Charging yer Batteries

[geejayboy28]

I recently bought myself a 'Powacaddy' Classic Legend to assist my ageing body round the course during the winter months........and the summer months, and I was talking to a fellow member about it and he asked me how I charge the battery.

To be honest I wasn't very sure, and said. 'Oh,I'll just stick it on charge 24 hours beforehand and that will be that.'

He said thats fine (providing you play regularly) but he has heard that if you dont play for a few weeks and just charge it up before your due to play, it doesnt hold the charge for as long, and slowly becomes less efficient.

He mentioned something about a 'trickle charge' ........what does that mean??

Any help would be gratefully received, because the last thing I want is to get to,say,the 15th-16th and end up dragging the whole lot back to the car.

 

[Herbie]

Depends on the quality of battery and quality of electrics on trolly.

Some batteries require complete drain before charging to full power to give max performance.

If your battery is typical cell type and one or two cells are damaged or inefective the charger will only charge to their level capacity no matter how long you have them on charge. Have the battery checked.

If you or anyone else has used the trolly by only giving it a quick boost of charge eg only getting 3/4 charge, after a time thats all it will charge to. As the electrics deteriorate over time ,more power is lost/escapes and more is needed to operate the trolly.Check all connections over time and be aware of mileage wear.

Trickle charge depends on equipment available for charging, where a minimum constant charge whenever its not in use is used, but you need settings for this on charger.

The chap you spoke to is right to ask as many a simple task done wrongly can lead to knackered battery and in turn wear on trolly, I have forgotten how many people have complained when their trolly runs out of steam.lol. many of them say"I charged that up last night!"

 

[theeaglehunter]

Powakaddy batteries are meant to be left on a 'maintenance charge' 24-7. Even if you are not playing for the next 3 weeks. I can't speak about other brands though. It should have been in the manual/ instructional diagram.

 

[USER1999]

I thought most modern batteries/chargers were designed to be left on all the time. Guess I will have to read the instructions when I pick up my Hillbilly. That'll be a first. Don't normally do instructions, if you have to read these, the product designer has failed in his job.

 

[Herbie]

even the modern stuf can develop faults if wrongly used or neglected, if its new then you normally have a procedure to follow, like so many hrs charge before use and as was said , some sort of maint charge or system of recharge after use.

 

[Leftie]

There have been threads about this in the past.

It all boils down to "if in doubt, RTFM (read the flipping manual)"

I'm sure that Powercaddy (other products are available ) are no different to other suppliers. The supplied battery should be fully charged but put it on charge anyway. When you have played your round, put it on charge and leave it on charge until you next need it (unless that is going to be many weeks in which case charge it up agan before use).

Once fully charged, it goes to a maintenance trickle charge so no problem about overcharging.

Apart from possibly a Sonnenscheim battery, do not over discharge as it might not ever recharge fully again.

 

[viscount17]

for such a simple device there are no end of problems that the simple battery can cause.

a battery begins to lose it's charge as soon as you remove the charging current. once a battery starts to lose charge crystals start to form on the plates which in time will limit the charge that you can put in. trickle charging is designed to hold this at bay - it won't stop it entirely. (all is not lost as batteries can be recovered (to some degree) though it's a involved process better left to a battery specialist - you could do it but you need more gear.)

most simple chargers are preset to supply a specified charging current then cut-off when the battery is fully charged. better ones reduce the charging current to a sustaining top-up level - a trickle. once again all is not lost, always charge the battery as soon as possible after use and always before storage. if you don't have a trickle charger or can't leave it connected all the time put it back on charge once a week but not less than once a month.

(two/three things here -
a golf cart battery is NOT the same as a car battery - they are built differently and definitely have different charging requirements. they are also used differently, a car battery is high current/short cycle, a golf cart battery is designed for sustained use, 'deep discharge'.

different types of battery require different charging methods and different charging currents, the charger you got with a lead acid golf trolley battery is no good for a gel battery. the lead-acid battery probably charges at around 2.4 Amps but will be higher (around 3 or 4 Amps) for Gel and different again for AGM. A car battery charger will typically charge at 5 Amps or more - not advised.

sealed batteries NEVER fully charge - they are designed not to. the charging process produces gas, a 'sealed' battery can't vent it so don't charge as high.

 

[CarpeDiem]

I have a motocaddy and they say that you should put your battery on charge at least 24 hours after playing and top it up just before playing. This way the battery holds the charge for the most amount of time.

 

[surefire]

I'm not sure about that. Its possibly a different version of motocaddy, but my S3 says you should put it on charge ASAP after a round (def within 24hours) and that you should just leave it charging constantly. The charger detects when the battery is fully charged and just switches to a trickle charge.

 

[viscount17]

This may be behind the confusion as to whether deep cycle (golf) batteries can be 'deep discharged' or not, (it's not just Sonnenschein that can). It <u>can be beneficial if done infrequently and with care</u> if the battery is of good quality to start with. It's not just a case of putting a big resistor across the terminals - more like leaving your interior light on in the car - it's also part of the process of recovering a sulphated battery.

'The key structural difference between deep cycle batteries and cranking batteries is the Lead plates, which are solid in deep-cycle batteries and composed of porous sponge-like plates in starting batteries. Some batteries that are labelled "deep-cycle" do not possess these solid lead plates, however, and are actually "hybrid" batteries. While a deep-cycle battery is designed to discharge down to as much as 20% of its charge capacity over several cycles, companies recommend that a hybrid battery not be discharged beyond 50% of its capacity' (Wikpedia)