EarthX wins!
After 3.5 years on my old sealed lead battery I was experiencing slow starts. So I placed my complete package order from EarthX including their Van?s clone battery box to fit the original mounting holes, the special charger designed to reset a dead battery and the LED ?fault? warning light. The battery box is quite K.I.S.S. which I like. The special charger was a little bigger than I hoped (as I will add this to my longer overnight trip luggage) and weighed in at 1.6 pounds. But I hope to never drain the battery. As a side note there is a way described in the battery directions to reset a drained battery with another 12 volt battery, and then a "normal" charger can charge the battery in a pinch.
BTW; thank you Kathy for shipping my package so fast!
What came in my shipment;
Dropped into the new aluminum box the battery weighed in at only 4.4 pounds. What a difference, and so easy to pull in and out of its new home in my plane.
And the old anchor. Confirming as advertised 11 pound savings! A hangar neighbor, also with an RV got out his scale because he could not believe it! The EarthX box was a little lighter too as these pictures show the boxes being weighed with the batteries.
I made a new Z bracket for my starter relay and master solenoid to mount to the new box.
And after thinking about it, I decided it would be easier and better to use my Dynon Skyview EFIS to alert me of a battery fault. This gives me a good visual scan of electrical health plus voice warning. A hook-up from the wire at the battery to a general discreet input on the Dynon EMS module is needed.
Operation;
When I received the new battery and charger I test charged, cell balanced and tested the charge holding capability. All this is automated with the charger and takes overnight. The next morning the charger tells you the results and battery condition, all good! Then after installation into the airplane I did some EFIS programing for about 30 minutes. So the big moment was at hand as I rolled out of the hangar! I have never had my prop spin so fast or the engine start so easy. It was more like a car starting. I took a quick look at the gauges and found the battery taking 28 amps for several seconds but as I taxied it was down to 9, and at run-up it was at 1 amp. This is all normal as the battery sucks more juice at start-up if it has been discharged some.
So bottom line, better performance, great weight savings and an expectation of more dependability!
Cheers to fast starts and blue skies!