Battery

bradbrady · Post by **bradbrady** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:27 am

iowa wrote:hello
i'm brand new to this forum!
but have flown about 40 years,
most of it in a 1951 C170A.
battery holder is original i think.
i would like to put in a new battery.
i don't care if it doesn't last long,
as stated above, the tractor battery
would be fine
i could change it
with each annual.
i do a lot of propping now.
whitch one should i get?
thanks
dave

Dave,
The Idea is, not to put a tractor battery in your A/C! when my Gill-25 gets week I remove it, and install it in my tractor/tug!
brad

Post by **GAHorn** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:54 am

iowa wrote:hello
i'm brand new to this forum!
but have flown about 40 years,
most of it in a 1951 C170A.
battery holder is original i think.
i would like to put in a new battery.
i don't care if it doesn't last long,
as stated above, the tractor battery
would be fine
i could change it
with each annual.
i do a lot of propping now.
whitch one should i get?
thanks
dave

Dave, ... do yourself a favor and go back and re-read this entire thread. Read every sentence, and you'll discover that there's a lot more to an aircraft battery than what might first jump out at you. Bottom line: Buy a genuine aircraft battery. Don't stick lawntractor, marine, or automotive batteries in an airplane. It's illegal. And it's dangerous.

iowa · Post by **iowa** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:00 pm

point is well taken!!
where is the best
place to buy a gill-25?
thanks
dave

170C · Post by **170C** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 1:31 pm

Dave, get a copy of TRADE-A-PLANE and you will find numerous sources for aircraft batteries and you will also find a spread of prices, some with free shipping, some without. Also go on the internet and do some shopping. If all else fails, compare those prices with your local FBO. If the prices are close to his, do him and yourself a favor and deal with someone local.

Post by **GAHorn** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:32 pm

I bought my last battery from http://www.aircraftspruce.com/ and they paid the shipping and included the acid without hazardous fees. Take your old battery to WalMart and tell them to get rid of it. They should not charge for it at all. Tell 'em it came out of your lawn tractor and they owe the public for disposal on a LOT of them, so it's time they paid up and got rid of yours.

iowa · Post by **iowa** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:42 pm

thank you gentleman
for such good advice!
dave

Post by **GAHorn** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:31 am

By the way, while thinking of batteries.... old dyed-in-the-wool codgers like me really prefer the original lead-acid batteries. They are also the preference of corporate jet types, etc. They are simply a good, dependable, reliable battery. And I've always preferred them as well.
I am about to change my mind however. (big sucking sound now....)
Last annual, just before the convention flight, we found blistered paint in the bottom of my battery box due to spilled acid. I had to clean it up, nuetralize it with baking soda, and re-paint it with acid-proof paint.
While I'm still a believer that lead-acid makes the best batteries.... I'm coming to the conclusion that it's probably a better business decision to protect that expensive

hard-to-find-replacement battery box and live with a different battery type than my first-choice.
In other words, ... my next battery will likely be a RG (recombinant gas) or gel-cell, for no other reason than to protect my expensive battery box. I'm thinking it's probably a lot cheaper to buy a battery with less longevity and add years to my battery box. Just a thought.

N3243A · Post by **N3243A** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:15 am

N170CT wrote:All,

Perhaps I am misreading the contents of this post, but no one has mentioned the Odessey PC680 battery which is approved for some Piper aircraft. Has this battery fallen out of favor with the 170 crowd?? If so, Why??

Reason is: I just purchased a used PC680 which I plan to "try" in my 170.

Comments??
chuck

Chuck,
Most everyone in Alaska that I know of has legally switched to the Odessey PC625 or PC680 or SBSJ16 batteries. My IA put a PC625 in at annual about 5 years ago now I have had nothing but perfect performance, and zero maintenance and zero acid spills. I pointed out the virtues of these batteries in an earlier threads but got quite a bit of pushback. Check this thread from Feb. 2004:
http://cessna170.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... highlight=

The PMA version of the Odessey is now called the SBSJ16 which is just a PC680 with a heavy case.

Bruce C.

N170CT · Post by **N170CT** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 4:42 pm

Thanks a million Bruce. There for a few months I thought I had been ex-communicated from the 170 crowd or maybe the mere mention of brand "P" aircraft was what did it. One never knows about these things.

Continuing on, I am particularly fond of the significantly lighter weight of the Odessey and am looking forward to trying it. Don't mean to be on a soapbox, but the simple facts are: The FAA ain't always right.

Thanks again.....
chuck

170C · Post by **170C** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:46 pm

AAAAHA

Now we finally got a confession out of George. He admits to being "a dyed-in-the-wool old codger"

Now most of us already knew this all along, but being the reserved, nice, politically correct folks that we are, we would never have mentioned this, but now that he has publically admitted it, well-----------

Seriously Old Codger-----I mean George

What information do you have regarding which type of battery, Gel Cell or RG yields the better performance/ least weight/ least cost? I too am tired of cleaning out blistered paint and corrosion out of my battery box every time I open it up to check the cell levels & the next time I have to buy a new battery it isn't going to be a lead acid type. I will appreciate your input.

philnino · Post by **philnino** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 2:25 am

I recommend using the right battery for the application. I worked for an old crop duster who ran a fat agcat 331. He loved to buy walmart batteries because he could use them for a month and walmart would replace them for free. Seemed to work well (yea right!) other than the warped and melted battery cases and acid going everywhere. Saved some battery money in the short run but ended up torching the engine from the hot starts. It was bad enough that a constant stream of sparks came out the stacks while she was running.
On the other thread about rg and gel batteries, what happens to these batteries in an overcharge state? I about got killed with a generator runaway on a dc3. The batteries were under the cockpit floor and the hydrogen release was overwhelming. I would like to see something cleaner and safer on my firewall.
Phillip

ak2711c · Post by **ak2711c** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:46 pm

My fed requires the installation of an overvolt relay in the system if you are going to install a gell cell battery. They don't react well to overvolts. Also last I checked the Hawker SBSJ16 was the only one they would consider field approving, but that could have changed. I have had great luck with the SBSJ16 though.
Shawn

hilltop170 · Post by **hilltop170** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:11 pm

Just to add my two cents worth, my plane has had the Concorde RG-25XC Recombinant Gas battery for several years. It holds a charge well and Concorde claims it has the highest cranking power and capacity in the "25" Group. Seems like it is about $50 more than a Gill but the benefits of the sealed battery are worth it to me and it is approved for the 170.

No matter what battery you guys use, if you are having any corrosion problems in your battery box, try brushing or spraying the entire inside of the box with CorrosionX or ACF-50, after you have cleaned it out of course. The battery box in another plane had that white corrosion powder every year at annual until I swabbed it down with CorrosionX. That was three years ago and there has been no more corrosion. I put it on the battery terminals and cable end fittings also. Works there also. I use it on my car battery terminals and cable fittings too.

bradbrady · Post by **bradbrady** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:37 am

hilltop170 wrote:Just to add my two cents worth, my plane has had the Concorde RG-25XC Recombinant Gas battery for several years. It holds a charge well and Concorde claims it has the highest cranking power and capacity in the "25" Group. Seems like it is about $50 more than a Gill but the benefits of the sealed battery are worth it to me and it is approved for the 170.

No matter what battery you guys use, if you are having any corrosion problems in your battery box, try brushing or spraying the entire inside of the box with CorrosionX or ACF-50, after you have cleaned it out of course. The battery box in another plane had that white corrosion powder every year at annual until I swabbed it down with CorrosionX. That was three years ago and there has been no more corrosion. I put it on the battery terminals and cable end fittings also. Works there also. I use it on my car battery terminals and cable fittings too.

Hilltop 170,
I couldn't agree with you more (I love Corrosion-X the trick is to clean with baking soda, (scrape if nessary) and paint with asid resident paint, then coat with corrosion-x) it just gives another barrier for the sulferic asid to penitrate! As for Concord batterys I have had issues, (just their lead plate flooded batterys! I know nothing about their R/G batterys!) But I like the idea of R/G batterys! I just got my coppy of AMT and a British Co. is selling a battery tester that will work with R/G batterys I emailed the sales DPT. but haven't heard back from them. While we can test a flooded battery with a hydrometer It takes a diffrent tact to test a R/G battery! Depending on what the BZT1 costs I may want it in my shop, the other way is to make a tester using a series of 12 volt lights to produce a predertimed load and do the math from there, to dertermin the stringth of a battery There is no other (certified) way of Knowing the stringth of a battery that isn't flooded that I know of. I would like to here from anyone with more info.
brad

n2582d · Post by **n2582d** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:18 pm

In other words, ... my next battery will likely be a RG (recombinant gas) or gel-cell, for no other reason than to protect my expensive battery box. I'm thinking it's probably a lot cheaper to buy a battery with less longevity and add years to my battery box.

George, if you switch to an RG battery you may want to consider switching to a alternator too. It's a slippery slope!

There was a timely article by Steven Ells in the Sept. issue of AOPA on aircraft batteries. For the most part it was singing the praises of RG batteries. But one thing he said was news to me. He said these batteries accept a charge faster than flooded cell batteries. This "can cause small generators to overheat. Skip Koss of Concorde Battery said any airplane with a generator with an output of less than 50 amps ... should use flooded-cell batteries for this reason." (pg. 136)

As long as you're going to be swapping out major components of your electrical system might as well get an up-to-date regulator. Because overcharging can be a problem with RG batteries Ells recommends replacing "dinosaur-era regulators" with solid-state ones from such companies as Zeftronics.

How do gel-cell batteries compare in this regard? Do they accept a charge faster than flooded cell batteries?

The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Battery

Aircraft Batteries

Batteries

batteries

RG Batteries