Acid smell
 

Another dumb golf cart question from the clueless. We are renting and have never had a golf cart before. When we charge the golf cart we as it gets near full we get an acid smell. Is this normal?
Hubby has been very diligent about filling the water (It has some kind of tube filler connected to all the batteries) so that isn't the problem. He always unplugs it before it turns off because he says he can hear it gurgle and it makes him nervous.

TrudyM...You need to call your landlord. Explain your situation to them, if they can't help you then they need someone to help them. But what you describe is NOT the way to care for an Electric cart.

We don't have a tube thingy on our batteries but most of what you describe seems normal as I can relate to what you've posted. I will sometimes notice a slight acid smell and sometimes will hear gurgling. I just now asked my husband what he would do as far as filling etc. He said his policy is ..once a week, in the morning after the cart has been plugged in all night he would unplug & then do the water ...never completely filling to the top of battery. He fills to the O ring that is located in the battery just below the opening. He says never to fill all the way to the top. You don't need to constantly be filling if that is what you;ve been doing. Our cart is used everyday, of course some days more distance than others, and plugged in every night and left plugged in all night. Hope our routine answers some of your concern. Has anyone in your area helped you out with this? I'll send you a pm with our # should you want to call us.

As stated before, 'gurgling' is normal. It is the final phase of charging where everything is getting mixed up inside the battery. You should NOT UNPLUG the charger.

The smell is not acid, it is a by product of charging. It is hydrogen something or other (too lazy to look up at moment).

Does the charger shut off if you let it alone? I remember you were asking this last week.

It does stink up a garage.

Hubby unplugs it when he hears the gurgling so don't know. The meter on the charger starts at 15 to 20 amps and it gurgles when it is at 1amp and the acid smell gets strong so he unplugs it. He has been trying to put water in it once a week as directed but it hasn't taken any.

Sounds like everything is working as expected except for hubby

Please step away from the charger :laugh:

As a pack of batteries is used, or ages, it would be normal for one battery among the others (or one cell within a battery) to become slighlty off capacity of the others. The charger will attempt to equalize that during the finishing stage of charging, which can result in excess hyrdrogen gassing because while bringing up the lower cells, the higher ones will still get somewhat of a boost.

Any vehicle will do it, but not all the time. If it does it at every charge, I would have the batteries load tested in the event of a bad one.

As AJ stated, do not unplug or the pack will never be fully charged and equalized. This may mean let it charge outside one night to get that equalization charge and keep the odor our of the garage where it's also safer. No need to inhale fumes!

Now that makes sense. After reading here we were looking at carts and guys at the golf cart store told him it was normal as well. But the uneven cell explanation makes perfect sense.