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Description
Although aircraft batteries aren't high on our list of things to worry about, that isn't the case for many owners, given the volume of reader mail we receive on this subject. Battery chargers figure into this concern, too, and following our report on this topic in January 2006, the subject has become, improbably controversial, spurred along by some new technological developments.
By virtue of customer complaints about Gill sealed batteries, our previously recommended battery charger choice, the Battery Tender Plus by Deltran Corp., has been withdrawn from the aviation market and another company, VDC Electronics, has introduced an aviation-specific design based on charging profiles from the Concorde Battery Company. Our tests of this device show that it's promising, with circuitry that reduces the peak charging voltage limit and lowers the float voltage for aviation AGM batteries.
The charger also has a temperature sensor that keeps voltages optimized for storage environment, which will benefit batteries in hot hangars, in our view. In this report, we'll examine this new technology and explore whether the aviation charger meets its claimed specifications and if it's worth the money. (It does and it is.) For comparative purposes, we're also looking at some off-the-shelf chargers. Surprisingly, many charging profiles are recommended by battery manufacturers and these profiles aren't just limited to battery chemistry/construction types such as flooded and sealed cells. They also apply within the same genres and from brand to brand.
To improve performance, higher end chargers have user settable profiles, something that's especially important for AGM--absorbed glass mat--batteries that are becoming popular for aircraft use.
Temperature sensors have been around a long time, but have previously been restricted to high-end chargers used for multiple deep-cycle battery setups. Some chargers have a... |
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