Meter on the charger

[huntintales]

My charger for my ezgo marathon has a meter that goes has a left to right range 0-30. When I go to charge the cart after batteries are low, it reads on the upper end near 30, after 8-10 hours of charging it reads near the 0. I have no idea what this meter is indicating. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[jakesnake27]

This is indicating the amperage output of the charger. At the beginning of the charge cycle it outputs a lot of amps, then it slowly decreases until the batteries are charged.

[Sir Nuke]

Jake is right on the money......your charger is doing and acting exactly like it should.

[huntintales]

But for some reason the charger is not turning off as I expect it too. It says on the front it will cut off when fully charged. I just bought new batteries two weeks ago and I am trying to top off to a full charge. I would think after 12 hours it should kick off???

[cgtech]

If the batteries are very low, and of good capacity, it could take 16+ hours to turn off.

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by cgtech

If the batteries are very low, and of good capacity, it could take 16+ hours to turn off.

^^^^ what he said^^^^

[Sir Nuke]

do you have a DVM installed on your cart to read the pack voltage??

if not, I would suggest you get one, its a great addition to any eclectic cart.

http://www.cartsunlimited.net/Digita...ry_Meters.html

if you have a handheld DVM, the next time you charge the cart.....and its down to where it looks like its zero......take a reading on the total pack voltage.

just let it finish, once it does (should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 44 - 46v), and finally cuts off, wait 12 hours and measure it again. as the voltage "settles" and will end up at 38.2 or a little more.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by huntintales

But for some reason the charger is not turning off as I expect it too. It says on the front it will cut off when fully charged. I just bought new batteries two weeks ago and I am trying to top off to a full charge. I would think after 12 hours it should kick off???

New batteries take a long time to charge, but they charge quicker after they are broken in.

However, the charger may not be shutting off when it is supposed to.

What is the pack's On-Charge voltage after 8-10 hours and the ammeter is reading little more than zero?

Also, what is make/model of charger?

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Added: The statement highlighted in red is waving a red flag.
New batteries ought to be fully charged prior to first use and then recharged after each use.

For the longest battery life expectancy, you want to keep the Average SoC as high as possible or practical.

[huntintales]

Its a powerwise by ezgo. Im not sure if its the same one that came with cart when new. Its black and has yellow lettering Powerwise. Im not sure how to check the whole pack charge but each battery has around 6.5 Im starting to think its not cutting off . It has charged at least now about 30 hours total and i have only got about 1 hours run time on it. So i guess its down to either getting a dvm put on the cart or have the charger looked at. But i feel like i will be ripped off taking in a battery charger ???

[JohnnieB]

Sounds like you have a charger similar to the one in the attached picture.

Also sounds like the basic charger is functioning normally, but might not be turning off automatically, which means the control board in the charger might be bad.

Quick check would be to disconnect charger from cart and AC power and then plug into AC power without plugging charger DC output cable to cart.

If the charger's transformer hums, there is a relay inside the charger that has been bypassed and the typical reason the relay gets bypassed is because the control board is defective.

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To find where to put you voltmeter leads to measure battery pack voltage, trace the two wires from the carts charge receptacle to the battery posts they connect to. Those would be the main positive and negative terminals for your battery pack.

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I may be wrong, but from the wording of your statements I suspect you have some concerns about overcharging your new batteries.

That is a valid concern, but it often leads to undercharging, which is just as bad, if not worse than overcharging. In fact, undercharging has killed more golf cart batteries than overcharging has because it is difficult to overcharge and easy to undercharge.

Cart batteries ought to be put on charge after each use, if not, the batteries are being undercharged.

With an automatic charger, the probability of overcharging is very low.

If the relay in your charger is bypassed, which allows it to stay on contentiously, the probability of overcharging is a bit higher, but not a major concern as long as you don't let it run more than about 16 hours at a time.

Of course it would be best to get your charger fixed if it is broke.