Batteries in balance?

[COPB]

I have had no exposer to elect. carts, other than charging the batteries on my Gem Car last winter and driving it around at speeds above the community maximum.
When I got back my charger would not engage and I had to charge each battery individually. This is where my question comes in; Does it matter a lot if each of those batteries was charged to different rates before I put the 72V charger on it? Seems to me I remember something being said about each battery should have the exact same charge on it when you put the the gang charger on. ????

 

[dirtysouth]

The pack should equalize as long as all the batts. are good.

 

[HotRodCarts]

It all depends on how much variation your talking about. If they're way out of balance they won't equalize and you'll over charge the batteries that already have higher voltage than the others. Basically the batteries with the higher voltage reach full capacity first and start over charging because the charger is still trying to bring the total pack voltage up. Pretty much the same reasoning is behind why it's best to replace a whole pack when the batteries are over a year old. Or replace a bad battery with a used battery thats the same brand and model and as close as possible to the age of the rest of the battery pack.

 

[dirtysouth]

Good batts will equalize... Guaranteed...

 

[COPB]

Thanks guys. These are good batteries. I don't go very far with it. Just around the community.

 

[HotRodCarts]

If the batteries are far enough out of balance they will/may eventually balance but in the process you will put a lot of unnecessary strain on the batteries with the higher voltage and those batteries will over charge. As expensive as batteries are now days I'd definitely get them close with a 12 volt charger. They don't need to be exactly the same but the closer the better. Guys that run accessories of two of the pack batteries run into this problem all the time. Better safe than sorry.

 

[COPB]

Why don't they make these gang chargers with a switch so you can turn them on manually in cases like this?

 

[OlBoy]

Probably for safety reasons.

 

[GEMmechanic]

Quick Charge offers their Select-a-Charge units with a manual low voltage over ride button. This will allow the charger to start from zero volts. These units are available in portable off-board or waterproof on-board types with outputs of 10 or 20 amps. Both of these can be ordered with 110 volt or 220 volt AC input. Their part number for the on-board 10 amp with 110 input is SCOLVT7210. You must ask for the manual over ride specifically because Quick Charge has a marketing agreement with Ride-For-Fun that does not allow advertising of this feature. The company will build a unit to your specification. The units are made in Oklahoma (not China) and cost about $400 for the 10 amp version. Warranty is five years. We installed one of these in our 2005 GEM when the Delta-Q crapped out. Much easier to program and about half the cost. Battery type is selectable on the unit and it will recharge every week if the vehicle is not driven. Other output voltages are also available for other vehicles. I can provide details of the installation.