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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 09:42
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The next paradox, these new Crown golf cart batteries are loosing more charge in a very short time than I am using.
Within 2 days of non use they loose easily 50% of charge.
Any ideas other than the obvious "defective battery"?
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 10:12
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Any chance of a phantom load someplace? Do you have access to a clamp on ammeter so you can actually see if there is flow out of the batteries? Or perhaps you have disconnected the cables and have seen that discharge in that time?
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 10:20 - Edited by: groingo
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They have been completely disconnected and lost nearly 60% of charge just sitting.
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 12:00
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Good thing there is a warranty. That is hard to explain a self discharge like that w/o there being some internal manufacturing problem, IMO.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 12:43
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Hygrometer verify's what ghe volt meter is saying with 1 1/2 balls.
They told me I had 30 days for return and Crown is behaving, I will try another time or two just to be rock solid sure.
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jackaxe
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 14:37
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My exide deep cycle batteries part# NC-27 get about 2 1/2 days of use. Running the propane frig and shurflo for the sink, approx. 15-20 gallons of water. Charged at home before we leave for a long weekend.
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rayyy
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 16:48
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How did you determine this 50% loss?Does the + wire spark when you remove it from the battery terminal?
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ILFE
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 23:11
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Quoting: rayyy How did you determine this 50% loss?
I am under the impression he is going by the specific gravity reading, as well as the volt meter to verify it?
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 31 May 2014 23:58 - Edited by: groingo
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You are correct plus there is a chart supplied by Crown battery, it would appear that the charger is not doing what Crown terms "not properly packing" in otherwords it is a loose or surface charge which could be the charger (which is a brand new Schumacher), so I used a 25 year old Sears 10 amp charger which did seem to do a better job and the charge meter was much more accurate, cables were cool but the charger smelled like cat pis... so will cross fingers and see these next few days.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2014 09:46
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Groingo. I think I posted earlier that I thought you weren't charging at a high enough voltage. You should be charging at around 14.5 minimum. My batteries are currently (that just never gets old) charging at 14.88 in absorb. I would think if you want to fully charge your batteries and pack in the electrons you should be charging somewhere around there.
That 13.6 you charge at is a float voltage and it will take a loooooong time to fully charge those batteries.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 1 Jun 2014 10:24 - Edited by: groingo
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Just doing what Crown has recomended, will give a bit more time to see what shakes out, but at this point it is looking more like the charger than the batteries, the new charger's highly inaccurate meter to the excessive heat and the racket it makes while the old Sears one is clearly made of better stuff and gets the same job done in much less time as well without the funky stuff of todays Schumacher charger.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jun 2014 08:10
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The "boondocker" from Powermax is a pretty good charger. They're a bit pricier than the big box store charger but for your use, probably a good idea. 4 stage charging so you can equalize also.
Would reduce the amount of time you need to run the genny.
Is 14.5 still the Crown recommended charge value? And 15.5 for equalize (batteries at 25C)?
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jun 2014 10:02
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I just checked what Trojan recommends and they show 14.5 to 13.8 where Crown is very vague and is unable to answer the simplest question by phone to their technical support, not an inspiring bell ringer in my book, so, I will try using Trojans methods and see.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 3 Jun 2014 11:21
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The charge settings are in the "safety" manual.
https://www.crownbattery.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Deep-Cycle-Product-Support -Broch.pdf
sheesh.
It appears the values are still 14.5 for absorb (daily charge)
15.5 for equalize (once a month)
13.5 for float.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 4 Jun 2014 17:47
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Glad you got the pdf file to download, all I coould go by is what they were telling me on the phone.
I've decided to go by what Trojan has, the batteries are very similar but Trojans informaion is easier to get, thus far the new (old) Sears battery charger is definitely doing a better job, five days between charges looks very doable and a decent hydrometer just verifies what the volt meter has been saying all along.
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 4 Jun 2014 19:06
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nice
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