Batteries won't charge

[trw1]

I have my 2000 EZ GO Freedom stored in my garage and had been leaving the charger connected. Early in the year I read somewhere they shouldn't be left on the charger so I disconnected it (and forgot about it). My batteries are now dead and connecting it to the EZ GO charger does nothing (it won't start charging). The charge indicator on the cart just flashes. I have one of the batteries (Trojan 105's) connected to a 1.5 amp slow charger on the 6V cycle. It has been charging for several days but now the slow charger is indicating the battery is charged. But I still get nothing when I connect the regular EZ GO charger and the indicator on the cart just flashes.

I read that when the batteries don't have enough charge it won't allow the charger to kick on. Do I need to connect the slow charger to each battery? Or do I assume my batteries are dead? Any suggestions? Thanks.

[GThomp]

The charger needs at least 23 or 24 volts to turn on. You can charge them individually or you can open up your charger and bypass the relay for a hour in till the batteries get enough voltage to kick on.

[Cart_man]

Yep. Ran into that problem myself. That's how I fixed it. One at a time.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by trw1

1........Early in the year I read somewhere they shouldn't be left on the charger so I disconnected it (and forgot about it)
2........Do I need to connect the slow charger to each battery?
3........Or do I assume my batteries are dead?

1. My understanding is that you can leave the charger connected indefinitely if the charger is the type that shuts off automatically when batteries are fully charged.
Post the brand/model of your charger and someone here will probably be able to tell you what type it is and if leaving it connected is okay.

2. Yes, but if your slow charger has a 12V setting, you can charge them two at a time in series.

3. If they have been setting in a discharged state for very long, that is a definitely a possibility. (Note: GC batteries self discharge. I've seen various self discharge rates posted, but it doesn't take long.)
After you've got the battery pack voltage up high enough for your GC charger to kick in and they've had an overnight charge, measure the overall battery pack voltage and the voltage of the individual batteries.

Assuming you have six 6V batteries, a fully charged pack will read about 38.2V. (Or higher if you measure the voltage right after charger shuts off.)
Each 6V battery will read about 6.37V and all should read within about 0.1V of each other.

Good luck,
John