Charge time and boiling batteries

[buckv]

Hello, this is my first and I thank you. I just picked up a 2003 electric precedent with 4- 12 volt batteries to make up the 48 volts. I was told that the batteries hadn't been charged in a month or 2 and they were sitting in the Wisconsin cold. I have a couple of questions, How long does it take to charge? For some reason the charger goes down to 5 amps and hangs there. I'm kind of afraid to leave it charge because I can hear the water boiling and I don't want to start a fire. What is the max time I should leave the charger on to see if it will turn off ? Is it normal for batteries to boil?

[lgbarne]

Hmm... I'll leave the answers about boiling batts to the experts, but I believe the charger will shut off after 16 hours.

[scottyb]

The batteries are not really boiling. They are gassing. Gassing is not a bad thing. It's part of the heavy recharge cycle. Maximum charge time is 16 hours. The charger will shut off automatically at the hours. The majority of the charge time is spent with the charger running between 5 and 8 amps. This is the final and finishing stage of the recharge cycle. This is the important leveling process which equalizes all the cells. Let the charger finish.

Welcome to BGW!

[lgbarne]

It might be usefull to describe how much boiling you are seeing. A little bubbling is to be expected - it is called 'gassing'.

[simple man]

It can take up to 16hrs for a complete charge. The " boiling " is perfectly normal towards the end of the charge cycle. You should make sure water just covers over the plates in the batteries. After the charger has stopped you can then fill them to the indicator in each cell. They can get warm, but not hot! If they get hot stop the charge and let them cool overnight and then restart the charging. Your batteries may take several charge and use cycles to become " maximized " again.

[buckv]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Another quick quesion..I hooked up a battery tester and 2 of the batteries were in the green (good) and 2 were just barely in the yellow(weak). Do I need to replace the 2 weak ones or should I run them as is. Again, I'm new to this and this will be my first camping season running a cart. I'm already learning a ton from this forum!

[simple man]

Get them fully charged and use the cart a few times and then retest the batteries. They should all read very close to each other. If not you may have some bad batteries.

[scottyb]

At first use the cart lightly, 10 to 15 min. driving Max, then recharge. Repeat this daily for several days and then let the cart set for 12 hours after the charger shuts off and recheck both voltage and specific gravity across the whole pack. These tests will give a good idea of what you got for batteries. You can post your test results here if you want us to help you analyze them.

[buckv]

How do I test across the whole pack? Forgive me, I'm pretty new at this.

[lgbarne]

I would test voltage on entire pack (positive #1-red cable to solenoid and negative #4-black cable to controller) and also each battery and post all the results (should be 5 readings in total)