Charger/Battery Problem

[mikea]

Ran ez-go 36volt down to 3 bars on meter and plugged into powerwise charger, checked after 5-6 hours and charger was off and meter was at 4 bars. Then checked water in batterys and one was dry and a few others require water, filled and plugged in charger and it charged for about 10 min @ 15amps then shut off, drove around for 20 min then plugged in again and it cut off after 10min again. Took to my neighbors house and his charger kept charging for a couple hours. I thought that the dry cell my kept it from staying on but my neighbors charger never cut off. I have looked through the forum and havnt found any other problems like this. Anyone have any suggestions? Charger or Battery?

Thx
Mikea

[arcitech]

WELCOME!

First order of business, have you done a search of the site? This is easy to do and should be the first thing you do when you have a question. Chances are that someone else has had the same problem and it was resolved fairly quickly. If you wait for answers to your post, you might be waiting for a day or two.

Second, have you taken voltage checks of all your batteries, before and after charging and after your 20min drive? If you post your readings we can give you some better advice.

Third, have you taken a voltage reading while the charger is on? This could help determine if you have a bad charger or possibly a bad battery.

Fourth, SOC's (state of charge) meters are only as good as the batteries that they monitor. When properly connected to a fully charged pack they will give you a "ESTIMATE" of battery charge. Most of the digital bar style meters will make their set point at whatever voltage they first detect. You also have to make sure that they are not energized when the charger is going or they will give you a bad reading as soon as you drive the cart. A digital multimeter is your best diagnostic tool, and a requirement for anyone with an electric cart.

Again, Welcome to BGW

[arcitech]

Originally Posted by mikea

Ran ez-go 36volt down to 3 bars on meter and plugged into powerwise charger, checked after 5-6 hours and charger was off and meter was at 4 bars. Then checked water in batterys and one was dry and a few others require water, filled and plugged in charger and it charged for about 10 min @ 15amps then shut off, drove around for 20 min then plugged in again and it cut off after 10min again. Took to my neighbors house and his charger kept charging for a couple hours. I thought that the dry cell my kept it from staying on but my neighbors charger never cut off. I have looked through the forum and havnt found any other problems like this. Anyone have any suggestions? Charger or Battery?

Thx
Mikea

Did you try Google? Type in your problem and then end it with buggiesgonewild and you will get easier searches than just using the search bar on the forums. Also, the results are by date order, you might have to go back a couple of pages to get to a relevant post.
O.K. Try this: http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...-issues-y.html
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...-charging.html
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...few-weeks.html
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...g-problem.html

[mikea]

Thanks arcitect, i had 6+ volts on all batterys just before the charger problem, the red flag that threw me off is that is would charge fine on my neighbors charger but when connected to mine would not. I will keep playing with it and will search more to prevent repeat threads.

Thanks again,

Mikea

[shadowman]

what brand of batteries and age of them? and condition of cables and batt. terminals are they all clean and tight.........very clean.......................