Hi all,
I woke up this morning to a peculiar smell coming from my garage. When I investigated I noticed the deck of my 2 year old Ego 2 LX was warm and when I opened it up, I found my batteries were bloated and hot. The charger was running at its higher level but I didn't notice whether the light was green or yellow. When I plugged it back in for a moment it was yellow. It's a given that I'll need new batteries and a charger, but I was wondering whether I needed to consider any other components as either being a cause for the batteries over charging, or a victem of the same.
any help appreciated,
tedd
You may not need a replacement charger. Sounds like thermal runaway triggered by something. As the battery temperature rises, the charging voltage decreases. If the voltage does not rise properly the charger may interpret that as needing more charge and stay in maximum current mode. If you've got any two SLAs of the same capacity around, than a test carefully monitoring battery voltage, temperature, charge current could be done.
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[url=/forum-topic/motorcycles-and-large-scooters/587-my-kz750-electric-motorcycle-project]KZ750 Motorcycle Conversion[/url]
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Thermal runaway on SLA's? I've never heard of that. My first suspect is the charger. I'd get a cheap/scrap pair of batteries (the ones that got fried would be contenders, if they still have normal voltage) and re-hook the charger, this time carefully monitoring voltage and current. The question is how high the charge voltage was allowed to go.
I doubt that anything else would be cooked if the voltage went into the 30V range.
I have a pair of SLA's which also got bloated and hot. I assumed the charger was at fault and threw it away.
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Deafscooter is Here...
Same thing happen to me
the charger have fault to control on voltage is 29.7 volts and stay force charged on battery to overheat
and burned the cells inside batteres pack it could be acid leaking into filling the garage room }:) }:) }:)
you have use temps sensor to stick the battery packs while charger up
( most ni cad battery has stick heat sensor allow heat to shut off charger )
:( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop: :( :jawdrop:
Craig Uyeda
Deafscooter
deafscooter
Thanks to all who helped me out with this problem. I've ordered a new charger from Ego and new batteries from Electric Rider, and will hopefully put it all back together next week. With shipping, the whole deal set me back over $350. Glad I'm saving so much on gas... Does anyone know if there are any fuse arrangements or other limiting devices that could have protected my batteries? I assume the smart charger somehow lost its self-regulating function and got very dumb.
again, thanks,
tedd
A fuse can't do it. A charger that compensates for temperature as deafscooter mentioned is a relatively safe bet. I think some voltage regulators might be able to compensate for temperature such as these. A powercheq unit might help a lot with battery balance, lowering the chances of over discharge or over charge.
Though all of these methods are probably too costly for you. I would make sure the batteries are not hot before charging. If the batteries are hot, then wait for them to cool before charging. If the ego is very weak, than stop and push it. And check the voltage of each battery periodically. If you have a 12v charger designed for AGM batteries, than it would be a great way to balance them every so often by charging each battery individually. Or atleast finishing the charge cycle for each battery individually with a 12v charger should balance them. Small imbalances tend to get worse over time, so you don't need to do this every cycle.
---
Avatar taken from http://www.electricmotorbike.org/
Anyone got one they want to sell?
My KZ750 Project: here
[url=/forum-topic/motorcycles-and-large-scooters/587-my-kz750-electric-motorcycle-project]KZ750 Motorcycle Conversion[/url]
[url=/forum-topic/motorcycles-and-large-scooters/588-fixing-my-chinese-scooter]900 watt scooter[/url]
Pic from http://www.electri