We’re working on an interview with some battery experts, and this is your chance to ask the tough questions. Have you wondered if dropping an aspirin in will help recover a dead battery (or was that chicken soup)? Then there’s the story that charging a battery with it on a concrete floor is a bad idea. Really?
Some of the questions we’ve thought of are below. Send us yours and if we use it, you’ll get the credit for asking.
- Why are aircraft batteries so expensive?
- Besides Gill and Concorde, who makes aircraft batteries?
- What’s the story of these batteries that have multi-cylinders for sides?
- Why does a car battery last so much longer than an aircraft battery?
- Are Li-ion (lithium-ion) batteries suitable for aircraft?
- Is there an easy way to know which batteries should never be run to flat?
- What’s the “old” technology vs. the “new”? If we’ve updated the panel, how about the battery?
- Is there a way to recover a dead battery?
- What are the failure modes and how do I avoid them?
- Is a solar-powered trickle charger a good idea?
- How do de-sulfators work (and what’s sulfation)?
- What should I do with the battery if I don’t fly but once a month? I’m not going to pull it out and store it every month, so is there some easy way to care for it that will only cost me 10% of its life?
- Is there really any difference between an auto-parts store battery and an “official” aircraft battery? Can I use the cheaper version in my Experimental airplane?
- Vents, screw-on caps, totally sealed. Why the difference?
- How can I check the condition of the battery if I can’t get a hydrometer sample? See question 14.
- Overcharging is “bad”, but is undercharging any better?
- I left the charger on too long and boiled out the liquid; is it a goner?
- (your question here!)
