Default Behavior of ERIC Club Car Charger with Lithium Batteries

[enfantterrible]

I have an ERIC Club Car charger, which I use to charge two Relion 48v Lithium batteries in parallel. It's essentially a Delta-Q IC650, but branded by Club Car. I'm wondering if anyone knows what it does by default when charging lithium batteries. I'm assuming that it charges them up to 100%, then stops, and then only turns back on when it's "needed." But I don't know what "needed" means—is it a certain level; is it "dangerously low"?—and I can't find that information anywhere.

There is a USB port on the front, and I'm aware that I can use that to export the data, but the facilitating software is for Windows and I only have Macs. Before I run an emulator or somesuch, I wondered if anyone knows the answer offhand.

[Fairtax4me]

The ERIC charger was not designed to charge lithium batteries and you should not be using it for any lithium pack. The charge characteristics are all wrong, and as far as I know there's no way to program it correctly to properly charge a lithium pack.
You need a lithium specific charger for lithium batteries.

[enfantterrible]

Wait, really? I was sold it by the same supplier who sold me the two batteries. He said that my OEM Club Car charger wouldn't work properly, and I needed this one. (I've bypassed the OBC, obviously.)

Update: I called him about this, and he said "The charger was previously used with lead acid batteries but we reprogrammed it to have a lithium algorithm in it."

[Fairtax4me]

If its a brand new IC650-CC, built sometime in the last maybe 6 months, then it may be able to charge lithium. I know for sure that the older models were not able to, but it looks like Delta-Q has added a lithium specific charger to their line-up sometime recently, and has changed some things with the IC650, or have developed lithium charge algorithms for that charger.

In that case, we can only hope that your dealer sold you a unit with the correct algorithm for lithium batteries pre-programmed into the charger.

The only way to know for sure would be to run the Idat software and pull the charge history files from the charger to verify which charge algorithm is loaded, and then check with Delta-Q to see if that algorithm is correct for the lithium pack you have.

[enfantterrible]

I'll do that. I'll say right now, though: it sure doesn't look as if it were made in the last six months.

[Fairtax4me]

Look on the back of it for the model and part numbers.
I thought at one time the part number or model number on those included a year, or it had a build date code on the sticker somewhere. but I could be thinking of a different charger.

Also, you should be able to ask your battery dealer, what algorithm is in the charger, how the charger should operate, and at what voltage it should turn off, and what voltage it should turn back on for maintenance charges.
Just seems to me like they should know that. And if they don't... then they're selling time bombs.

[enfantterrible]

Model is IC0650-048-CC. Part is 940-0008. Dealer says that it'll charge the batteries to 100% then stop; then, every 36 to 72 hours, it'll top them up as necessary; then, after 30 days of being plugged in, it'll stop doing this.

Charging profile, pulled from IDAT, is: 269.

[simicrintz]

From what I think I know, Lithium does not want to be on a charger all the time like FLA, and it really does not like to be stored at 100% charge either. Like Fairtax said, be careful that you are not creating a time bomb.

[enfantterrible]

Update on this: The manufacturer of my batteries has confirmed that this charger, with that charging profile, is the correct one.

[enfantterrible]

Second update: The charger manufacturer confirms that it's the correct charger, and that the algorithm is specifically designed for those batteries.