Concorde battery issue

[hornet02]

Slightly long backstory so bare with me. Have a right at 2 year old Concorde RG-35AXC sealed battery. For most of the past year the battery had been at home on the Concorde specific -S5 Batteryminder charger when the airplane is not in use. I bring my battery home in the winter since its an easy pull and I'm outside with no power. Seems to make them last a lot longer. Also been down most of the summer for a long owner assisted annual. Kids and other issues and no time to work on plane, so just left the battery at home on the charger. This spring when I would fly, the airplane was hard to start, like low battery. Had to rock starter to get it to turn over. Was going to attack bad connections/grounds at annual. All this was with battery coming off charger with it indicating a good battery and full charge. Checked all the battery to starter connections at annual and found one small suspect area at the starter solenoid. So cleaned that up. 2 weeks ago finishing up annual, installed battery and turned on master switch. Again, battery right of the batteryminder. Electric gyro barely spinning up, not removing the gyro flag. Great. JPI wont turn on. 430 wont turn on. Put meter on battery, 10.5 volts. Interesting. Talk with my mechanic and has heard a similar story and had me pull the cover and the caps on the battery and check the condition. (yes you can do this on a sealed battery). All but one cell are bone dry. Was told that the other person was told by Concord to add a small amount of distilled water to make the cells damp. So we did. battery back on charger. This time, batteryminder indicated weak cell but charging. After indicating full charger, installed, and had a strong engine start for low power turn. Cool!. Go out today, master switch on, gyro barely spinning again. 10.5 volts at the battery. So I decide to call Concorde. After telling this story, they are offering me a full refund (exchange for new through Spruce) and they want me to not only send them the battery but my batteryminder as well so they can test them both. Apparently I am the 5th or 6th person to call them recently with the same issue. Their concern is they tweaked the spec for the maintenance charging function for the S5 charger and they are worried that they are essentially cooking batteries on the charger. Was basically told this battery should not last only 2 years and they are trying to figure out whats going on. So again, long backstory but thought i would share if any one else is having similar issue. Can post more when when I hear more back.

 

[FlyCanadianGuy]

 

[schlensig]

 

[flyguydon]

 

[N33GG]

 

[arkvet]

 

[RickS]

 

[hornet02]

 

[GregS]

 

[GM.]