Charger/BatteryConcerns

[Turbo_Pumpkin]

I have a 2002, EZGO TXT 36v which I've owned since 2013. This morning at around 7:30 I went to take the kids to school and noticed the charger was still charging which is unusual. I plugged the kart in at around 7:00 last night and typically it is done charging by morning. I always plug my cart in when parked so it doesn't typically take long to complete the charge. I also noted that the battery compartment was warm, considerably warmer than usual. I opened the compartment up and could hear the batteries boiling. I have a digital volt meter on the pack and it read 40.0v which I didn't think was unusually high.

I went ahead and took the kids to school (about 2.5 miles round trip) and it performed as expected. When I got home, I began to research why my batteries are hotter than usual. I have tried to troubleshoot to the best of my ability so far:

- I measured voltage of the batteries and they were all 6.39-6.41 so none appear to be dead or significantly lower than the others.
- I have 2 gauge cables made of quality welding wire and soldered ends. They have been on the cart for about 3 years and I verified that they are all tight.
- All terminals are clean and covered with protective coating as I just cleaned the batteries about a month ago.
- Battery water was topped up 2 weeks ago (with distilled) but I am hesitant to check it now with the batteries gurgling. They are still gurgling about an hour later.

My charger is a DPI charger that I purchased new about 2 years ago so I am reluctant to think it may be bad but maybe I should test it (I am not sure how to test it). My batteries are Trojan T105's with a date of July 2013. The batteries were the first thing I bought for the cart and they have been well maintained so I am hoping to get a couple more years out of them.

I plan to charge the cart again tonight to be sure it has time to complete a full charge but is there anything else I should be checking to make sure it is safe? The heat in the battery compartment is what concerns me.

Thanks in advance for any advice....

-Jason

[JohnnieB]

Sounds like the 36V DPI charger is staying in the bulk charge phase. (Pack voltage has to reach about 42V to advance to Absorption phase.)

Did you happen to notice what the ammeter on the DPI was showing?

-------------
Plug DPI into cart when charger is disconnected from AC power.
Renove top from cart's charger port and connect DVM to black and white 10Ga wires going to battery pack.
Plug DPI into AC power and observe LEDs and ammeter.

When yellow LED stops flashing and stays on steady, the ammeter ought to climb to 20A, or close to it and stay there. If it is only about half that amperage, check the fuses on the control board inside the DPI. (Could also be a blown SCR)

If it does go up to about 20A, it ought to stay there until the on-charge voltage climbs to 42V and then than amps will start decreasing.

Also, give DPI a call, they may have some other tests to do.

[Turbo_Pumpkin]

Thanks for the quick response. I did not notice the ammeter this morning. The cart needs to be used at 1:00 so I was going to try charging it again after that so that it will have enough time to complete a charge. I will try the steps you recommended and watch the ammeter. Thanks!

[DW@VW]

Wow! What a coincidence...I came here because mine was doing the same exact thing today! I was surprised to see it still charging this morning so I turned it off and put the multi-meter on the pack and it was reading 40.2 volts. (36 volt TXT) So needless to say Ill be following this....

[Cart54]

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...high-heat.html

Similar situation. Still troubleshooting with DPI but they're sending me a board to try.

[Turbo_Pumpkin]

So my charger worked the following night so I thought all was well. Fast forward to this past Monday, my cart seemed sluggish so I checked the water and all of the cells were low. I had just topped them up 2 weeks before and typically they are fine for up to 2 months (I check often but do not need to fill). I filled them all up yesterday and put them on charge and they are still charging this morning. They are excessively hot as well... Seems that my charger is acting up and I may need a new pack of batteries if they don't recover from being so low in water.

Any luck with DPI?

[kernal]

I have been through this. In my case it was with a (at the time) 14 year old powerwise charger. The batteries were T-105's that were 4 years old almost to the week.
In the end the charger was fine. The batteries were at end of life.
4 years is on the low side of expected battery life but you only get so many charge cycles. In my case during this time period the cart had very high usage. Sometimes daily use for weeks at a time. Short trips mostly (less than 8 miles) so shallow discharges but you still only get a finite amount of cycles.

This happened to me overnight. One day the charge was normal and the next day I experienced the same symptoms as you. Another known charger produced the same results.

The batteries were matched at time of purchase. In fact they all came from the same pallet. In the end they all went down together.

Not saying you don't have a charger problem. I'm saying the chances of a battery problem for you is relatively high.

[Turbo_Pumpkin]

Kernal, thanks for the response. My cart is very high usage, it takes the kids to school every morning and picks them up every afternoon. It goes to the soccer fields about 5 days a week which is 4-5 miles round trip. It is a main mode of transportation for us and gets many shallow discharges like you describe and I typically charge it between trips (I thought hat was best). I have tried to buy "the best" I could along the way and expected more years from the Trojan T105's but maybe I was expecting more than I should. One question, is there a way to confirm that my batteries are at the end of their life? I kind of want that confirmation before shelling out the money for a new pack. I found the procedure for testing the batteries on Trojan's site, is that the best way?

http://www.trojanbattery.com/tech-su...y-maintenance/

And once I confirm bad batteries, I suppose it's time to look into upgrading the pack to 48 v... I guess there is a silver lining... :D

[kernal]

The simplest way is to confirm the charger. If you can get/borrow a know good charger to try on your cart and it reacts the same, then you have proved the ill health of your batteries. Likewise if you can try your charger on another cart.
DPI may have a test if you contact them. I've never heard of this but the phone call is free and they may have some insight.
Other than that since the cart is operational you can continue as you are although I wouldn't leave the charger unattended (as in overnight or if you are away from the house). The batteries are technically not at end of life until they no longer take you where you want to go. I would expect that range would start to decrease rapidly.
I didn't wait around because I needed this cart to be capable of 20 mile trips if asked. I took the opportunity to convert to 48v. I had planned for this in advance so I already had changed the controller and solenoid to 48v capable units. I highly recomend this. 48v transforms the cart. I have never seen anyone on this forum regret making the jump.

If you go to 48v consider this: I was concerned about range when going 48v. The math says a 170ah pack at 48v would have approximately the same range as a 225ah pack at 36v under the same conditions. I was suspicious about real world performance so I went with 190ah 8v batteries. Bottom line this was not necessary. The 190ah batteries increased the range by 10-15% under conditions as near identical as I can make them.

[Turbo_Pumpkin]

Thanks for the quick response, unfortunately I don't know anyone with a 36v ezgo anymore as all the neighbors have newer carts. I've been planning to upgrade to 48v but my bank account isn't ready yet. Lol. My cart has a 500a alltrax controller and 2ga wires so i'll need a solenoid, batteries and a charger. I guess now is the time!