- Joined
- Oct 18, 2011
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Fellow forum members,
Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I opened the hangar door and saw a puddle under my battery box drain.... I immediately opened the front battery compartment (PA-32 260) and disconnected the battery and pulled it out. It wasn't hot, but it was wet on top and the bottom of the battery box had a decent amount of water in the bottom. I've cleaned up the battery box (and neutralized it) and cleaned up the rest of the mess. While I was cleaning the battery off I checked the water levels and they seemed fine (2 out of 6 were lower than the others).
Some other data points are as follows:
I last flew the plane a few nights ago for about 20 minutes, prior to this flight it had been 18 days since the last flight (I usually don't let the plane sit that long). The battery was right at 12 volts when I went to start it for this flight. I chalked the low resting voltage to the lower than normal OAT (45-ish degrees). Once the engine was running the voltage went to 14 volts (normal for this plane). I didn't happen to look at the amp meter other than during my initial scan (it didn't seem out of place). In that 20 minutes I actually landed at another airport to take on some fuel. It started normally (a little sluggish) for what I thought was a cold night.
The battery was installed in April 2012 (right before I bought the plane). I know that I've maintained it once (added distilled water) after my voltage regulator failed. It's had two annuals since then (last annual was end of October).
Nice new cables and connections, plenty of grounds (my mechanic is pretty serious).
I haven't noticed any parasitic draw once the master switch is off in the last few years...
It looks as if the battery box drained straight down (no evidence of acid on the belly). I'll clean and neutralize the belly anyway...
So my question:
Can a battery over flow from cold weather (ambient temps have been between 40 and 50 but I would imagine it was a touch colder in the hangar - maybe a few degrees) or do batteries only overflow from excessive charge/current draw?
Any other thoughts?
As a weird side note; one of my main tank sump drains leaked as well. The weird part is that all of the drains were replaced at annual...
Thank!
Ted
Sent from my iPad using Piper Forum
Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I opened the hangar door and saw a puddle under my battery box drain.... I immediately opened the front battery compartment (PA-32 260) and disconnected the battery and pulled it out. It wasn't hot, but it was wet on top and the bottom of the battery box had a decent amount of water in the bottom. I've cleaned up the battery box (and neutralized it) and cleaned up the rest of the mess. While I was cleaning the battery off I checked the water levels and they seemed fine (2 out of 6 were lower than the others).
Some other data points are as follows:
I last flew the plane a few nights ago for about 20 minutes, prior to this flight it had been 18 days since the last flight (I usually don't let the plane sit that long). The battery was right at 12 volts when I went to start it for this flight. I chalked the low resting voltage to the lower than normal OAT (45-ish degrees). Once the engine was running the voltage went to 14 volts (normal for this plane). I didn't happen to look at the amp meter other than during my initial scan (it didn't seem out of place). In that 20 minutes I actually landed at another airport to take on some fuel. It started normally (a little sluggish) for what I thought was a cold night.
The battery was installed in April 2012 (right before I bought the plane). I know that I've maintained it once (added distilled water) after my voltage regulator failed. It's had two annuals since then (last annual was end of October).
Nice new cables and connections, plenty of grounds (my mechanic is pretty serious).
I haven't noticed any parasitic draw once the master switch is off in the last few years...
It looks as if the battery box drained straight down (no evidence of acid on the belly). I'll clean and neutralize the belly anyway...
So my question:
Can a battery over flow from cold weather (ambient temps have been between 40 and 50 but I would imagine it was a touch colder in the hangar - maybe a few degrees) or do batteries only overflow from excessive charge/current draw?
Any other thoughts?
As a weird side note; one of my main tank sump drains leaked as well. The weird part is that all of the drains were replaced at annual...
Thank!
Ted
Sent from my iPad using Piper Forum
