Opinion on batts

[Sergio]

like joesam said, the bypass devices connect between the posts of each battery.
You can use 3 of the 5.1v zeners, two would be in series in one side, but you would need to figure out how to get them all JB welded to the resistor (space wise). It will also get warmer than my original design as there would be more heat to dissipate.
The main idea of the bypass devices is to prevent your batteries from getting out of balance to begin with, if you already have a bad battery, it may not help the bad ones at all.
After you charge/equalize the pack, if you have any battery that is more than 0.3v below the others, just plug a car charger directly to that battery to bring it up to voltage.

[gr8gmc]

Originally Posted by Sergio

After you charge/equalize the pack, if you have any battery that is more than 0.3v below the others, just plug a car charger directly to that battery to bring it up to voltage.

My low battery appears to have a cell going bad. Should I try this anyway? I can leave my battery cables connected correct?

[Sergio]

Definetely worth a try, no need to disconnect any cables.

[gr8gmc]

I charged the battery with the cell going bad on 10 amps for a few hours two nights straight. Two observations:
1, the bad cell is better now but still not in the green zone on the hydrometer and the battery acid looks a little dark or discolored when I pull the sample to test.

2, that battery and the two next to it are really gassing a lot when the 48V pack charger kicks on and charges the pack through the night.

I plan to take the cart out tomorrow for the first time since charging the single battery with the 12V charger. I guess i'll need to do another equalization charge to get the full effect.

Should I keep charging the marginal battery singularly?

[joesam]

Yes - keep charging it separately before putting on the pack charger - that should help it from causing over-charging on your other batteries (a little bit anyway). The fact that the acid looks dark is a bit ominous though.

[gr8gmc]

I quit the practice after two charges. After each individual charge session, I hooked the pack charger up and let it do it's thing.

Batteries as a pack read OK on my dash meter (50.9V) but individually on my DVM they were low, around 47V to 48V. I had to do a plug and unplug charge to get the cart moving yesterday (which was very strange) but it charged them up in 40 to 45 minutes and I took the cart out for 18 holes and was surprised that I was still in the 75% range, dash DVM read 49.8V

I parked it and plugged in the pack charger with a smile on my face. It had been using close to 50% on previous 18 hole rounds.