care an EarthX booster pack in my plane with me. The reason for that brand is that their packs use LiFePO4 cells, which, according to their site are much more stable and have a thermal runaway temperature of 518 deg F instead of 302 deg F (read: not cheap chinese spontaneously combusting cells): https://earthxbatteries.com/shop/earthx-jump-pack

[Marauder]

Cujet is correct  — you need a quantitative test to establish battery life.  
Although your battery may “work ok” in your Mooney for many years, it won’t meet the 80% capacity requirement once it is 3 to 4 years old. 

And that is the difference between what you turboprop guys are doing to these poor batteries than us fly swatter types. At 70%, we keep going while you’re looking for a jump start.

I found a nice Presolite guide on starters that talked about the battery and charging system.

http://www.prestolite.com/literature/training/PP1127_TrainingManual_lores.pdf



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[Jerry 5TJ]

Back in college I was careful to park my VW facing downhill because the battery (probably a Gill) was perfectly fine except for starting...

[DonMuncy]

9 minutes ago, Jerry 5TJ said:

Back in college I was careful to park my VW facing downhill because the battery (probably a Gill) was perfectly fine except for starting...

When I was in college, I had 55 Ford with a bad battery, and didn't have the money to replace it. I would angle in to park, and put one wheel up on the curb. When I got ready to go, put in in reverse, turn on the ignition, and push in the clutch. As it rolled off the curb, pop the clutch and it would fire up. 

[jaylw314]

1 hour ago, DonMuncy said:

When I was in college, I had 55 Ford with a bad battery, and didn't have the money to replace it. I would angle in to park, and put one wheel up on the curb. When I got ready to go, put in in reverse, turn on the ignition, and push in the clutch. As it rolled off the curb, pop the clutch and it would fire up. 

What's a clutch??

It amazes me how many young people have never even seen a manual car

[mike_elliott]

18 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

I can order it with my Aircraft Spruce discount if you want.  Not much of a discount on the battery but a little more on the Battery Minder. Free shipping.

 

 

Both of these items are in the Mooney Summit VI's raffle. Thanks Concorde, VDC Electronics for your kind donation!

[drapo]

I bought my Concorde RG-35AXC September 2011. My Mooney has spent 90% of its night and days tied outside up in Lachute, Québec, where temperatures are below 0C(32F) from December to mid-March and below -10C (14F) January and February with 30 days in the -20C range(-4F) sometimes colder...

When below 0C, I preheat for 30 minutes with Reiff system. For all those years, winter and summer, it has never failed and still going on strong, even providing that needed power when I miss a hot start.

Do I recommend it? You bet!

[Cyril Gibb]

My Concord was installed in 2008.  No problems starting in minus lots of degrees, but I preheat the engine.  It's never had a complete discharge, or even a deep discharge, which destroys the capacity of a lead-acid battery.   I personally don't see the necessity of a battery minder.  If your battery goes flat in only a few weeks even in the cold or hot, it's either in imminent failure mode, or you have some parasitic load that should be tracked down and fixed. 

On the other hand, I did a bunch of touch and goes today after 6 weeks of no flying and didn't end up in  a crumpled heap... probably due to CamGuard.... or LOP ... or using flaps.... or....

[carusoam]

@cujet thanks for sharing your technical details...

Sometimes, Batteries can really leave one empty handed... but, with this data, it won’t be unknowingly empty handed....

 

Got any Gill data? Or has your organization gone away from Gill altogether...?

My organization is still openly avoiding Gill....

Best regards,

-a-

 

[Michel02]

in cold canada i use odyssey pc 925 mj    from spruce    smaller than g 35 light  no spill  any position  2 years storage   stay full charge   $250 can   stc …..                                 10 years life  in my  zenair  250   0-320          michel