6v golf cart batteries have sat for a year .. best way to proceed help?

captain howdy

**edited** after submitting it looked like I got to rambling, I bolded a few key points for anyone interested in helping but discouraged by the banter. Thx again

Hey everyone. Awesome forum, have learned tons just browsing around already. I'm set to rotate back in just a couple of days and get started on my enclosed trailer conversion+solar project I kicked off a year ago. There's my good news. Bad news is I was ignorant to a work opportunity that turned out to be too good to pass up which caused me to drop everything unexpectedly to hang out in Afghanistan for a year. Civ this time around, but did Iraq 03/04 and Afg 05/06 before ETSing from the Army. Anyways- what I'm concerned with and hoping for some guidance on is the eight 6v golf cart batteries I purchased right before leaving. East penn make 210 ah I believe.

I intended to configure them in two strings of 24v series and then a parallel string. I have a 24v 40amp battery charger on hand that I purchased from NAWS (Iota, doesn't have the iq4 if that makes a difference). So currently I will have access to that charger, a fluke mm, and a hydrometer. If it makes sense to purchase any other gadgets/gear I'm not averse just let me know what I need (like a different charger to charge the batteries individually, just babbling out loud here).

The batteries have been stored inside w/ air cond, were date coded brand new (believe they were all september of what was then 2013), but otherwise haven't been touched, charged, used, etc.

I would really appreciate some guidance on what my first move should be. Withstanding your advice I was thinking I would check water and add some if needed, wire them up into the 24v strings, and use the iota to do an initial (re)charge of the batteries one string at a time, see what the levels looked like again and if it looked worth proceeding (as in hydrometer looks good, holding a charge) I'd connect them in their final series/parallel config and finish wiring up the charge controller and panels etc. and just watch them closely. (I planned to take the man cave off grid sans central air conditioning, so it's "off grid" but will have access to first world amenities.)

If anything looks off I will most certainly be back here in a few days with questions, but any sage advice (or even a quick look at someone's idiot compass, i.e. some pointers) on if I'm on the right track, what I should be looking for, what I should do first or DON'T do etc. Bonus points for any prognostication respective to the battery health, i.e. should I expect them to be trashed at this point or not a huge deal etc.

There are some really smart folks here I see from other threads and I hope one of you/them finds this thread and has the time to help me out. Thank you very much in advance!!

Clint

Cariboocoot

Re: 6v golf cart batteries have sat for a year .. best way to proceed help?

Welcome to the forum.

All you can do is charge 'em and check 'em. A year is a long time for any battery to have not even maintenance charging. At the very least they have a year's less life in them.

mike95490

Re: 6v golf cart batteries have sat for a year .. best way to proceed help?

this is an expensive lesson. The batteries are likely severely degraded after loosing a lot through monthly self discharge.

soylentgreen

Re: 6v golf cart batteries have sat for a year .. best way to proceed help?

Costco sells equivalent GC2 batteries for about $90 each. So worst case you are out about $760. Hopefully they aren't all toast and you can use them for a while?

PNjunction

Re: 6v golf cart batteries have sat for a year .. best way to proceed help?

Although you already have the Iota for *normal* charging, due to their abuse in storage, I'd suggest charging each one with the Optimate 5 "voltmatic" charger. Model TM-223 (dual voltage), NOT the model 220 which is for 12v only.

Yes, it is a small charger, and I would not normally recommend it's use under normal conditions on huge batteries, like 210ah. However, if those batteries are in pretty bad shape, the actual smarts, even at low amperage, can bring them back to a serviceable voltage for your Iota to handle safely. OR, you could do a reset of the charger or two if you decided to use the Optimate solely for this task. At the very least, start the recovery with the Optimate, and let it also finish the charge (by multiple resets, or using your Iota for bulk only once recovery is successful, and again letting the Optimate finish absorb and float, and complete the lengthy test routines afterwards.

Optimate actually specs being able to charge 10 - 192ah 6V batteries, (8 - 120ah for 12v), but still, being this small I probably wouldn't want to use it everyday.

There is a lot of hocus-pocus out there in the small charger / recovery market. My Optimates actually work great for automating recovery routines I would normally do on my own with a bench supply, and have taken the fun out of that. But if it isn't documented on exactly what they do, they are not considered. The Optimates are honest and very descriptive about what they do. Not only that, but they use multiple test routines prior and after charge. If you read the "how it works" section in the manual that can be obtained online, you'll see what I mean.

I'm not trying to sound like a salesman here. I'm just saying that what once was done with a lot of manual labor with my bench supply recovering abused batteries, the Optimates have replaced and automated that for me.