precedent battery, obc problem?

smokey tennis shoe

2010 precedent. Here is the tale :

Cart shop installed 6 new interstate batteries when they refurbished the cart. 2 years later batteries failed, so they replaced the set, with a new set of interstate batteries. Great. Now 14 months into the 2nd set, they are failing.

I charge the cart overnite, with a different charger , let sit, then read voltage at 49.4 next morning. I did a discharge test and get 2http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/electric-club-car/113646-2010-precedent-battery-light-loss-charge.html3 minutes.. Charged up again overnite. volts read 49.5.

I then unplug , wait 30 seconds and replug in. The needle on charger then goes to 9 amps. I know the batteries are bad, i see that . My question is, does it sound like the obc is bad, and only allowing to charge up to 75%?

Before i install another set of batteries, i need to find out what is killing these??

BGW

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glassk

One bad connection/cable will ruin a set of batteries, ...

jjance

There are only so many charge/discharge cycles in a set of batteries. If you are an industrial user and run down the batteries everyday as compared to the little old lady that drives her cart only on Sunday to church. Your batteries might last 2-3 years whereas hers will last her 10.

TahoeDawgZ71

This is true. There's a factory here that uses a lot of IQ Plus Carryalls with Trojan T-145 heavy duty 6 volts in them. They last about 2 years.

Hecky50

I am no expert but i see Indio gets pretty hot most of the year. That could be part of the problem. here in SC the summers are pretty warm but not in the 100's on a daily basis. My cart doesn't run well in the summer.

smokey tennis shoe

This cart is private owned, plays golf 2 x a week. Very maticulus about how he charges and takes care of the cart.

I was wondering if it is possible for an obc to be faulty such that it would only charge a cart 76%? Or is the obc all or nothing?

jjance

All carts are sold with new batteries and all owners meticulously take care of their batteries. But I could see how an OBC might go bad and either over charge or undercharge the batteries. Try monitoring the charge voltage. Normal charge should increase to about 58/59 volts and drop to 4 amps. Stay there for an hour or so and shutoff. Unpluging the charge cord and plugging it right back in will put the charger in the equalization mode and the voltage will increase to about 63 volts. If your voltages are drastically out of line with these you are either overcharging or undercharging batteries and both conditions will shorten the life. If that is the case I suggest you upgrade to a DPI charger which is based on modern technology not 20 year old. Plus you shouldn't do the equalize but every month or 2.

Muddog

Could be an OBC or,
Check the charger output on his charger.
Bought a cart that had the same problem.
The batteries were a year old and wouldn't show full voltage after charge.
The charger was bad and was not outputting full voltage.
Either the batteries developed a memory or they we hurt by being used at 3/4 charge,
cause when I put a new charger on them they did the same thing and wouldn't come to full voltage.

smokey tennis shoe

as far as checking the charger, i did try a second charger, and the second charger also only charged them to 75 %, so i think that would indicate the original charger is not the issue?

jjance

Technically the OBC is part of the charger. It is the brains of the charger. Did you also swap the OBC.