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Old 08-21-2018, 02:12 AM   #1
blounsbury
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Default Battery Nightmares

Hey All -

We went on a vacation for s month leaving the club car plugged in while gone. Came back to dry batteries. Added distilled water, plugged in the charger, and the next day everything seemed good except the charger wasn’t shut off after 24 hrs and the batteries measured over 55V on a 48V cart. I believe the OBC is messed up based on this and the bone dry batteries after our vacation. It’s been unplugged since Saturday, but now I’m smelling a strong rotten eggs smell in my garage, which I assume is Hydrogen Sulphide. I’ve opened the garage to ventilate and moved the cart into the driveway, but several hours later the smell still lingers.

1. Is that normal for the batteries to produce H2S even though they’ve been unplugged for a day? I would have understood if it was producing H2S while charging, but the smell didn’t start until the day after I stopped charging.
2. Can someone recommend a new charger? I’d rather not bother replacing the OBC and just go with a smart charger.
3. The cart runs on these batteries but the smell is really concerning. Are these batteries needing to be replaced?
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Old 08-21-2018, 06:20 AM   #2
LukeL
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

I’m not sure how the batteries will take being dry- they might be done and they might come back. Hard to say. But 55v while charging isn’t even close to done. Don’t expect the charger to turn off until you are near 65v on the meter.


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Old 08-21-2018, 06:35 AM   #3
mrgolf
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

Your charger and OBC are likely just fine. Batteries are not right.
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Old 08-21-2018, 08:45 AM   #4
Fairtax4me
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

What year is the cart? What Charger do you have?
55V during charging is actually kinda low. Most 48v chargers are capable of bringing the pack up to 65V during charging, or more if necessary, in order to obtain a full charge. The voltage drops back down after the charger turns off and should settle to around 52-54V after 12 hours. The high voltage isn't anything to worry about.

The OBC is normally supposed to time out the charger at 16 hours. You should try resetting the OBC and charge again to make sure it turns the charger off. If it does not, the OBC failed while you were gone and is the reason why the batteries cooked dry. Fix the OBC issue before installing a new set of batteries.

If the batteries are still out-gassing after several hours they're toast. Some of the plates have arced to their respective neighbors internally and now have small areas of electrical conductivity between them. They're moving electrical current all the time and are slowly discharging themselves.
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Old 08-21-2018, 09:39 AM   #5
blounsbury
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fairtax4me View Post
What year is the cart? What Charger do you have?
55V during charging is actually kinda low. Most 48v chargers are capable of bringing the pack up to 65V during charging, or more if necessary, in order to obtain a full charge. The voltage drops back down after the charger turns off and should settle to around 52-54V after 12 hours. The high voltage isn't anything to worry about.

The OBC is normally supposed to time out the charger at 16 hours. You should try resetting the OBC and charge again to make sure it turns the charger off. If it does not, the OBC failed while you were gone and is the reason why the batteries cooked dry. Fix the OBC issue before installing a new set of batteries.

If the batteries are still out-gassing after several hours they're toast. Some of the plates have arced to their respective neighbors internally and now have small areas of electrical conductivity between them. They're moving electrical current all the time and are slowly discharging themselves.
Thanks for your response!

Its a 1999 Club Car DS Series cart. Its a has a Club Car Power Drive 17935 charger.

I have tried resetting the OBC. After refilling my batteries with distilled water I reset the OBC and then plugged it in to try and charge. The last 2 times I've tried to use it, it has continued pushing power to the battery pack even after 24hrs (at which point I unplugged it).

I noticed some of the rotten egg smell immediately after charging the batteries (I took it for a spin to the grocery store and back to see if they held a charge). That was Saturday afternoon. Monday afternoon my wife called to tell me about a smell in the garage, when I got home there was a really strong smell from the garage where the cart is housed. So it had been 48hrs since the cart was last charged and it was still emitting H2S.
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Old 08-21-2018, 11:13 AM   #6
mgray70
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

How old are the batteries? I suspect one or more bad batteries that won't come up to voltage while charging causing the charger to not reach the desired voltage, and over gassing them.

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Old 08-21-2018, 12:12 PM   #7
blounsbury
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

Quote:
Originally Posted by mgray70 View Post
How old are the batteries? I suspect one or more bad batteries that won't come up to voltage while charging causing the charger to not reach the desired voltage, and over gassing them.

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
Jan 2018 batteries. Part of why I think the OBC is messed up - it boiled them dry and also doesn’t seem to shut off like it should.
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Old 08-21-2018, 12:46 PM   #8
Fairtax4me
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

Yeah I believe that means it's time for an OBC bypass, and a new smart charger.
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Old 08-21-2018, 01:21 PM   #9
radelon
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

Just for giggles, have you checked all of your battery connections to be sure they aren't loose?

If you have 6v batteries. You could also charge them 2 at a time with a normal 12v charger (you don't have to unhook everything but I would suggest unhooking the links between the pairs)

... unhook Main Positive from Battery 1. Leave the - to + connecting 1 and 2. Disconnect the Positives from every Odd Number Battery: 1, 3, 5, 7. Then disconnect the Pack Negative from Battery 8.

Charge them 2 at a time 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8.

Of course this assumes you are running 8x6v batteries.
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Old 08-21-2018, 01:45 PM   #10
WalterM6
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Default Re: Battery Nightmares

You need to get one of these. It checks the Specific Gravity in your battery cells. You may have all or mostly water in your cells. The S.G. should be 1.3. 1.25 and there gone.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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