Timer on charger don't work

[kennyh99]

Ok, I got all new batteries, made all new 4 gauge wires, rewired the entire cart, measured voltage, had 37.25 volts dc, the charger for my cart has atimer on it, when I set it, it starts charging, but the timer never moves, charged it for 10 hours, started at 20 ampers, ended at 0. The voltage is now at 40.05 volts dc.

The question is, how long do I let this thing charge, or should I get the timer fixed.

[AzPete]

Getting the timer fixed makes the entire golf cart use so much easier plus less likely to damage the batteries. The time frame for charging will vary based on the use time and battery discharge.

Mine runs for several hours sometimes and only a couple hours at other times. Nice not to have to remember to shut it off.

[kennyh99]

Thanks, if u leave the the charger on to long will it hurt the batteries, I'm just wondering because when I fix the timer, how do I know how long to set it for, it has 1-12, and on, off.

[AzPete]

Not real familiar with the settable timers as mine is full auto. I was under the impression that the timer also had an auto setting or would do an auto off when set to on. Someone else would have to answer that question....

[JohnnieB]

Does your charger have a manufacturer name and model number? Even a picture of the faceplate would help.

Some of the early automatic chargers had a safety (back-up) timer that you were supposed to set each time you charged your battery. If your battery didn't reach the cutoff voltage before the allotted time, the timer timed out and shut off the charger. I don't believe those timers would run unless they were turned fully counterclockwise after the charger switched on. Of course, yours may not be one of these.

Basically, your charger is charging the battery since the voltage went from 37.5 to 40.5, but I don't know if you have an automatic charger with a manual safety timer or a manual charger with a timer.

With the charger plugged into AC Power before plugging charger plug into cart, is the a few seconds delay before charger comes on? (Transformer hums - Ammeter jumps to 10-20 amps) If there is a delay, it is an automatic charger.

New batteries will take a very long time (12 - 16 hours) to charge the first few times, so at 10 hours they probably aren't fully charged yet.

The cut-off voltage for an automatic 36V charger is 44-46V, so if you were reading 40.5V immediately after you unplugged the charger, the battery voltage had not reached the cut-off voltage for an automatic charger yet.

Hopefully you haven't used the batteries yet since they need to be fully charged prior to first use and to get full storage capacity (run-time), they have to be broken in properly.

[kennyh99]

Thanks, no I have only drive it about 2 minutes worth, just to make sure I did the wiring correct, yea its a old charger as u describe, ammeter on one side, timer on the other side, if u leave this thing hooked up even without thee timer working will it keep charging the battery s past full charge, or stop when they hit a full charge

[simple man]

Originally Posted by kennyh99

Thanks, no I have only drive it about 2 minutes worth, just to make sure I did the wiring correct, yea its a old charger as u describe, ammeter on one side, timer on the other side, if u leave this thing hooked up even without thee timer working will it keep charging the battery s past full charge, or stop when they hit a full charge

There are two types of these. One has a charged battery shutoff that will stop the charger and the timer so you can see how long the batteries took to charge. The other is strictly a timed charge. It will charge whatever time you have set on the dial. Your charger may say on it something about automatic charge. In any event, I would get the timer repaired! It will harm the batteries if they are overcharged severely. Believe me, accidents happen and I have forgotten to turn off things before too! I burned up a sump pump that way!

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by kennyh99

.............. if u leave this thing hooked up even without thee timer working will it keep charging the battery s past full charge, or stop when they hit a full charge

I'm not 100% sure since I still don't know which charger you've got, but the way it goes from 20 amps down to about zero indicates it is smarter than a just a transformer and a couple of diodes.

Like I said, if there is a few second delay before the charger turns on when the charger plug is plugged into cart, there is a fairly high probability it will shut off automatically when the batteries reach the normal shut-off voltage, about 44-46 volts.

If it were me, I would monitor the battery voltage with a DVM and let them charge until they reached 46V, or the charger shut off automatically.

However, it wouldn't be me since I would have identified exactly which charger I had and made sure it was working properly long before I attempted to charge an expensive set of new set of batteries with it.

[kennyh99]

Ill take a pic of it tonight, thanks for the help