Charger question for club car

[subby44]

I have 3 friends at our golf course who bought club car carts. 48V with the power drive 3 chargers. Here In WV we had decent weather over the weekend so we decided to play a round of golf. When they went to the carts the Battery light were on in all 3 carts and the batts we VERY low on water. My question is..

1. does the power drive 3 charger kick on when there is a drop in voltage and continue to recharge the batteries?

2. If the charger does not come on when the voltage drops, what could be draining the batts.

3. my friends seem to think the people at the course are turning off the power to the cart shed over the winter while the carts are not being used. could this be a problem for the carts.

BTW.. the carts have 4 12V batts in them.. not sure if you needed to know this..

Thanks, Subby

[JohnnieB]

Since you are a fellow Mountaineer, I'll try to answer a CC question on the EZGO forum, even though I'll have to decontaminate my keyboard afterwards.

According to the Powerwise-3 Owner Manual (Attached), the cart's OBC re-starts the charger every 15 days.

The suspicion that the AC power to the cart shed is being turned off, is probably valid since more than one cart has similar problem.

[subby44]

I agree Johnnieb... My keyboard stinks too.. It was nice to haul the club car guys around in my ezgo... LOL... thanks for the input on the chargers.. I would almost bet they are killing the power to the cart shed too.. is this bad on the batteries?? thanks!!! go Mountaineers!!!

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by subby44

I agree Johnnieb... My keyboard stinks too.. It was nice to haul the club car guys around in my ezgo... LOL... thanks for the input on the chargers.. I would almost bet they are killing the power to the cart shed too.. is this bad on the batteries?? thanks!!! go Mountaineers!!!

It sure isn't good for the batteries.
Letting a battery sit in a partially discharged state allows the plates to become sulfated, which kills the battery.
Batteries self-discharge at about 1% per day and the rate the plates sulfate really gets bad when they are at 70% SoC and less, so batteries need to be recharged about once a month when in storage.

The Powerwise-3 is supposed to recharge every 15 days, which isn't too bad, but I prefer to float charge batteries so they stay fully charged and sulfation stays at a minimum.

Plate sulfation is part of the normal aging process and cannot be completely avoided, but the more it is avoided, the longer the batteries last.

A couple of my neighbors have CC carts and I enjoy having to stop and wait for them to catch up when we go out cruising with the better halves along.

BTW: If your friends are renting/leasing space in the cart shed, they may have some recourse on damage to their batteries if AC power was included in the agreement. Even if they can't prove anything, being made aware of the potential liability might encourage the cart shed management to be more careful in the future.