97 Club Car DS Rotten Egg Smell and Heat

[jonnylbluejeans]

About 4am this morning, my wife and I were awakened by the overwhelming smell of rotten eggs. I tracked it to the battery compartment of our cart. It was hot in the compartment too. Since our garage has AC the smell was sucked through our house. We pushed it outside and I'll look at it when it gets light.

Did I almost burn down my house? Can I assume my batteries are shot?

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[meimk]

Was it charging at the time? Is it a 48 volt or 36 volt cart? Have you disconnected the battery pack?

[jonnylbluejeans]

Originally Posted by meimk

Was it charging at the time? Is it a 48 volt or 36 volt cart? Have you disconnected the battery pack?

It is 48v, and yes it was charging. I disconnected the charger from the cart.

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[_ogre]

not concerning the cart... lots of ac units in garages all over the south
the ac should not be sucking any smells from the garage, if it's sucking smells it's also sucking heat out of the garage
a roll of foil tape from home depot and a cover over the filter opening would seal up 99% of the energy sucking leaks

[Fairtax4me]

Sometimes batteries will emit an odor if they get hot during charging.
Usually getting hot indicates that one or more batteries is out of balance with the others (it has a higher state of charge), and is reaching an overcharged state while the other batteries are still not at full charge. Batteries can sometimes be discharged and re-charged individually to correct this, but most often you're better off replacing the whole set.

Check the water levels and check voltage on each battery for differences in state of charge.
If you want to get fancy buy an electronic capacitance battery tester so you can check internal resistance and overall charge capacity of each battery. This is more useful if you have multiple sets of batteries. Harbor freight sells one for around $60 IIRC.

[beachguysc]

I hope no one ever leaves a car running in your garage. If it sucks egg smells from a golf cart, I imagine carbon monoxide would also be drawn in.

[jonnylbluejeans]

I appreciate the concern for my ac. Talk to an ac guy about negative pressure. If you put air in, you need a return, or you will pull from every crevase, socket or crack. My garage is used for temp controlled storage and the golf cart.

Now, about the cart...

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