Battery info overload

[RXLuke]

Hey everyone,

First off, 1997 Club Car DS, stock everything.

I have read countless threads about batteries, chargers, maintainers, state of charge, etc. My head is spinning when trying to nail down what the heck is really going on.

1. After 12 hours off the charger, the stock club car charger, my battery pack reads 50.3-50.4
1a: Does this mean that my pack is only holding onto about 80-85% of its maximum charge?
1b: Is this an ok number?

2. My stock club car charger cranks the volts up to about 54-56 volts across the pack when it first begins charging, then they settle down to the ~50.4 area.
2a: Is my charger doing as it should with this method? Sometimes when I come by it, the charger is in trickle mode and hovers around 3-5 amps. 12-14 amps when first charging.

3. My battery pack is 5 years old, but these numbers seem reasonable.
3a: The batteries are PD+ brand, a club car exclusive. I have read other threads about people getting 5+ years out of them before going kaput.
3b: I dip in voltage under load of 3 adults and going up hill to around 46.5 volts, and we slow down lots. Is this normal for even new batteries? I don't want to waste a year of use out of my batteries if I won't notice any reasonable changes in performance.

4. Would getting a battery maintainer, such as https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Saver...ger+maintainer be good to use after my club car stock charger to get the maximum amount of charge that the batteries can safely handle?
4a: There are threads that claim 53.2 volts steady after a full charge with the battery maintainer, granted these are new batteries. Could I expect something around 51.5-52 volts if I used one of these?

Thanks!

[scottyb]

1-3 is all normal and your observations are correct. 5 yrs is the average useful life for this pack. You may be able to eek along with 85% capacity if you only ask 85% use. Be aware they are fading and could turn for the worse at any time. Murphy's law may apply if you have a big golf cart event coming.

You will need batteries and now is not too soon. IMHO
It's a little late for a maintainer, but it won't hurt.
PS.
Money better spent on new batts and DPI charger with maintenance mode.

[Kashmir]

Scotty is the man...take his advice and you and your DS will be happy.

[Golf cart guy]

I agree with you luke, lots of percentage this and percentage that. The reality is charge the batteries and see how they perform. As batteries age , you will not get to the full charge percentage, so it becomes a moot point.
Its a lead acid battery, its been around for a 100 years. 49.9 volts maybe full charge for the age and charge of the batteries in your cart. Batteries loose capacity as the age, that's why you may get 40 miles when batteries are new and only 10 miles as the batteries age. You could also have batteries that charge to a 52 volt finish rate, but only go 10 miles. Why? because batteries fail in two ways....Inability to take a charge, or inability to hold a charge.
Forget age, forget finish charge rate and see how the cart performs.
Start to run out of distance and its time to start to look into new batteries

[yawood]

As Scotty said, it wouldn't hurt to get a maintainer. They pulse to help break up sulfation and may give you a bit more life or performance. My batteries are a lot newer than yours but when I used the maintainer a niggling problem I had seemed to disappear and the cart felt more lively.

[NoleFan4Ever]

Originally Posted by Golf cart guy

I agree with you luke, lots of percentage this and percentage that. The reality is charge the batteries and see how they perform. As batteries age , you will not get to the full charge percentage, so it becomes a moot point.
Its a lead acid battery, its been around for a 100 years. 49.9 volts maybe full charge for the age and charge of the batteries in your cart. Batteries loose capacity as the age, that's why you may get 40 miles when batteries are new and only 10 miles as the batteries age. You could also have batteries that charge to a 52 volt finish rate, but only go 10 miles. Why? because batteries fail in two ways....Inability to take a charge, or inability to hold a charge.
Forget age, forget finish charge rate and see how the cart performs.
Start to run out of distance and its time to start to look into new batteries

Thats exactly how I look at it. Even though mine are almost 7 years old, they still hold a good pack charge and easily cover the distances I travel. As soon as they will not or performance falls abruptly, I will replace them. And I have had a battery Life Saver on mine since early on and definitely accredit it and good maintenance with their longevity....