New to me EZGO TXT as of today

[sportcoupe]

Originally Posted by rib33024

You should try not to ever go below 50%, which would be 36.31 volts before you recharge. 33 volts is only about 8% charged this is bad for the drive system, and the batteries

To add to Rib's statement, the voltage should be taken with batteries at rest for 30 mins. to get an accurate result. Voltages under load (driving) are different, in a 36v cart you never want to see volts drop below 31.5v.

[rib33024]

Originally Posted by sportcoupe

To add to Rib's statement, the voltage should be taken with batteries at rest for 30 mins. to get an accurate result. Voltages under load (driving) are different, in a 36v cart you never want to see volts drop below 31.5v.

Yes that never go below 36 volts is a at rest volts

[BigEd]

How long should a charge last on a parked cart? DO you leave your charger connected at all time when parked so the charger can maintain the charge?

I am also installing a small deep cycle 12v battery for lights and accessories.

Sorry for all the questions.

[sportcoupe]

Your Powerwise charger will shut off after the end of a charge cycle. It doesn't have a maintenance feature (A DPI charger will maintain batteries as long as it's plugged in).

You need to manually start a charge cycle at least every 30 days. FLA batteries loose approximately 1% charge per day so after a month they are down to 70% without even riding.

[JohnnieB]

Actually, it is a little more insidious than that.

Without getting too deep into electrochemical reactions, when a battery discharges the sulfuric acid in the electrolyte gives up sulfate ions and becomes water while the lead (negative) and lead dioxide (positive) plates acquire sulfate ions and become lead sulfate. Charging reverses the process.

The problem is that when two or more lead sulfate molecules get in close proximity, they tend to join in a crystalline latticework that does break down as easily, so recharging isn't 100% efficient and the battery ages, and eventually ceases to be a battery.

Essentially, a battery starts aging the moment the SoC (State of Charge) drops below 100%. In a nutshell, the lower the SoC the faster the battery ages and and the longer a battery is allowed to sit below 100% SoC, the faster it ages.

Aging does occur above 70% SoC, it just occurs a lot faster below 70% SoC.

For maximum battery lifespan, keep the battery at or slightly above 100% SoC when not in use.

There are only two ways of doing that. Float charging or trickle charging.

Float charging is a constant voltage charge whose voltage stays slightly above the 100% SoC voltage for the specific battery. FLA batteries can be float charged indefinitely with little or no aging and no harm is done to the battery.

Trickle charging is a constant current, or a current limited, charge. If the current is less than the self-discharge rate, the battery will eventually discharge and if the current is greater than the self discharge rate, the battery may eventually over charge. In other words, the trickle charger has to be closely matched to the self-discharge rate of the specific battery it is attached to or harm may occur.