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Battery load test shortens battery life - really?

Here’s another Concorde RG24-15 load test. The battery lasted almost exactly the same time into the same load as 1.5 years ago, and this battery is from January 2012!

It had a couple of days on the CTEK MXT4.0 reconditioning charger.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Well, finally, this Concorde RG24-15, which was installed Jan 2012 and is thus older than EuroGA, will need replacing:

How did it last so long? I reckon, due to regular use of a CTEK reconditioning charger.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter, with regard to your CTEK MXT 4.0, do you use it in the AGM mode to keep your Concorde battery topped up?
I have read somewhere that the reconditioning mode is for normal wet cells only?
I have a Concorde battery and CTEK MXT 4.0 also, just trying to ascertain the best way to use it for longevity!

EGNS, Other

It doesn’t have any mode selection. You just connect it up and it charges the battery, and after it has charged it, it goes into the reconditioning mode.

I have been using it more or less only at the Annual so perhaps it is irrelevant.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Ok, fwiw I have one of these
https://www.ctek.com/business-uk/products/workshop/mxt-4-0-uk
Sounds like you have a different version

EGNS, Other

MXT 4.0

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I have the same model and use it in the “AGM” Mode for my Concorde, although the output voltage is a bit higher than recommended in the Concorde Manual. I´m not sure if that could damage my (new) battery. The reconditioning I would not recommend on AGM batteries. The recond mode worked well on my last Gill 242 (lasting 7 yrs. and at the time of change been not really down – it just needed proper topping up with water, cleaning and yearly use of recondition program), however I switched to Concorde according most of recommendatons and being (water) service free.

TB20 Airman
Borkenberge EDLB, Germany

Thanks Chris!
I wrote to CTEK re charging Concorde batteries and the use of AGM mode (sent them Concorde doc with spec) but they were non committal, just saying that if I was unsure to use the normal mode as that could not damage the battery.
As you say, I had read somewhere that reconditioning mode was for wet cells only…it is supposed to mix the acid up in a wet cell.

EGNS, Other

I’ve just realised the CTEK charger has a MODE selector button on it. Never used it

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I also use the CTEK 4.0 AMG for the Concorde battery, and I even have a built-in connector in the rear of my plane to just snap in the charger to that connector. This had been installed many years ago, but in the last years nobody cared about that. I just had to buy a CTEK charger so that it would fit into this connector.

Initially, when I bought th plane, the battery was a bit on the low side, but the charger made it behave like new again. The connector in my plane has three lights to indicate battery status (green, yellow and red of course). Initially, the battery was always showing yellow when all electrics switched off and in the hangar, even shortly after flight. Now it is on green, even after 4 weeks of not flying and without the charger connected to the plane. This has really renewed the battery.

So far haven’t done a capacity test.

I have absolutely nothing to do with CTEK, and there will surely be other chargers performing the same. But the invest of around 60 Euros seems to be a good invest to me when thinking about the price of a single battery.

Germany
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