[ajbrown]

My 6 volt T105 batteries turned two years old and I wanted to share some range testing I did prior to my experience with a Battery Minder (future posts). If you enjoy long winded posts filled with dry boring data on batteries, you have come to the right place . I have sprinkled in pictures to distract the reader. My batteries were installed on 2/17/2010. I have had no issues with the pack, they have been maintained to the best of my ability. The one gray mark on their history was the first summer where I left them for four months with no charging. I may have gotten away with that as they were new and strong and did not discharge at a very high rate. That will not happen again.

Skip to the bottom to see the mileage results. As you can see the pack is as pretty as ever:





The annual cleaning and inspection revealed no issues. There was no evidence of acid anywhere on the case or trays. All connections were disconnected, cleaned, connected and sprayed for corrosion. For my fill it and go friends…. stop rolling your eyes, I really do enjoy doing this bit of work on a beautiful day.

As a birthday gift I decided to reward the pack with a Battery Minder. It will be used mostly as a battery tender during my absence. I am not looking at the Battery Minder for the ability to de-sulfate the batteries. If I get some of that it will be a bonus. Before I try out the Battery Minder, I decided to do some tests to see assess the condition of the batteries.

This cart is a 2002 Club CAR DS which I bought from my neighbor for $1000. They had had enough with electric carts and battery issues and bought a Yamaha Gas cart from The Villages. They have had to replace the battery in their gas cart three times since they bought it. You cannot make this stuff up . With some help I converted the frame in my Club Car to hold two additional batteries and installed 8 T105s in February of 2010.

My test runs:

• Front window was down as it was hot, but this would decrease wind resistance and increase range.
• Only weight in cart was a husky man, lab assistant Caly, and possibly a couple of beverages with enough ice to keep them cold.
• All driving was on tar paths or roads.
• All mileage was not continuous. I stopped for periods of 15-30 minutes at various places to visit and take voltages of the pack.
• Voltages were measured after the pack rested for 15-30 minutes post arrival at a destination. (Future post will have details of voltages for the truly curious)
• The distance was measured with the cart speedometer and a GPS app on my Blackberry, I used the lower number.

Off we go (one of us prefers anonymity)



I will add a couple of more posts on this thread with details of the road test for the voltage junkies and my thoughts on the Battery Minder as I use it.

Originally Posted by Someone named Alan

Caveat reader: Alan is no expert, just sharing my experiences as I go with my electric carts.

In the second run, I ran my pack voltage much lower than I would ever recommend as I wanted to see if any battery would show signs of stress. You should NEVER EVER take the pack below 46.6 volts. I usually will never take a pack to less than 48.4 volts

Test run one: 42+ miles, ending voltage was 48.6 volts (~55% SOC)
Test run two: 63+ miles, ending voltage was 47.6 volts (~37% SOC) (last run of 9.5 miles had lights on)

I was extremely pleased with these numbers. I also plotted them while watching tv one evening and was surprised to learn something which I will share if I figure out how to post it.

[Golfer in Sanibel]

Very interesting. Keep us posted. BTW, I have a Battery tender I used to keep my Corvette charged while in winter storage. 6v or 12v. Is that the same you use or is there a different Battery Tender for a 48v golf cart?

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by Golfer in Sanibel

Very interesting. Keep us posted. BTW, I have a Battery tender I used to keep my Corvette charged while in winter storage. 6v or 12v. Is that the same you use or is there a different Battery Tender for a 48v golf cart?

Ok, you win, my coolest vehicle is a golf cart with 8-6 volt batteries and you have a Corvette

I am playing around with this model. IMO you can do better than the pricing at this URL if you shop around.

Batteryminders Specials | BatteryMinders.com

[Graytop]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

My 6 volt T105 batteries turned two years old and I wanted to share some range testing I did prior to my experience with a Battery Minder (future posts). If you enjoy long winded posts filled with dry boring data on batteries, you have come to the right place . I have sprinkled in pictures to distract the reader. My batteries were installed on 2/17/2010. I have had no issues with the pack, they have been maintained to the best of my ability. The one gray mark on their history was the first summer where I left them for four months with no charging. I may have gotten away with that as they were new and strong and did not discharge at a very high rate. That will not happen again.

Skip to the bottom to see the mileage results. As you can see the pack is as pretty as ever:





The annual cleaning and inspection revealed no issues. There was no evidence of acid anywhere on the case or trays. All connections were disconnected, cleaned, connected and sprayed for corrosion. For my fill it and go friends…. stop rolling your eyes, I really do enjoy doing this bit of work on a beautiful day.

As a birthday gift I decided to reward the pack with a Battery Minder. It will be used mostly as a battery tender during my absence. I am not looking at the Battery Minder for the ability to de-sulfate the batteries. If I get some of that it will be a bonus. Before I try out the Battery Minder, I decided to do some tests to see assess the condition of the batteries.

This cart is a 2002 Club CAR DS which I bought from my neighbor for $1000. They had had enough with electric carts and battery issues and bought a Yamaha Gas cart from The Villages. They have had to replace the battery in their gas cart three times since they bought it. You cannot make this stuff up . With some help I converted the frame in my Club Car to hold two additional batteries and installed 8 T105s in February of 2010.

My test runs:

• Front window was down as it was hot, but this would decrease wind resistance and increase range.
• Only weight in cart was a husky man, lab assistant Caly, and possibly a couple of beverages with enough ice to keep them cold.
• All driving was on tar paths or roads.
• All mileage was not continuous. I stopped for periods of 15-30 minutes at various places to visit and take voltages of the pack.
• Voltages were measured after the pack rested for 15-30 minutes post arrival at a destination. (Future post will have details of voltages for the truly curious)
• The distance was measured with the cart speedometer and a GPS app on my Blackberry, I used the lower number.

Off we go (one of us prefers anonymity)



I will add a couple of more posts on this thread with details of the road test for the voltage junkies and my thoughts on the Battery Minder as I use it.



Test run one: 42+ miles, ending voltage was 48.6 volts (~55% SOC)
Test run two: 63+ miles, ending voltage was 47.6 volts (~37% SOC) (last run of 9.5 miles had lights on)

I was extremely pleased with these numbers. I also plotted them while watching tv one evening and was surprised to learn something which I will share if I figure out how to post it.

I love these technical posts,...I'm sure every lady on TOTV finds this fascinating as well,....keep up the good work!

FYI,...I just had a new set of T890's installed in my Club Car and it's great. For my money, these older 48V Club Car DS are a great value. I think mine is an 03.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by Graytop

I love these technical posts,...I'm sure every lady on TOTV finds this fascinating as well ...

Fascinating.

[CarGuys]

Nice reading . The Battery Minder is a great tool for the de-sulfation of any battery.

Will you be using it for that also some time soon?

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by CarGuys

Nice reading . The Battery Minder is a great tool for the de-sulfation of any battery.

Will you be using it for that also some time soon?

A Battery Minder has been part of the charging system since I completed the 63 mile run below. I will take another run in a couple of weeks and compare. My gut feel is that this pack is in pretty good shape and it will be hard to see a quantifiable change based on any desulfation, we will see. I do not have a pack that would be a good candidate to test that aspect of the BM.

I have some more detailed numbers of each battery to post for the comparison, but that must wait as the lab tech is off today for golf

[iaudit]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

A Battery Minder has been part of the charging system since I completed the 63 mile run below. I will take another run in a couple of weeks and compare. My gut feel is that this pack is in pretty good shape and it will be hard to see a quantifiable change based on any desulfation, we will see. I do not have a pack that would be a good candidate to test that aspect of the BM.

I have some more detailed numbers of each battery to post for the comparison, but that must wait as the lab tech is off today for golf

Alan

Did you buy the Battery Minder locally. I see in the POA bulletin that a company in Leesburg is advertising one at a $50 discount. The best online price that I found was at Northern Tool and Equipment for $170.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

..........They have had to replace the battery in their gas cart three times since they bought it. You cannot make this stuff up . .......

Your neighbor would be served well by getting himself a Battery Tender for his gas cart!! It would have MORE than paid for itself via the cost of all his replacement batteries.

I always find your posts very interesting and informative, aj. Thanks!

Bill

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by iaudit

Alan

Did you buy the Battery Minder locally. I see in the POA bulletin that a company in Leesburg is advertising one at a $50 discount. The best online price that I found was at Northern Tool and Equipment for $170.

I have not bought one yet, I got lucky and am able to try one out. I also saw the add in POA which is interesting. In addition, I know that our friends at Battery Boys sell them. We (Dad and I) will be calling around soon. I would much prefer to buy from a local business if the price is competitive.

Originally Posted by Bill-n-Brillo

Your neighbor would be served well by getting himself a Battery Tender for his gas cart!! It would have MORE than paid for itself via the cost of all his replacement batteries.

I always find your posts very interesting and informative, aj. Thanks!

Bill

The battery was dieing at all times even when they were using cart regular. I have no idea the issue, just found it ironic that they make a move to gas cart to get away from electric and have battery issues

Thanks everyone for the kind words about my posts..... I enjoy posting this stuff and it makes me smile when I hear folks like to read it....

[ajbrown]

I have had the Battery Minder model number 48021 on my 8 6volt pack for a couple of weeks and my initial reaction is positive. I have a some first impressions to share. These are my opinions and should not be interpreted as anything more. If others have different or additional opinions, it would be great to hear them. I am tumbling towards the purchase of Battery Minders for our carts.

I really like being able to plug in the Battery Minder instead of the bulk charger when I have just run the cart for 10 to 20 minutes. I always felt the bulk charger was a bit of overkill for small trips.

I really am not a fan of the wiring connector design of the Battery Minder. There are two separate connectors from the unit, one going to a heat sensor (left in picture) and one going to a split cable (right in picture) which connects to the + and – of the pack. I would much prefer a single plug that had all three. In addition this plug should be mountable to the cart like any charger connector. When I come home at night, I would like to plug in one connection and be done with it instead of finding the two connectors at each end, untangling everything and getting them plugged it. In battery tender mode this is of little consequence, but for a daily charger little things like this could make it better IMO. I suspect it will be on my Dad and my to do list to make such a connector for us in the future.

I note the pack voltage is around 52.4 when I first detach Battery Minder. This is about one and a half volts higher than 100% charge. I assume this is normal and will read more about that. I am not sure if this is a steady state voltage during maintenance mode or not, time will tell.

As I said, so far so good. I know for sure my batteries will be in a better place this summer.

[iaudit]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

.........

I really am not a fan of the wiring connector design of the Battery Minder. There are two separate connectors from the unit, one going to a heat sensor (left in picture) and one going to a split cable (right in picture) which connects to the + and – of the pack. I would much prefer a single plug that had all three. In addition this plug should be mountable to the cart like any charger connector. When I come home at night, I would like to plug in one connection and be done with it instead of finding the two connectors at each end, untangling everything and getting them plugged it. In battery tender mode this is of little consequence, but for a daily charger little things like this could make it better IMO. I suspect it will be on my Dad and my to do list to make such a connector for us in the future.


........

Batteryweb.com in Leesburg has a small heat sensor that does not include a cable. There was no extra charge for it when I purchased the unit there.

[ajbrown]

I spent about 30 minutes while watching television graphing my two test runs with pencil and paper, then added color with MS Paint. I think it is a nice summary. As I have said, I am not expert, so I do this stuff as a hobby, trying to learn as I go.

I did not know what to expect before I plotted the coordinates. I was quite surprised to see the pack discharging in a linear way. I found it very interesting to see that each coordinate came very close to the line. The two that are furthest from the lines were at my Dad’s house with his voltmeter. I suspect our volt meters vary by a bit, but we have yet to have them at the same place to verify.

• The solid lines of the graph represent my actual ride, the dashed sections are a projection of how far we may go if the discharge continues in a linear fashion.
• The green line at 48.41 volts is a deeply as like my packs to discharge. Looking at the graph, this pack could go between 45 to 49 miles under these conditions documented in post #1.
• The red line at 46.63 volts is as deep as any manufacturer says to ever discharge a pack. Going beyond this line is simply not good for the pack and could lead to permenant damage. My projected run out would be between 75 – 79 miles. I say projected as I will not take my pack there. If someone wants to know, let me borrow your cart and I will see if the discharge line remains linear . I know for my test it does remain linear out to 63 miles.
• I do not understand why the two lines vary by 2/10s of a volt. The rides were very similar with respect to wind and temp. Maybe driving speed based on traffic? Do not know....

Like I say, doing this stuff is not required to own an electric cart, but it is interesting to me and learned a couple of things I never knew:

1. Battery packs discharge linearly
2. Being in a golf cart for 63 miles is boring and a bit of a pain in the

PS. I know the 20% SOC in the picture should be 46.63 and I have no intention of fixing

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by iaudit

Batteryweb.com in Leesburg has a small heat sensor that does not include a cable. There was no extra charge for it when I purchased the unit there.

I did not appreciate what you were trying to tell me until I talked to Sandy at Battery Web. I was originally told the heat sensor needed to connect to the pack, but it sounds like the sensor is really there to measure the ambient temp of the garage, so no reason to connect to pack.

I like the fact I do not need to connect the heat sensor to the the negative battery of the pack, one less connection every night.

Thanks for the pictures.

[jimbo2012]

I see T-105's for about $125 free shipping no tax, are you quoting a different battery?