24volt battery and charger

[Ian Frog]

Hi Guys

I know this isn`t strictly bike related but I am hoping for a little guidance.

The pics show the charger and batteries for a 24volt barrow, I believe there is a problem with one or both and want to check.

So question 1 I know the ting stood for about 2 years but that was unmolested in a dry garage with no loading so is there a way of checking the health of the two 12volt batteries that look to be connected in series?

Question 2 the charger has been slightly damaged on it`s casing but appears to charge so is there a way I can check it`s output so I can at least eliminate that and save a bit of cost?

Cheers

Ian

[RideWithStyles]

volt meter will be your friend for both cases.

treat it similar to bike for testing also id test the batteries solo, might be both are in poor shape or one is completely goosed while the other might be the barely holding on widdow, youll only know if teseted separated.

[Simon Davey]

Once you have your voltmeter, I'm pretty sure you want about 27v from the charger, whilst it charges.

12v is the discharged voltage of a battery, you're looking for as near to 13v as possible, or slightly higher when charged.

 

Assuming you have an "intelligent" bike charger, could you separate them and use it to sort them out?

[Ian Frog]

Hi Simon I was hoping to avoid separating them as they are a nightmare to get back in their protective jacket and reinstall. 

If I can establish all is well or what I need to replace I want to be able to go back to charging in-situ.

Last time I used it after about 500 yards it felt as if it was flagging (This is less than a tenth of what it has done before fully loaded).

Strangely when I went back to it today 72 hours later it did the return journey as if no problem whatsoever so I just want to check before it leaves me stranded lol.

Cheers

Ian

[Simon Davey]

No need to physically separate, just slide those wires from the terminals. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Those are gel cells. They really don't like being left to fully discharge. 

 

What @Simon Daveysays about checking the respective voltages is how I'd go about it. 

 

You can disconnect the leads on the batteries and charge / test them separately.  

[Hairsy]

You could set these up on a battery conditioner if you have access to one (Ctek or Optimate type of thing). You can do one battery at a time - no need to disconnect any of the wiring - just connect your conditioner to the individual connectors for one of the batteries. Then do the other.

 

I've used Ctek many times and it does a good job of bringing life back to poor condition batteries. But it can't resurrect a dead one.

 

Re the charger, if you manage to bring the batteries back to life then, once it's working OK, check the resting voltage of the battery pack. Then connect the charger and see if the voltage increases a little. It should be a bit more pronounced if the battery is a little discharged before you connect it to the charger.

[Bender]

If you don't want or can't get to the bridge wire, snip it and re join later.

[Hairsy]

You don't need to do anything with the bridge between the two batteries - you can work on one battery at a time and the other one won't be affected if it's only connected to the other battery by one terminal via the bridge.

[Ian Frog]

Thanks guys.

Voltage at each battery measured and showed 12.6volts on each which I took to be encouraging as they were partially discharged following small use.

Charger output difficult to measure as the terminal connector thingys are awkward to get a reliable contact with but I did see 20+ volts a few times.

I have left them set up charging and will check after 24 hours but my suspicion is either charger issues or simply a loose connection between battery pack and the loom on the barrow.

Fingers crossed.

Cheers 

Ian

[Simon Davey]

Sounds very "positive"......