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Electric EZGO Electric EZ GO Marathon, Medalist, TXT and RXV. |
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12-27-2011, 06:23 PM | #1 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,901
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Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
Well before my build my charger would kick on and shoot up to about 20 and charge for a good 12-15 hours. Well I did not maintain the batteries well during my build because they were out of the cart for a very long time. Well I also took my charger apart to give it a good cleaning on the inside and clean up whatever corrosion was on it. Anyways..........
Now my charger kicks on and does not even go above like 6 or 7 and charges for about an hour or two. Also my charger hums annoyingly loud. Which I don't recall it being that loud before. So are my batteries completely shot or is something wrong with my charger? Just trying to figure out what my problem is here. I know it's going to need batteries but I can't really do that right now. Thanks |
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12-27-2011, 10:53 PM | #2 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Panama City, FL
Posts: 1,408
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
humming is normal for a ferroresonant charger. as they age, the varnish holding things tight tends to break down and chip off resulting in vibrations from the coils &/or laminations. if it bothers you, you can re-dip the transformer or try to dampen the vibration.
what voltage is your pack at when the charger cuts off? what voltage is the pack at after sitting for 5 or 6 hours after charging? which charger do you have? -sj |
12-27-2011, 11:48 PM | #3 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,901
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
Will have to check voltages tomorrow. I know I have a powerwise charger tho.
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12-28-2011, 05:38 AM | #4 |
Techno-Nerd
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 19,654
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
Low initial amps and shuts off in a couple hours means your charger thinks your batteries are fully charged.
High internal resistance in a cell or two will fool the charger into thinking the battery is fully charged when it isn't, so my guess is that your charger is okay, but your batteries aren't. Like SJ suggested, measure the voltages after they've rested. They should all be within a couple tenths of a volt of each other. You can also measure voltage while on charge and look for large differences in voltage between batteries. If at all possible try your charger on a different cart and/or try a different charger on your cart to find out if the problem is with your charger or your batteries. I saw your charger in a couple of pictures in your build thread, but not enough of faceplate to tell if it's a PowerWise or a PowerWise+, but this manual covers both. Don't say that I never gave you anything for Christmas, even if it is a couple days late. |
12-28-2011, 09:48 AM | #5 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,901
|
Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
well just put it back on charger. I'll wait for it to kick off, check voltages per battery, post my findings then I'll check after they have rested for about 6 hours and once again report my findings.
Thanks guys |
12-28-2011, 12:06 PM | #6 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Bunnell, Florida
Posts: 2,408
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
Colt,
you may want to give " scottyb's " new battery break in procedure a go! It really helped my old batteries. To load mine, I used a 12V headlamp bulb left on for several hours. I don't know which battery voltages you are using, but this will work for even an 8V battery. Just series two 6v's, or single an 8 or 12V. This repeated procedure worked wonders for me! |
12-28-2011, 12:39 PM | #7 |
Gone Wild
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,901
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
Wait wait wait. Please explain this to me a little more. This sounds like it may work great. Is this almost like rejuvenating?
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12-28-2011, 02:45 PM | #8 | |
Techno-Nerd
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 19,654
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
Quote:
I also recharged after slight discharges, (5% to 10%), which is basically the new battery break-in procedure. Unless you spilled some electrolyte (or it bubbled out due to overfilling) and replaced the lost electrolyte with water, all the chemistry that originally existed in your batteries still exists in them. The trick is getting the lead sulphates to return to lead or lead dioxide and sulfuric acid. Your battery charger is designed to minimize gassing (which is the electrolysis of water into Hydrogen and Oxygen and does not reduce the amount of sulfuric acid in the electrolyte, only the water, so water is all that needs to be replaced when electrolyte level gets low in battery) and stops charging before Specific Gravity stops rising. By recharging slightly discharged batteries or recharging "fully charged" batteries, you are converting a little more of the lead sulphates back into their original compounds. Not all will, but more will than in the typical recharge process. A lead-acid wet cell isn't actually fully charged until SG stops rising with consecutive measurements taken at one hour intervals. Unless you have a charger with adjustable voltage and current, or play some potentially dangerous games with your existing one, the best you can do is recharge after a slight discharge or recharge without any discharge. This process is somewhat akin to the periodic "Equalization" processes done by the maintainers of huge battery back-up systems. You are still going to have old batteries that don't have the storage capacity or current delivery of new batteries, but they will be the best they can be for what they are. Hope you brain does ache too much, I tried to keep it simple. |
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12-28-2011, 04:16 PM | #9 |
Gone Mad
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Buford, GA
Posts: 8,988
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
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12-28-2011, 04:20 PM | #10 |
Techno-Nerd
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 19,654
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Re: Questions regarding charger and or battery pack......
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