Solar Golf Cart Chargers

[BorisM]

Originally Posted by yurtle

I drive mine anywhere from once a week to seven days a week. Weekends often run off and on all day long, with up to four passengers. I plug mine in every evening, and if I go home for an hour or more, I plug it in.

As I said, I got nine years out of my last pack, but YMMV. I'll be happy if I get six out of my current setup, as I'm pulling a lot more amps, BUT, I'm not driving any further, so the real difference is heavy foot syndrome.

I got it, thank you.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by BorisM

JohnnieB.
From what I understand the best possible scenario for an electric golf cart battery pack is to be installed in a golf cart that is never driven and plugged into a dpi charger 24/7/365. Then the second best scenario is to charge it as soon as it discharges to 80%, etc. Realistically thou, how many people can actually do that?

You are right, if never used and always on float charge, the batteries would last forever.

The second best scenario is actually keeping the batteries charged to as high of a SoC as possible and practical. There is no Percent SoC associated with it, other than not discharging below 50%.

Like Yurtle, I don't drive my cart every day and sometimes I'll make several trips in one day. I have bad legs and walking is not easy for me, so when I'm fairly certain I'll be making another trip, I park the cart by the back porch instead of parking it in the detached garage where the charger is. So, my batteries do sit in a partially discharged state for a few hours occasionally and as a result, they are aging faster than they would be if I did plug the charger in after each use, but that is the price I pay for the convenience of not having to walk between the house and garage more than twice a day.

Keeping the batteries charged as fully as possible is a goal rather than an absolute and the "practical" part of the statement, is reality.

It is about the same with not discharging below 50%. It is a goal.
The batteries are not going to stop working if you take the below 50% SoC, you can probably go down to about 80% SoC without damaging them, but it does knock time off their lifespan at a far higher rate.

[yurtle]

I may be wrong, but I would think keeping them partially discharged for days is worse than running below 50% then immediately recharging them.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by yurtle

I may be wrong, but I would think keeping them partially discharged for days is worse than running below 50% then immediately recharging them.

I think you might be right about that.

The deeper the discharge, the more amorphous PbSO4 present on the plates, but it takes time for amorphous PbSO4 to transform into Crystalline PbSO4, so recharging immediately would convert the PbSO4 and H2O back to Pb, PbO2 and H2SO4 before the crystals had a chance to form a strong latticework.