Tell me about batteries

doodles bug

Bought a set of US 2200s last spring and installed in the cart, 36V. Probably haven’t been charged a dozen times yet. I read up on care for new batteries, I thought I already knew but checked anyway in case I had learned bad information over the years. With minor discrepancies, what I had learned and what I read matched.

I left the batteries on the initial charge overnight until the charger turned off. Ran the cart around until it seemed to get pretty week but not dead. I didn’t find the voltage charts until I came here but I've had some prior experience with a couple of electric scooters I rode at the GM plant as an electrician and an area maintenance foreman. Also with golf carts used as an engineer when doing conveyor installs and startup in auto plants.

The second charge took much longer than the first or any others that have followed. I followed the same procedure the rest of the summer letting them get to what seemed low to me but not dead.

The cart was stored in the garage over the winter and only put on the charger 2-3 times over a 5-6 month period. The garage is not heated but it was a mild winter and with the heat absorbed through the insulated walls of the rest of the house, probably never dropped below 50 degrees.

I put the cart on charge this spring before using it. We’ve taken it out for trips to the pool and rides around the neighborhood, never recharging until the batteries got weak but not dead. Maybe it was my imagination, but the cart didn’t seem as strong after the last charge.

Now that I’ve found this forum and the battery charts, I’ve started monitoring the voltage. I checked the batteries and read about 37.5V. I don’t know how accurate the voltmeter is, it’s a cheapy from the hardware store, the LCD display went bad in my good Fluke. Even with +/- 1% accuracy, that’s about 0.4V possible error.

The granddaughter and I took it for a short ride in the park across the street (I didn’t want to run to run it too low too far away) and then road around the neighborhood some more. Afterward, I checked the battery voltage, read 37.2V and put them on charge overnight.

This morning I went down and read 37.8V, only about 90% charge depending on the accuracy of the meter. Using a trick I’d learned from my days at GM, I unplugged the charger then plugged it back in. The voltage reading slowly rose from 37.8V to 44.2V. I heard the batteries bubbling even with the caps on. The charger was showing about 7amps. I left them on charge for about 5-7 minutes, then unplugged the charger. The Voltage dropped to 40V. My explanation is the charging created heat which improved the chemical reaction producing the higher voltage.

I came up, installed the golf cart vehicle on my old Garmin nuvi then when back to check the battery voltage, it had fallen to 38.4V. I read each battery at 6.4V, amazing that adds up with the +/- one digit accuracy of the digital meter, but the batteries seem to be well matched.

My granddaughter is here but still asleep this morning. When she wakes up, we’ll be off to the park to make some speed and distance tests armed with the nuvi. Later, I’ll check for any comments or suggestions as to what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong.

BGW

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jakesnake27

This link really tells it all: http://cartsunlimited.net/site/3b750...hods.html#2616

Batteries loved being charged, whether a full charge or 20 minutes. But ALWAYS plug the cart in at the end of the day overnight. Lets say you come in for lunch at noon, go ahead and plug it in, even though it may only be a short amount of time- this is caled opportunity charging.
Read through Scotty's page about batteries- it has a lot of good information!

scottyb

It sounds like you have not been charging you r batteries often enough. And you didn't let the charger finish when you started the equalization charge...

check water and

Charge, charge, charge.

doodles bug

THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT. I found some information on the web and also seen here in this Battery Guide.pdf posted under the “Everything to do with batteries!” sticky at the top of this section, which says to charge until the charger shuts off and run down to 50% charge before recharging, then repeat first 10-12 charge cycles.

I had NEVER heard of this break-in procedure before for lead acid batteries and I’ve been dealing with lead acid batteries since the days when they came dry and the user filled them from a bag of acid that came with it. I have heard of and experienced firsthand the NiCad charge/discharge cycle memory but never for lead acid. Nevertheless, I thought maybe it was the newest thing for longer life and endurance.

Didn’t know it by that name but all batteries read within 0.01V (2 at 6.15V and 4 at 6.14V) prior to charging, so I didn’t think it necessary.

Didn’t get to do the range test, got stopped by the Park Police about 100 yards into the park. Nice guy, long conversation and long story. I’ll post it in a new thread later.

CartTrader

You don't have to run down to 50% before recharging!! Just don't run BELOW 50% before charging. If you run over 5 to 10 minutes and can...Recharge!! It will not hurt the batteries and actually helps them. The love being fully charged!!

CartTrader

jakesnake27

Very true, and as a matter of fact, they love getting ANY amount of charging.