Battery Charger Equalization

hhh

Does anyone know if any cart battery charger has an equalization charge mode? I used to RV and boondock (live off-grid), one important process to extend battery life was using a charger that used an equalization charge every 30 days. A normal equalization charge applies around 15v (in a 12v system) for 2 to 4 hours. This reduces battery stratification by mixing the electrolyte.

I recently stopped RVing and will be getting a cart soon. Besides using a good charger I will be setting up a solar charger to finish off the charge process. Years of RV experience and much experimenting has shown a properly setup solar charger will get you a better a charge on the batteries and extend their life. The main reason being is that the better solar charge controllers can be programmed to give you optimal charge voltages rather then using the more conservative settings built into commercial battery chargers.

BGW

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kab69440

Most automatic chargers will equalize simply by being unplugged and plugged back in. After a basic recharge cycle, let the batteries rest for 8-12 hours and plug the charger back in.

JohnnieB

Sounds like you already know more about the proper care and feeding of Deep Cycle Flooded Lead-Acid cells than the typical cart owner.

Not much of anything out there that I know of, that actually gets up into the equalizing voltage range. (46.5VC for a 36V battery pack), or at least nothing selling for less than an arm and leg.

The method kab69440 mentioned works pretty well if pack isn't too unbalanced, but the trick is to keep the pack from getting too imbalanced. Running your 12V accessories from a voltage reducer (DC-DC Converter) fed from the entire battery pack, or from a auxiliary 12V battery that is entirely separate from the 36V pack, will minimize the need for equalization.

Building a solar charger to occasionally take the pack into the equalization voltage range after a "Full" charge by an Automatic type Golf Cart battery charger, might do what you are wanting to do.

hhh

Thanks for the info. It's not uncommon for RVers with a good solar package to get 8 or more years out of a battery pack with only about 10% loss of capacity. Seeing how many cart packs only last 4 or 5 years spending a grand on a decent solar package would pay for itself quickly.

JohnnieB

I'm not familiar with RVing or Solar power, so I'm not sure if they use Golf Cart or Marine deep cycle flooded lead-acid batteries, or something else, but the same basic principles probably apply.
Keep them clean, keep them watered, keep them charged and keep the connections clean & tight.

I believe the biggest killers of cart batteries (other than poor maintenance) are discharging them too deeply and/or letting them sit too long before recharging.

In a nutshell, the higher average State of Charge you keep your batteries at, the longer they last.

Here's a chart showing the theoretic life expectancy vs Average State of Charge. I "borrowed" the basic chart from one of the Site Sponsors (scottyb) and added some text. He got it from Trojan Battery Co.

Attached Images

SoC vs Theoretical Charge cycles with Voltages.JPG (119.3 KB, 0 views)

Rickochet

Here is something I found that looks interesting. Hook this puppy up with a 30 watt solar panel to your charged battery pack and it supposedly keeps things topped off.

http://www.oaklandpowerconversion.co...t-Charger.html