The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I was browsing the Concord Battery web site for the specs on the RG25 batteries. Under the certification notes, they say, "Replaces Original p/n 0511319-1. Aircraft serial number 18730-20266 except 19401."
Who has SN 19401, and what is so special about your airplane that this battery doesn't work?

No Cessna 170 shows up with that serial # in the faa database at http://www.landings.com. 19400 (N9597A) and 19403 (N9713A) show up as 1950 A-models, but nothing in between.

Miles

I've had the RG-25 for three years now and it's great. No more worries about acid venting, no maintaining acid levels. Gotta love it

Dave Clark wrote:I've had the RG-25 for three years now and it's great. No more worries about acid venting, no maintaining acid levels. Gotta love it

I put one in my Citabria last year, and plan to do the same when the battery in the 170 craps out.

I just put one in my 170 and I have to say it was strange. The battery was charged with a trickel charger for 24 hours before installing.
I put it in the plane and it was dead the next day. I recharged the battery on the work bench that has a wood top. two days later it was dead again. I called the Mechanic that sold it to me that did the annual inspection he said put a trickel charger on it and leave it on. So thats what Im doing now. Just for fun I now take the trickel charger off and it takes about one week before the battery starts going down again. Never seen a battery do this before. Any ideas ? or just keep the charger on it.
Other than that, it looks to be a great battery, with no acid problems.

Bill

I don't know if these batteries can sulfate or not. If they do, you need to charge for about 1-2 hours at a very warm to touch battery. this breaks down the sulfate on the plates from storage.

John

I don't think they will sulfate. Bill did you check to see if the battery will go down if you disconnect the ground (or on the bench)? You might have some parasite load draining it but I doubt it could be that much. I think you got a reject

Dave Clark wrote:You might have some parasite load draining it but I doubt it could be that much. I think you got a reject

Agreed. Never had a lick of trouble out of mine.

Boiler Bill wrote:I just put one in my 170 and I have to say it was strange. The battery was charged with a trickel charger for 24 hours before installing.
I put it in the plane and it was dead the next day. I recharged the battery on the work bench that has a wood top. two days later it was dead again. I called the Mechanic that sold it to me that did the annual inspection he said put a trickel charger on it and leave it on. So thats what Im doing now. Just for fun I now take the trickel charger off and it takes about one week before the battery starts going down again. Never seen a battery do this before. Any ideas ? or just keep the charger on it.
Other than that, it looks to be a great battery, with no acid problems.

Bill

If you've tested that not "hot-wired" items are drawing the battery down, it sounds as if you may have obtained a battery with an internal short/leak. (Don't forget about avionics that have "keep alive" circuitry, such as "last-frequency-used memory", older-type elect. clocks, etc., will draw a battery down but it takes a month or so with a healthy system.)

I ran a concord RG-25 in an Ercoupe for six years before replacing it. I put one in my 170A 3 years ago and it is running/performing great. I usualy take the battery out in Dec and put it in my shop hanger on a shelf and in Mar I put it back in the 170A. If one reads the Concord maintenance manual it tells you to NEVER put the RG-25 on a trickle charger because it will ruin it. When you receive the battery from your supplier you should NEVER put it on a charger! If you do you will blow it. Hal Singrey

If you leave the master switch on and kill the RG battery, what do you do with it if it can't be put on a charger?

I have a sealed battery in the 170 and leave it on a trickle charger (batteryminder) all the time ... works fine ... ? I can't remember right now if it is a concorde or a Gill...

Thomas

I use the Concorde RG-25XC battery in my converted 172.
The Instructions for Continued Airworthiness have pretty clear instructions on how and when to charge the battery.

http://www.concordebattery.com/otherpdf/IFCA1.pdf

I also use these batteries in the Citations and King Airs in our charter operation with very good results. Virtually no maintenance costs after the initial purchase and no worries of corrosion issues on our aircraft.

53B wrote:I use the Concorde RG-25XC battery in my converted 172.
The Instructions for Continued Airworthiness have pretty clear instructions on how and when to charge the battery.

http://www.concordebattery.com/otherpdf/IFCA1.pdf

I also use these batteries in the Citations and King Airs in our charter operation with very good results. Virtually no maintenance costs after the initial purchase and no worries of corrosion issues on our aircraft.

It looks like they don't like a constant current but what battery does? I'm probably wrong on this if so someone please correct me but it would appear a tapering charge type charger would be ok. After all that's what the aircraft voltage regulator does. As for the trickle charge if the voltage can't go over 14.1 volts and it's only a couple hundred milliamps it should be ok. When I use trickle chargers in long term storage situations I put them on a wall wart type timer and give them an hour or so per day.

After reading all the stuff about RC vs. regular lead acid batterys, I think I'll stick with the Pep Boys garden tractor batterys at $30 a pop and throw them away at annual. Works for me!