Precedent caught on fire while charging

[Fairtax4me]

Scary stuff man! I’m glad you and your family are OK and still have your house! Quick thinking and good timing to get that put out before it became an inferno.

A few thoughts.
Lead acid batteries do not typically combust on their own. They do build up hydrogen gas, and if that gas meets a spark or other external flame source they can explode but will not continue to burn on their own. They have water in them, and most of the time the water gets splashed everywhere and will tend to put out a fire that is on the battery. Any continuation of burning after a lead acid battery explodes is due to an external source such as wiring or other flammable objects being on fire.

When charging the charger Plug and Charge receptacle can/will get hot if there is a poor connection in the contacts or the receptacle or if there is damage or corrosion in the wiring to the plug or receptacle. This would be the Most Likely source for a fire when the cart is not being used.

Don’t think that the charger “caused” the fire, at least not directly. More than likely the charger was working normally, and bad wiring or dirty/corroded pins in the receptacle caused excess heat which lead to the surrounding plastic or insulation melting and catching on fire. No fuse, relay, or other protection device would guard against this. I DO agree that the charger should be thrown out. There is a good chance it was damaged BY the fire, but unlikely that it directly caused it in this case. I would Not trust it to be used any more.

I would only blame a reducer for a fire if the reducer was clearly melted in a way that shows that it started the fire, or if there was No fuse between the battery + and the reducer. A reducer can fail and short internally when exposed to higher input voltage than it was designed for, but if the input power wire is properly fused the fuse will blow before the wiring or reducer goes up in flames. A fuse only helps in cases where wiring or internal components are shorted, it does not help if wiring is corroded or otherwise damaged due to heat buildup.


Lithium is NOT your friend if you are concerned with fire risk. Lithium is highly unstable when it is exposed to oxygen and will Self ignite. Similar to other metals it is Very difficult to put out a lithium fire. There is tons of information about lithium battery fires, and even several threads here where lithium battery fires have occurred in golf carts.
Newer “safe” lithium chemistry batteries are less likely to ignite on their own due to internal damage or under/overcharge conditions. They are NOT safer than other batteries when there is an external fire source that causes the battery to ignite.
In this case the batteries were damaged BY the externally started fire, they were Not the Cause of the fire.

[fltekdiver]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts in a detailed manner
People will read this in the future and maybe help someone else out
Appreciate the feedback

[southernerd]

So...um...about those parts that aren't damaged...

[fltekdiver]

Thinking of rebuilding it
Just waiting ok from insurance company


New Batteries, battery box, cables, charger, harness, seat, roof , new body I'm thinking $3500 should have it up and running
It's a easy fix

[GulfCoaster]

I just bought my 2nd cart and rebuilt it with 2 ga wiring and bigger FNR switch and solenoid.

1994 Club Car DS. Put in new T105 batteries.

During the 2nd charge of the new batteries, the 10 gauge wire from the charging port to the #1 battery + terminal melted near the charging port. The charger was putting out 22 Amps.

I replaced the melted wire with a larger 8 gauge wire and tried charging again. The new 8 gauge wire was cool to touch at about 10 inches from the port but was very hot near the port connection. I could smell the hot plastic.

Determined that the wires on the threaded studs from the fuse in the charging port were missing 2 nuts and causing a loose connection.

I put new brass nuts on the threaded studs securing the charging fuse to the black plastic body. Then put the new 8 gauge wire ring terminals on top of the nuts and then brass nuts on top of the 2 cable terminal ring connector.

The single nuts on each side of the fuse studs made for a loose connection and caused a heat load that could have caused a fire.

[expoman55]

FWIW I was looking at the pics posted.. usually( I saw this with caution) in an electrical caused fire the culprit electric circuit wires will have insulation melted off the wires. ( Yes the actual fire can cause this also ) However if it is not that circuit that was the cause the wire will melt to or into the wire in case of braded or stranded wire. If it is caught early enough the wire becomes chard and discolored. I always look for things of that nature when I inspect my Cart AND I ALWAYS set a timer on my phone to check my charger when on and use a temp gun on my cart when charging looking for hot spots... I know sound ridiculous but can find problems that way before they become major.. Just my .02 for what ever its worth.. Only personal experience here that I am sharing is all. BTW I agree with comments above that the newer LTHIONPro batts are safter than previous versions however my neighbor is a prof fire fighter and he does have good stories to listen to and heed the warnings of any battery powered devices or EVs.

[mtollin]

So, question. I'm about to change to a Summitt II charger wire direct to battery. Lester says to leave on charger for extended storage. For me thats 6 months of winter in a garage at a home I winterize and nobody is around. At times garage can get near freezing or slightly under. Is it safe or should I keep disconnecting batteries for the winter?