batteries not charging

[jerroh1]

Bought 2004 EZGO 6 seater and guy said 48 volt charger and batteries were brand new. Thing charges for hours and hours and meter never goes up. Can't tell if it's charging. If not, how to check if it's charger problem or wiring/cart problem? Charged it over night and green light on charger never came on and meter is the same on cart. Thanks!

[JohnnieB]

Welcome to BGW!

If you don't have a DMM (Digital Multi-Meter) get one, an inexpensive one that comes in a blister pack will suffice.
Here is a chart that shows voltage -vs- State of Charge.
Note: Voltages given are taken 12 hours after charger shuts off automatically. Reading taken sooner will be falsely high.

Which of the myriad of 48V chargers do you have?
Some are repairable, other aren't.

What kind of battery meter (a.k.a. - State of Charge meter) is installed in your cart?
If the Bar-Graph type, don't trust it until you've confirmed its operation and verified its accuracy with a handheld DVM.
Personally, I prefer an old analog type to the LED Bar-Graph and a DVM type SoC meter to either.

To determine if charger is charging, attach DMM test leads to main leads from battery pack to controller (B-) and solenoid (B+).
Initial voltage reading will be whatever you've discharged battery pack down to.
When charger is connected and turned on, the voltage will begin to increase.
Rate of increase is relatively slow, 0.1V every second or so at first, gets slower as pack voltage increases towards about 56V (48V pack) and really gets slow from there up to the 58-62 volt range where the 48V charger will shut-off automatically.

Since you didn't mention an ammeter on the charger, I suspect you have a Powerwise QE, which isn't repairable.

If so, and it is bad, the 48V DPI charger is a good replacement.

[jerroh1]

Thanks JohnnieB!
I definitely need to get a DMM.
My charger is a DSR Mdel INC-4825A by Schumacher.
Meter is the bar-graph type.

After I wrote the initial post, and having the charger plugged in all night, the meter finally read full and the green light was on in the morning. I guess it just takes way longer than I expected. Supposedly, it's a new charger and batteries and probably takes 12-18 hours to fully charge when it was only at 30-40% battery. Does that sound about right?

Thanks again!
jerroh1

[mauimark]

The cart may have been sitting uncharged for a long time. Lead acid batteries can take long charge times to recover fully after sitting discharged for significant time (if they come back at all.) I just recovered 5/6 batteries that were virtually new but then sat for a couple years. It took several days of constant charging and discharging to bring them back up, and lost one cell on the sixth in the process.

Treat them well now that you have them up :)

[JohnnieB]

Glad to hear the batteries came up.
They should never, ever, be discharged below 50% again.
New batteries take a long time to charge, but after they are broken in, something in the 4 to 8 hour neighborhood would be typical.

If you don't know how to break in new batteries, go here and read everything with "Battery" in title.
http://www.cartsunlimited.net/Batter...n_Methods.html

Also, for greatest battery life expectancy, keep them charged as fully as possible and/or practical.

[jerroh1]

Wow, thanks so much for the info, i would have never known. Really appreciated! Happy carting!!!

[Brockport GC]

I have a 2008 EZ Go 36 Volt Cart. I keep it plugged in at night and when I plug it in it goes to 10 Amps. In the morning I turned the cart on and the battery meter read half full. What should I look for?