I've got a Concorde RG35AXC battery in my Cherokee, and it's exactly three years old. The airplane was down for propeller overhaul during my annual and it took a month. So it sat for six weeks. I charged the battery with a standard trickle charger for two hours once during that time, to ensure I had enough voltage to get my VFR transponder check done.
When we finally got my prop back, it was slow turning over but started and charged just fine.
I flew a couple times a week since then without issues, but I noticed a couple weeks ago that I was pulling more amps of load than normal....between 5 and 10 instead of <5 (after the initial engaging of the alternator switch). It did seem to turn over a bit slow, but not overly so.
I was away from the plane for a full week recently, and when we went to go fly it last weekend, I hit the starter, got three blades out of it and that was it. Battery couldn't do it. So I pulled it out, and put a smart charger with AGM program on it. It tested out at 12.2V and down to 60% charge. Charged it to 100% and put it back in the plane. It cranks like lightening again, but now my ammeter is always showing a big draw on the system....15-20amp, and it goes up to almost 30 of course when I engage all the lights and runup to take off power.
I don't have the gear to test this battery and neither does my IA. It seems pretty obvious to me that the battery is the problem here, but I just thought I would check with the forum before I pulled the trigger on another one @ $340........is a high draw on the system typical of a AGM battery going south?
When we finally got my prop back, it was slow turning over but started and charged just fine.
I flew a couple times a week since then without issues, but I noticed a couple weeks ago that I was pulling more amps of load than normal....between 5 and 10 instead of <5 (after the initial engaging of the alternator switch). It did seem to turn over a bit slow, but not overly so.
I was away from the plane for a full week recently, and when we went to go fly it last weekend, I hit the starter, got three blades out of it and that was it. Battery couldn't do it. So I pulled it out, and put a smart charger with AGM program on it. It tested out at 12.2V and down to 60% charge. Charged it to 100% and put it back in the plane. It cranks like lightening again, but now my ammeter is always showing a big draw on the system....15-20amp, and it goes up to almost 30 of course when I engage all the lights and runup to take off power.
I don't have the gear to test this battery and neither does my IA. It seems pretty obvious to me that the battery is the problem here, but I just thought I would check with the forum before I pulled the trigger on another one @ $340........is a high draw on the system typical of a AGM battery going south?
