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Old 01-04-2012, 09:42 PM   #1
bamaboys
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Default Battery Life Saver

I was looking to buy a battery life saver to help my batteries. Does any one own one of these or heard that they work? I have a 2008 ezgo 36v and the batteries die with in 2 hours. Trying to revive them instead of $600.00 on new batteries! Any suggestions or comments???
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Old 01-04-2012, 10:54 PM   #2
bigstik40
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

I'm also looking at the "BLS" and many other "desulfators". I also have a 2008 with about the same level of battery performance. After doing a ton of reading and research on desulfators I haven't been able to come to a solid conclusion. There are camps that say they are the best thing since sliced bread and camps that say "snake oil". There does seem to be a lot more acceptance among the "off grid" people than with the Golf Cart gang. I have been doing a lot of battery cycling and charging on mine to see if I can improve battery health that way. I have been recording individual battery voltages after resting (after charging). You should probably do the same to get a benchmark and then post your results here for more comments from the more knowledgeable guys. Make sure you measure voltages with a digital voltmeter to 2 places after charge and after resting (to eliminate surface charge). I may be "springing" ($130)
for the "BLS" to try it out. They do offer 60 days money back and a fairly long warranty, which is good. I would like to come up with a combination trickle charger/desulfator to maintain my batteries in FL for the 6 months of idle time there when I'm back "up North". I'll be watching here for comments and also will try to report any sucess/failure if I try one. -RAY

PS-The other item I'm looking at is the Battery Minder #36271 charger/desulfator/maintainer for 36 volt systems. This could give me the battery maintainer function that I need for the "off season" and it also claims to desulfate. This has a 1yr. money back guarantee and a total warranty of 5 years. It is about the same price as the BLS.

Last edited by bigstik40; 01-05-2012 at 01:26 AM.. Reason: add PS
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Old 01-05-2012, 11:03 AM   #3
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

Lead-Acid Wet-Cell Deep-Cycle Batteries wear out no matter what you do and there are no magic elixirs or devices that will prevent it from happening or reverse the aging process. At best, the aging process can be slowed down and in some instances, the storage capacity of not very well maintained and/or mildly abused batteries can be improved, but not fully recovered.

In its former life, my 2008 PDS was part of golf course fleet and while the batteries were maintained, I doubt they received the same level of care an individual owner would have given them, so they were sub-par for their age and I was able to get them closer to being on par by charging the living daylights out of them.

At first, the T-105 batteries with a Nov-09 date code only had 37.6V (85% SoC) after resting, now they have 38.0V (95% SoC) after resting. What I did was basically the New Battery Break-In procedure with some Equalization tossed in. This was done with a stock PowerWise II charger.

I'm not sure how Nov-09 batteries ended up in a cart built in Aug-98, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting just about all I can get out of my batteries given their age and unknown maintenance history. I also know that I can travel about 15 miles without going below 60% SoC, but that is a series of stops and starts with lunch and shopping mixed in, so I don't know how much throttle time it equates to.

Two hours WOT is about all you are going to get with fairly new, properly broken in T-105 batteries. Theoretically, you'll get about 15 minutes longer with T-125 batteries and about half an hour longer with T-145 batteries

I have no experience with Battery Life Savers, Battery Minders and the like, but I doubt if they are any more effective at prolonging battery life than a properly operating Ferroresonant type charger and closely adhered to charging, cleaning and watering schedules.
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Old 01-05-2012, 01:12 PM   #4
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

Johnnieb: It sounds like my 2008 cart is almost the same situation as yours, except mine was private owner with very low use/maintenance. The best I can currently get on my batteries is about 82% SOC after charging/resting and it appears that no amount of charging is going to get them to improve above that . I do mostly a lot of short hops so I will be able to get by for a while with what I have. You can see from my above thread that I would like to come up with something to maintain these batteries over the summer (6 mos.) in FL , while I'm back "up-North". I'm sure those batteries will not be "happy" just sitting disconnected in the heat for 6 months. Would like to hear a suggestion or two from you as to what might work best for storage. I was looking at the battery minder as a possible solution but not sure . I was thinking about putting the charger/batts. on a timer to run maybe an hour or so a day. The Battery minder is an automatic 3 stage 4 amp charger. Also, I've seen a lot of 36 volt - low amp (1-2 A.) chargers on E-bay that are pretty cheap! Seems they are made for electric scooters with sealed batts. Would one of those be suitable for a daily timed one hr. charge to maintain golf cart batteries?? - RAY

PS - I read your New Years thread where you mentioned "Hillbilly Hot Dogs". They sound good and maybe worth a try! Just where do you get them?? Thanks and HAPPY NEW YEAR
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Old 01-05-2012, 02:29 PM   #5
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

I hear you about the private owner, I should have prefixed my reference to one with competent, conscientious or knowledgeable, or some other qualifier.

According to the date codes, my batteries are two year newer than my cart, so either Trojan was less than honest with the date coding, my batteries are actually going on four years old and were fairly well maintained, or the originals weren't maintained very well and had to be replaced, so the set I've got now are only about two years old and probably weren't maintained any better than the first set.

Whatever the case, I guess I'm lucky that I was able to recover as much as I did. It's allowed my to put off buying new batteries from last summer to next spring, maybe a bit longer.
Of course, most of my trips are less than a two miles one way and the only +30% grade I routinely climb is only about 50 yards long.

I sent you a PM about long term storage, but I'll repeat some of it here:
The trick is to keep the batteries fully charged or close to it without letting the plates become exposed.
Water is lost during gassing and in warmer temperatures, through evaporation.
So use a charger that has minimal gassing and keep the batteries in as cool of a place as possible/practical.
Without any gassing, the batteries won't be charging more than about 90-95% SoC, but that ought to be high enough to keep the battery sulfation to a minimum.

Some of the regular GC chargers automatically initiate a recharge cycle when the battery voltage drops to a predetermined level, but they cause battery gassing during the final stage(s), so anything more than a couple months of unattended storage might cause the electrolyte level to drop too far.

A C/100 trickle charge (about 2A for a T-105) a few hours per day would probably work for long term storage (IE: 6 months)

Here's the Hillybilly Hotdog website.
http://www.hillbillyhotdogs.com/

I go to the original one in Lesage. It's about 30 miles down the road from my place, but well worth the drive.
Actually, we hit the stores in Huntington about once a month and it is on the way, but we make special trips to it occasionally.

To get an idea of what the place is like - check out this video.
http://www.hillbillyhotdogs.com/ddd.php
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Old 01-05-2012, 10:42 PM   #6
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

Thanks for that info., Johnnieb. Sent you an answer on PM. I think I'll be testing that 36 volt Battery Lifesaver when we get back to FL. - RAY
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Old 01-05-2012, 11:05 PM   #7
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

Thanks for some answers!!
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Old 01-05-2012, 11:19 PM   #8
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

I've been using the 36v BatteryMinder for a month or so now, as a battery float solution. I haven't been able to tell any difference in the health of the batteries since I've had it. They are D8, and were in pretty good shape when I got the Cart 6 weeks ago. But I only do short stints around the neighborhood, then put it back on float. After a 12 hour rest, the pack voltage reads 37.8, sometimes 37.7 My meter lacks another decimal place, so could be 37.70, or 37.79
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Old 01-06-2012, 01:16 AM   #9
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

Have you only been using the Battery Minder for charging your cart?? I think Battery Minder instructions say it is not to replace the regular charger. I think you should "hit" the pack once in a while with the big cart charger, then let the "Minder" maintain them. Your 37.8 volts would be around 88% state of charge. -RAY

This is from their instruction sheet page 1:

*NOT Designed to Replace Original
HIGH-OUTPUT Chargers - Use to
Maintain and Desulfate Lead Acid
Deep-Cycle Battery Systems After
Fully Re-Charging ONLY
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Old 01-06-2012, 01:57 AM   #10
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Default Re: Battery Life Saver

Yes, I know it's not to take the place of the factory charger.
On the occasions we've driven it around, 15-20 minutes or so, I put it on the factory charger. If I drive 600 ft to the neighbors house, when I get back I put it on the BatteryMinder. It charges for a short time, then goes into float mode.
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