Charger question

[reinman88]

08 drive, 48 volt, charger model JW2-H2107-03

With the cold Nov I didn't use the cart a lot, maybe a couple times a week. I did run the charger once a week. Batteries are new as of last May, and just last month I cleaned all of the terminals and coated them so they wouldn't corrode. They look good today.

I knew I was going to use the cart for a longer run yesterday so I put on the charger the night before to insure a good charge. Made my run yesterday with no problems everything seemed normal. Put the charger on last night and unplugged this morning.

Made the same run today, and though I made it home fine, it did seem like it was a bit slower on the big hill and maybe even the flat. I thought maybe because it was 30 instead of 50 that may have had something to do with it.

Just got home and put it on the charger. Normally when I plug it in all lights come on. Then red power light stays on along with orange lights flashes to show it's charging. From there it is to flashing green and then solid green to show fully charged. Today when I plugged it in all lights came on, and it went directly to solid green as if fully charged. But it cannot be fully charged.

Yesterday when I plugged it in it did go to flashing orange like normal. I always check to make sure before I walk away.

[reinman88]

Updating.

I went back out and plugged it in again. This time all lights came on, red power light stayed on, orange light flashed a couple times and stayed on to show it's charging.

I'm heading out for an evening deer hunt, but I will check it when I get home in a couple hours to see what it's doing.

[sunking]

Batteries are specified at 77 degrees. A battery fully charged at 30 degrees F looses 35% of it capacity, and internal resistance doubles limiting the current it can deliver, thus sluggish acceleration with reduced range. Its normal and nothing you can do about it except keep your cart on a float charger in a heated garage.

[reinman88]

I thought that might be my problem with it not feeling like normal.

But that still leaves me with why my charger was not acting correctly. I did go out and check it when I got back from hunting, and it is now charging and also blinking green. It's been on for about 3 hours and had only been used for about 2 miles, so this may be about right. I'll check it again before heading to bed and see if it finishes the charge by then or if it's still going.

[sunking]

Originally Posted by reinman88

I thought that might be my problem with it not feeling like normal.

But that still leaves me with why my charger was not acting correctly. I did go out and check it when I got back from hunting, and it is now charging and also blinking green. It's been on for about 3 hours and had only been used for about 2 miles, so this may be about right. I'll check it again before heading to bed and see if it finishes the charge by then or if it's still going.

Just guessing here but I suspect it is just a combination of battery age and cold temps.

[reinman88]

Cold temp might have something to do with it, but the batteries are only 7 months old. Plus it was much colder in Nov and the charger never did this back then. I was assuming a charger problem not a battery problem, but then last night it seemed to work fine. At least the lights did what they were suppose to do.

I'm going to take the cart out in a little bit just to use it, and then plug it back in to see what happens this time around. I won't get 2 miles on it, but I should get enough the charger will have to do some charging.