Charging Question

[erict]

This may be nothing but thought I would ask.


2005 cc Precedent 48v (4) 12v.

Replaced my batteries mid April from US battery to Crown. I'm on my 5th charge on the new pack. I have a powrdrive charger. I plugged my cart in last night so I could take it out today. I noticed before I plugged the charger in the pack voltage was at 50.3. As soon as the charger kicked on it jumped to around 53.4 within a couple of minutes.

Now after my ride today I parked the cart and within about 5min my pack voltage was 48.8. When the charger kicked on it only went to 51.7 within a couple of minutes. Is this normal?

Is this a characteristic of the PowerDrive charger?

[erict]

Any input on this?

[jakesnake27]

That all sounds like normal operation to me

[erict]

So basically the higher the pack voltage is before plugging the charger in the higher it will show after a couple of minutes of plugging the charger in?

[teecro]

Originally Posted by erict

... I plugged my cart in last night so I could take it out today...

I'm curious as to why you worded your question like this? Do you not keep your cart plugged into the charger when its not being ridden?

[erict]

Originally Posted by teecro

I'm curious as to why you worded your question like this? Do you not keep your cart plugged into the charger when its not being ridden?

No I do not. I plug it in manually. I don't like to leave it plugged all the time in case we have a power surge or outage. I always fully charge my pack after a ride or if the cart sits for a week I plug it in the day before a ride. If the cart sits longer before usage it gets plugged in every two weeks.

[teecro]

Originally Posted by erict

No I do not. I plug it in manually. I don't like to leave it plugged all the time in case we have a power surge or outage. I always fully charge my pack after a ride or if the cart sits for a week I plug it in the day before a ride. If the cart sits longer before usage it gets plugged in every two weeks.

Your choice but that is not conducive to long battery life... The general thought process is to keep them plugged into the charger whenever practical, the closer an FLA battery stays to 100 percent state of charge the better off they are...

[Hunter450]

It appears the OBC and charger are doing their job with the new batteries. When you plugged your cart in at 50.3 volts, the pack was nearly at full charge so the quick jump of a few volts in a couple of minutes is anticipated. However, when you plugged your cart to charge and the pack was at 48.8 volts, you were at 55-60% of full charge and it will take longer for the pack to gain a few volts.

Read the sticky on battery break in, for the first dozen or so charge cycles you should only draw your pack voltage down to 70-75% of full charge.

I do not see any issues with unplugging the PD charger after it has automatically shut off after a charge for the reason you listed because it doesn't have a float mode. Just be mindful that the charger will not do the cycle on-off-on if you haven't driven the cart while it was unplugged. The charger will just power on a stay on.

If you unplugging the charger from AC source too, unplug it after unplugging the DC cord from the cart. Reverse that order when plugging everything back up.

[erict]

Originally Posted by Hunter450

It appears the OBC and charger are doing their job with the new batteries. When you plugged your cart in at 50.3 volts, the pack was nearly at full charge so the quick jump of a few volts in a couple of minutes is anticipated. However, when you plugged your cart to charge and the pack was at 48.8 volts, you were at 55-60% of full charge and it will take longer for the pack to gain a few volts.

Read the sticky on battery break in, for the first dozen or so charge cycles you should only draw your pack voltage down to 70-75% of full charge.

I do not see any issues with unplugging the PD charger after it has automatically shut off after a charge for the reason you listed because it doesn't have a float mode. Just be mindful that the charger will not do the cycle on-off-on if you haven't driven the cart while it was unplugged. The charger will just power on a stay on.

If you unplugging the charger from AC source too, unplug it after unplugging the DC cord from the cart. Reverse that order when plugging everything back up.

Thank you for the info.

[erict]

Originally Posted by teecro

Your choice but that is not conducive to long battery life... The general thought process is to keep them plugged into the charger whenever practical, the closer an FLA battery stays to 100 percent state of charge the better off they are...

I just feel more comfortable and gives me piece of mind not leaving the charger plugged in. I did this same process with my last pack and even though 12v don't last like the 8v I got 7 years out of my last pack.