Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

I got a great deal on 2018 onward from a guy that ran it for 36 holes of golf and then it sat in his garage for the next 2 years. It still has the knobs on the bottom of the tires and immaculate underneath.

But it has battery issues lol.

I am not 100% how it was kept, but was told plugged in pretty much the whole time except more recently. Think they may have discharged possibly. They have the watering system and he did add water I just dont know how often.

I get about 3 min of run time before the battery light comes on solid, then blinks shortly there after and the cart starts to slow down (oddly enough the factory SOC meter stays full all the time so have a Scottyb's on the way)

So I have some questions as I test things to see if any life can be given back to them...I want to go lithium (allied, roypow) but I want to give it a little more time for some of yall to test them out and for the 160ah roypow to be in stock. So if I had to buy batteries I would probably grab a set of T-875s to tide me over and then sell them when I go lithium. I can get them for about 636 out the door and the guy I bought the cart from offered to pay 1/2 (good guy)

I put it on the charger last night when the solid yellow light was on at about 930pm. All the green lights were solid on the charger when I pulled it off at 1pm today to test the batteries with my Fluke DMM. I know this is a "false un rested reading" and it needs to sit and get level but I wanted to see where it was at.

Total was 50.29
8.38
8.36
8.35
8.43
8.38
8.39

Am I right to assume that is low from the get go? Should it not be much higher being I had just unplug the charger? Did I allow it charge long enough (almost 16hrs).

How long do I let it sit before it would be a "accurate reading" 12hrs or does it really need to be 24hrs? Or do I just test it until I dont see any more voltage drops?

I did not check the water level yet. Can I run the filling system and see if it takes any water without messing up the current voltage testing while it rests? When it charges I can here them bubbling that I know is normal I just dont know how much is in them...there is none boiling over. If it would mess up me letting it rest to get a good volt reading i'll just hold off on the water for now.

Thanks!

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

I sounds like you need new batteries. Based upon your story I'm not surprised in the least bit.

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

Hey, I just emailed you about that meter :thumbup:

I am not either...but I got the cart for steal so its all good. I assumed they would be in bad shape but could get me along until I knew what lithium I wanted and they were available but its not looking that way unless I can breath some life into them somehow.

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

Unfortunately there is no way to revive stagnated batteries short of recycling the lead... The damage is mostly permanent

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

Thats what I am assuming as well. I didnt know if maybe these are low on water and I could add some water and do some charging stuff to get some more life. They may be full of water tho I just didnt want to add any if it would mess up my letting it rest.

I just ordered some T875s anyway so its not a big concern but ill use this time to learn some testing hands on.

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

I love the T875s :thumbup:

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

You can try cycling them a few times, but more than likely those are toast.
The two main ways that a dead battery exhibits itself is loss of voltage, and loss of capacity. Loss of capacity is often due to degradation of the plates, and they can show perfect voltage at rest even though you can't get 10 minutes of run time from them.

Sometimes sulfate buildup on the plates can be knocked off with multiple charges, or charging at a higher than normal voltage. But at best you will get only a portion of the capacity back. The battery will never return to it's full rated capacity.
Those watering systems are pretty near useless IMO, and often get clogged which prevents water from reaching all of the cells. They also lead to massive battery failures if the right conditions present, you end up with a chain reaction of battery explosions that can literally take out the entire pack. You're much better off without it.

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

Is there anyway to test for degradation of the plates? After sitting so far for 5 hours they have all lost .01v, I thought it would be more at this point based on 3 min of run time. But I don’t know the ins and outs of these battery systems.

Didn’t realize that about the water systems either, the cart came with it and I thought it was a cool idea. I won’t worry too much about it because I plan to move to lithium in the near future. Thanks for the heads up tho!

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

Looking at those voltages, I would say they are done. At least with a new pack, you start fresh and you can do proper maintenance!

Re: Picked up a used 18 Onward and have battery questions
 

They all dropped .03v this morning at 18hrs of sitting post charge. So it would be at 50.11 total now. Just for my information that seems to say the pack will only charge to about 80%, and the plates might be damaged so it wont hold that 80% charge long once under load?