Dealer purposely discharging batteries

[coosa]

So a relative asked me some questions last week about his 2006 PDS cart that he wanted to sell. The cart has never been used for anything except golf and has been kept in his garage since new. He has quit playing golf and decided to sell it, but it hadn't been moved for months and the batteries were so dead that it wouldn't move and the 36 volt charger would not come on. I advised him to use his 6/12 volt charger in manual mode and try to charge them individually, and maybe he could get it to the point that it would at least move and prove to a potential buyer that it only needed batteries to be a usable cart again.

That's when he told me that a few months ago he had sent the cart back to the dealer he bought it from and they had tried to restore the batteries. Their method was to completely discharge the pack, and then charge it back with their "commercial" charger. He intended to list it for sale then, but never got around to it.

I told him that I had never heard of any benefit from running a battery pack to zero, but he said the dealer said he did it all the time for customers and it usually works great. Unfortunately, none of his batteries would take a charge at all, but the dealer happened to know a guy willing to buy a cart with bad batteries, and he sold it to him for $500.

Is there ever any benefit to running a battery pack to zero charge? It sounded to me like they really took advantage of him, but maybe I just don't understand.

[Mooncarter]

Lawd this is gonna be a good thread.

Think I'll just sit back and wait for the entertainment to begin.

[Swan]

a few years back I vaguely remember of a machine that would do that to batteries in a way to renew them. I think it was posted here as a outside link . I did a quick search here and came up with nothing.

[coosa]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Lawd this is gonna be a good thread.

Think I'll just sit back and wait for the entertainment to begin.

Really? I read here pretty often and I don't remember a thread about intentionally taking a pack to zero being a legitimate procedure. The rule to never take them below 50% seems to be what everyone here recommends.

[Mooncarter]

Even if there is such a machine that works, the batteries were toast. I'll wager that the "guy Willing" to buy this cart for $500 was the owner.

Garage kept since new by the original owner.

I'll also bet they put in new batteries and perhaps a back seat and found a guy "willing" to pay $4500 for it.

[kernal]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

Even if there is such a machine that works, the batteries were toast. I'll wager that the "guy Willing" to buy this cart for $500 was the owner.

Garage kept since new by the original owner.

I'll also bet they put in new batteries and perhaps a back seat and found a guy "willing" to pay $4500 for it.

Exactly!

[Mooncarter]

FSIP tried to sell me one a couple years ago. The way I see it, if these things bring dead batteries back to life, there would be several lines wrapped around the building like Chick-fil-A with people "renewing" their batteries to save $1000.

[Swan]

Originally Posted by Mooncarter

FSIP tried to sell me one a couple years ago. "

yes that is close to the one i remember