I'm in need of an aviation trickle charger to keep the Concord battery in my 206 in tip top shape.

The Battery Minder was been recommend by my mechanic and several other pilots. Battery Minder is very adamant that automotive battery chargers not be used on aircraft due to the charging voltage being too high. Unfortunately, the Battery Minder is $200+ and has very limited compatibility.
1. They are model and brand specific. i.e. One model of charge for a Gill 24v and a different model for a Concord 24v.
2. They are also voltage specific. One model for 12v another for 24v.

Battery Minders spiel on only using aviation chargers on aircraft batteries: http://www.batteryminders.com/aircraft-battery-chargers?sort=featured&page=1

Concord Battery on only using Battery Minder on their aviation batteries:


I'm now also in need of an automotive battery charger to resurrect the dual 12v Caterpillar batteries in my diesel powered Dodge pickup. While shopping I came across the "NOCO Genius G26000 12V/24V 26A Pro Series UltraSafe Smart Battery Charger" on Amazon. They claim it's both 12v and 24v as well as being compatible with many categories, including aircraft batteries. Any battery gurus out there? Will the NOCO resurrect the both the Cat batteries in my Dodge and safely trickle charge the Concord in my Cessna or do I need to shell out the extra $$$ and buy multiple chargers?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PKIBVU0#

Searched the Amazon reviews and found two reviewers who were using the NOCO for charging aircraft batteries. Both seem happy with the performance.
http://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G26000-UltraSafe-Battery-Charger/product-reviews/B004LX14Z2/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewopt_kywd?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=helpful&reviewerType=all_reviews&formatType=all_formats&filterByStar=all_stars&pageNumber=1&filterByKeyword=plane

I have battery minders on all my company airplanes. I also have a really expensive Battery minder power supply. I love them all and have had very little issues with them.
I just bought a Genius charger for some big truck batteries for the same reason you are looking at them. The genius is so much less expensive. I think it did recover some lost capacity in these 12 volt truck batteries for sure.
Concord wants 28.25 +_ .25 volts for charge voltage. The Genius puts out 28.8 COLD and 29.4 AGM. That voltage would be fine especially if you are not in a super hot climate. You might be overcharging with temps hotter then 70F. The battery minder has a temp sensor that compensates for temperature and adjusts the voltage accordingly. I don't think the Genius is temp compensated...
Also a Battery minder charger for a Concord battery should only be used on concords and not a sealed AGM, hawker odyssey or anything like that. One 200$ charger for one battery. The genius does 12, 24 cold and AGM. If I didn't have a company credit card and I needed only one shop charger I would buy a genius.

I claim absolutely no expertise, but here's my experience: I bought my airplane 11+ years ago, and it had a pretty new Gill in it. Because I had gotten in the habit of trickle charging my automotive batteries over the years, especially on the vehicles which aren't used much, I bought a simple Schumacher 1.5 amp trickle charger/maintainer for about $20. I don't remember where I bought it, but it's this one: http://www.batteryservice.com/products_ ... =SEM-1562A. I've seen them at Sears, Autozone, etc. I used it on the Gill until that battery started to fail about 5 1/2 years ago, when I replaced the Gill with a Concorde AGM. I still use the same Schumacher trickle charger/maintainer on the Concorde. In the winter, I leave the trickle charger/maintainer on all the time in the hangar. In the warmer weather, I don't bother plugging it in.

The 3 lights on the trickle charger/maintainer show yellow charging, green charged, and red for a misconnection. It shows green most of the time, fully charged, so it hardly ever comes on, other than if I'm doing some work on the airplane and have the master turned on.

Being somewhat of a skeptic by nature, I think it's truly ridiculous to spend almost as much on a maintainer as the battery it maintains cost. It would make more sense to replace the battery sooner. But for $20 and a few minutes to hook up the connections, my "system" has certainly proven itself, with both flooded (the Gill) and AGM (the Concorde) batteries.

Cary

Thanks for the advice.

The BatteryMINDer Power Supply looks sweet, but for $800 it would be nice if it could charge both 12v and 24v systems.

I just got off the phone with NOCO tech support and Concord Battery tech support. Here's a summary of the info they gave me.

FROM NOCO:
They G26000 is advertised on Amazon as being temperature compensated and for aviation batteries. They told me that this charger is not FAA approved and, due to a recent redesign, no longer temperature compensated even though it is still advertised as such on both Amazon and the NOCO websites.

FROM CONCORD:
According to the very helpful tech at Concord support the best charger for a Concord CB24-11M battery and the only maintainer/charger they officially recommend is the Battery Minder 23041-AA-S5.
http://www.batteryminders.com/24-volt-aircraft-battery-charger-24041-AA-S5

When I asked if there was a charger that would work on various brands of batteries, as I'd rather no spend $220 on a charger that is only designed for one brand of battery he suggested the I could go with the Battery Minder 23041-AA-S2. He said the S2 is fine, but it's not as good as the S5... Didn't say why.
http://www.batteryminders.com/24-volt-aircraft-battery-charger-24041-AA-S2

I then asked about the NOCO Genius 12/24v charger/maintainer, telling him I'd like the ability to maintain both 12 and 24 volt batteries. He was not familiar with the Genius so couldn't give me advice specific to this brand or model, but went on to say I could use safely use almost any 24v battery charger, just not to leave it turned on all the time. The work around is to put it on a christmas tree timer for 30 minutes/day. He said that with the battery hooked up to a maintainer for 30 mins/day you would safely keep it charged without the risk of overcharging.

Additioanlly he recommended this kit from Audio Authority for a battery-charger quick disconnect system. Said it's a very well designed system and FAA approved. https://www.audioauthority.com/product_details/BM-AIK2

I'm kind of curious as to this recent theme of battery-specific chargers. I've got an automotive charger I've owned since the mid-70's (6v / 12v, that should be a clue as to the vintage) and it seems to have always worked fine with any number of auto motorcycle & aircraft batteries I've charged with it over the years.

I bought a new Odyssey recently (my third) and was told by someone that it just HAD to charge at exactly X number of amps, using X brand charger. Are these newer batteries really so particular as to chargers and /or trickle chargers? Seems like if a battery-minder/tender/whatever puts out a low-amp charge and cuts off to avoid over-charging that it should work fine.

hotrod180 wrote:I'm kind of curious as to this recent theme of battery-specific chargers. I've got an automotive charger I've owned since the mid-70's (6v / 12v, that should be a clue as to the vintage) and it seems to have always worked fine with any number of auto motorcycle & aircraft batteries I've charged with it over the years.

I bought a new Odyssey recently (my third) and was told by someone that it just HAD to charge at exactly X number of amps, using X brand charger. Are these newer batteries really so particular as to chargers and /or trickle chargers? Seems like if a battery-minder/tender/whatever puts out a low-amp charge and cuts off to avoid over-charging that it should work fine.

Exactly my experience.

Cary

If anyone is contemplating the aviation-specific batteryminder, it can be had for $189 straight from the manufacturer (VDC Electronics) instead of the regular list.

Just go to their website, select "support" from the main menu, and then "upgrade your battery minder." Buried in there is a coupon to use at checkout for "upgrading" from any generic (ie Harbor Freight/Napa/etc) battery charger.

Chris

Dunno about 24v models, but Spruce lists a couple lower-priced options. $28.50 Battery Tender Jr (12v @ .75 a-- but not for Concorde or Gill batteries), and$45.85 Battery Tender Plus (12v @ 1.25a).
Much less money than Power Tender ($86) & various Battery Minder models ($189 & up).

i played the game of Gill batteries and chargers and tenders for years! After my last Gill took a crap(11 months old), I bought a Concorde RG-25 x/c, I have not put a battery charger on my airplane since then and that was almost four years ago. I personaly think Gill batteries are garbage and will not install them in any airplane. I also believe that a good battery is money well spent. If you need to keep your battery on a tender, it will leave you stranded at some point.

I have a Battery Minder like in your link that was suggested for the Oddyssey PC 680. It actually says it is good for any lead acid battery and I have desulfated my farm tractor batteries also. My John Deere 4430 has two big 12 volt batteries and after the desulfate process, it said one had a problem. Then I read, just leave it on and after a day the green light came on saying it was OK. I'll try to remember to get the specific model number on mine.

I just looked and mine is a BatteryMinder 12248-A-ODY. Works good on PC 680 and big 12 volt tractor batteries.

Jeredp wrote:... If you need to keep your battery on a tender, it will leave you stranded at some point.

I agree. A buddy was bragging up how old his battery was, "and still going strong", until I pointed out that he always kept it on the tender. Sure enough, he went somewhere & stayed overnight and it wouldn't turn the engine over the next morning.

hotrod180 wrote:

Jeredp wrote:... If you need to keep your battery on a tender, it will leave you stranded at some point.

I agree. A buddy was bragging up how old his battery was, "and still going strong", until I pointed out that he always kept it on the tender. Sure enough, he went somewhere & stayed overnight and it wouldn't turn the engine over the next morning.

That's exactly why I only leave mine on the tender in the winter, so that the occasional on-off charging will keep the battery warmer (it's in the empennage). Otherwise, probably the best way without tools of knowing the battery is "still going strong" is to start the engine after a 2 week sit (heresy, I know--airplanes shouldn't sit for 2 weeks). With the volt meter still showing above 12 volts and a strong start, that's a pretty good indicator.

Cary

I think I added some life to my tractor batteries with the de sulfator mode.

From what I understand, the purpose of a battery maintainer, such as the BatteryMinder, is not to keep an almost dead battery barely working as was indicated earlier. The purpose of a well designed battery maintainer is to keep a good battery that's not being used enough, fully charged so it doesn't sulfate and deteriorate when not in use. Sulfation is one of the leading causes of short battery life.

When a lead acid battery sits for extended time, it slowly looses it's charge. This loss of charge happens faster in warmer temperatures. As the charge is lost, the lead plates slowly become coated with sulfur aka sulfation. Sulfation inhibits the battery's ability to hold a charge. The more a battery discharges and the longer it sits without being recharged, the worse the sulfation becomes and the battery holds less charge. If your plane flies frequently then maybe this is not an issue. According to what I've read, the way to keep your battery in tip top shape is to start with a good battery and to keep it charged with the correct voltage and current. If you don't fly for periods of time then a well designed battery maintainer is the best way to do this.

Apparently automotive chargers can charge aviation batteries at too high a voltage/current. Aviation batteries have a "hotter" acid mixture and want a lower voltage/amperage when being "maintained" than auto batteries. If an auto charger is left on an aviation battery all the time it can literally cook/evaporate the electrolyte out of the battery on lead acid batteries. As the fluid evaporates and the level drops and a portion of the previously submerged lead plate that is not submerged and also become damaged. The Concord tech. rep. told me that an auto charger used daily for 30 mins./ day, it's probably fine. This is why he suggested plugging it into a timer. Having said that, he told me the BatteryMinder is the best and only maintainer that Concord officially recommends.

Aviation Consumer has tested batteries and maintainers. They indicate that the BatteryMinder and one made by Gill (which is more expensive than the Batteryminder) provided the ideal voltage/current for long life maintenance of a aviation battery. This charging changes depending on the battery condition and temperature. They indicate that the Battery Tender brand maintainer and other automotive maintainers should not be used on aircraft batteries. I assume this advice is directed to those who would leave the automotive maintainer on and "maintaing" 24hrs/day, 7 days/week, so if left on just 30 min/day maybe it would be fine.

Disclaimer, while I do have a fair amount of mechanical experience, I'm not an mechanic nor am I a battery expert. If you know more than me on the topic, feel free to correct me if any of this is wrong. If you want to know more the following article by Aviation Consumer is a good read.

http://www.batteryminders.com/content/prints/aviation/battery-chargers-vdc-wins-in-a-walk.pdf

My experience pretty much mirrors Gary's. I use exactly the same charger when I have to leave a plane sitting for several weeks/months. I only had a problem once. It was a newer battery (less than a year old). My old Champ didn't have a charging system, the original owner had a solar panel that worked extremely well for keeping the battery charged all summer when the plane was on floats.

When I kept it in a hangar at the seaplane base, I removed the solar panel and used the above mentioned Schumacher trickle charger. I went a couple of weeks without flying it once and when I went to start the plane, the battery was dead. It had boiled dry!!! Not sure if it was a bad battery or the charger screwed up. It seems to still work fine.

Maybe I should explain further. I bought the PC 680 Oddysey and it said it needed this special charger that I bought. Then I read that this charger was good for the other batteries I have in the pickup, cars, and tractors. It has some lights and the one in the middle blinks green when fully charged and not sulfated. Like I said, I have only had one of the two John Deere batteries that were new at the same time blink yellow after a charge cycle---desulfate cycle. Then I read that you should leave it on longer and the yellow blinking will turn to green blinking and the battery is good---sulfate has been reduced. I don't leave it on all the time. My batteries evidently weren't too far gone either or they'd never get a green blinking light.