electronic battery desulfator

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by the_freshmaker5

I have 6 8v trojan's, are you guys saying that i should have the cart plugged in at all time when im not driving it? If my charge is half full it seems like it takes a few hours before it even starts to charge. One time i plugged it in for two hours to give me a lil juice before the night started and it didnt get me any more charge at all.

IF you have a charger that has a built-in trickle charger, such that once a full charge is acheived, it turns on and off to maintain it, then YES, keep the cart plugged in untill you are ready to use it.

IF NOT, charge your cart until the charger shuts off. then you can unplug it if you want. if you don't use the cart for up to a week, plug it in and "top it off" and plug it in each day after your done, regardless of how little/much you may have used it that day.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by the_freshmaker5

...............
1. Also I have 6 8v trojan's, are you guys saying that i should have the cart plugged in at all time when im not driving it?
2. If my charge is half full it seems like it takes a few hours before it even starts to charge.
3. One time i plugged it in for two hours to give me a lil juice before the night started and it didnt get me any more charge at all.

1. Everybody's situation is different, so there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer, but your batteries should be kept as fully charged as possible and practical.
In general terms, recharge after each use or if you make numerous short trips with little time between trips, at least every night the cart was used during the day.
If you have a charger that transitions into a float charge mode after the normal charge cycle, it should be plugged into cart when cart isn't in use. With other type chargers it doesn't matter whether or not they are unplugged from cart after the charge cycle ends.

2. By 50%, do you mean the At-Rest pack voltage is down to 48.4V?
How are you determining "it seems like it takes a few hours before it even starts to charge."?
With a properly functioning charger, charging loop and batteries, the bulk of the charging occurs in the first hour or two.

3. Something is wrong with your charger, or the charging loop, or the batteries.
A 2-hr opportunity charge ought to have put something in the neighborhood of 30AH back into the battery pack, unless the charger you are using puts out less than 15A.
What charger do you have?

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I see Sir-Nuke beat me.

BTW: Trickle charge and Float charge are different animals, float is better.

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

BTW: Trickle charge and Float charge are different animals, float is better.

true enough....and I used the wrong term when I posted.....I was in a hurry and had a brain fart....that happen what ya get old, lol

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/desig...aver-test.html

[cgtech]

I have done testing with the lester discharge machine to quantify the results. I believe the BLS truly does what it says to a measurable extent. i did this test on an "off-lease" 48v yamaha, 4 year old cart and 4yr old trojan batteries. this test was on a 2005 model, test conducted in 2009. this cart bad been parked and not used regularly since we got it.

step one: run 2 charge cycles without discharge to ensure fully charged starting point.

step two: first discharge = 44 minutes discharge (53amp draw until pack voltage = 42.0v.- greater than 60 minutes is generally considered a passing score) FAIL!

Step three: continue charge-discharge cycles until no further improvement is observed, required more than 10 cycles. 77 minutes, PASS!!

Although, some of the increase certanly was attributable to charge-discharge cycles alone, i feel with the huge increase, some must have been from the BLS doing its job.

BTW 77 minutes is a very respectable score for any 4 yr old battery subjected to golf course duty.

[JohnnieB]

Placebo Effect.

Kidding aside: @ Both CDT and cgtech; Interesting tests and result.

Like I said earlier in the thread, the electronic desulfators do have merit and I'm pretty sure some are more effective than others.

As cgtech alluded to: In his testing, it is unknown how much of the improvement to attribute to regular charger and how much to the BLS system.

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I got some amazing results on a 36V set of T-105 batteries using an ordinary ferroresonant transformer design charger by repeatedly charging them with little or no intervening discharges.

I acquired a 2008 PDS with a date code of B0808, in Jun-2011 and all six of the Trojan batteries had a L9 date code, so I suspect the had been replaced. That told me the guys in the cart barn at the golf course it came from didn't have a stellar battery maintenance program and the fact that the year and a half old batteries would only charge to 85% SoC confirmed it.

I cleaned the charge loop connections, verified the charger was operating within its design specs and replaced the high current cables. Would still only charge to 85% SoC. Needed new batteries, but winter wasn't far around the corner and I wanted to wait until spring, so I decided to limp along for a while. Then I decided to experiment a little. (At worst, I'd have to put the cart away for the winter a bit sooner, but I wouldn't have to worry about keeping the batteries charged if I ruined them. )

After a month of charging the living daylights out of the batteries with a Powerwise II, they were charging to 95% Soc. I'm a firm believer in float charging so I bought a Protech-C and the batteries were float charged over the winter. The SoC they would reach improved to ~100% by the spring and I didn't replace that set of batteries until about a month ago.

Along the way, the Protech-C failed and I replaced it with a DPI Accusense charger, which is currently keeping those batteries charged. I have a 42V DPI for my new 42V pack.

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I doubt if I'll be able to, (I don't have a BLS or a load tester) but I would love to put a BLS on 3 of those batteries and charge/discharge them for a couple months and then switch the BLS to the other 3 and compare the differences.

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

I don't have a BLS or a load tester

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by crash test dummy

Clarification: I have access to SLI battery (Car battery) load testers, but not one designed for load testing deep cycle batteries. I can use my cart for run-time comparisons, but the the batteries I want to test aren't in the cart and I'm not about to re-install them.

I've kicked around the idea of using 120VAC heating elements to discharge deep cycle batteries that are not in a cart, but it hasn't gotten any further than a passing thought.

If someone wants to do a test subject/control subject type test on a 36V set of L9 T-105 batteries, I'll donate them to the cause, but they will have to pick them up at my place.