Initial Charging of a Gill G-25S Battery

[170C]

I, like most of you, have used battery chargers most of my life to charge automobile, tractor and other batteries including aircraft batteries. However as the new owner of a Gill 25-S ("valve regulated non-maintainable battery"), purchased with the hope of stopping the corrosion problems in my battery box, and being $120.00 lighter in the pocketbook am wanting to be sure I do any charging correctly & not mess up my investment. Gill data says the battery was charged prior to shipping and it may not need to be charged before installing, but if it does they have some specific instructions on how to do so. They recommend using a CONSTANT POTENTIAL (TAPERING) charger. I have an old, but still very good functioning, Schumacher 2/10/50 Trickle-Charge-Starter Charger with an amp meter. Is this a constant potential (tapering) charger? Gill mentions periodic maintenance . If I need to recharge this battery should I do so in the 2 amp or 10 amp setting and since this is a "trickle charger" wouldn't it be OK to leave the charger on for 12-24 hours since the charger is "supposed" to shut off when the battery is fully charged? This battery charger is a 12 volt unit, but I would think it is OK for a 14 volt battery.-----Any directions/guideance will be appreciated.

[iowa]

hi
i just charge mine up with my old 12V charger for a few hours
and then put a battery tender on it till the green lite comes on.
seems batteries come with very elaborate instructions these days,
but i think most of it is litagation driven.
we built a new hangar a few years ago complete with schweiss doors.
Guess how many warning stickers on on each door?
ridiculous!!
i've seen many crazy things happen with batteries over the years.
have seen many people who have had batteries blow up in their faces.
but usually they have done blatantly foolhardy things to achieve this.
a little common sense goes a long ways.
but...what do i know, i'm just a dumb dr.
iowa

[GAHorn]

Frank, your charger is probably not a constant potential charger, but what you have is just fine. (Gill would prefer you have a laboratory and a science degree, but all you need to do is put a top-charge on it and go fly!
If you fly once a month your battery will do just fine. If you fly only once every quarter, then about every 6-8 weeks you might want to put a charge on it overnight at the 2A level. If you fly only once every 6 months then you should charge it overnight before the trip at the 2A level.
If you leave the master switch on (and since I know you hang onto every piece of advice I ever give, and therefore you also left your rot. beacon/strobes ON permantently and never turn them off except in clouds and near other aircraft) ... and your buddies at the airport called you and said bright flashes of light are coming from the seams around your hangar door and it like someone's in there taking photographs of your beautiful airplane at the rate of 50 pics-a-minute... then when you get to the airport you should charge your battery at the 10A rate for about 4-6 hours or until the meter drops below 1A.
It's not nencessary to absolute charge your battery all the way up to the "tippy-top" if all you're going to do is close up the hangar and go home. Every time you fly your plane the battery will be excersized and recharged by your aircraft system. (Constantly charging your battery until it reads absolutely "0" amps on a regular basis will simply overwork your battery for no practical benefit, and will actually shorten it's lifetime.)