LEAD ACID BATTERIES - My FORM charger is not fully charging my batteries

Diminished driving distance or undercharging can be a frustrating experience when you rely on your cart to get you around. Through troubleshooting with our customers, we have found a relatively common issue that has a fairly simple solution.

Commonly Occurs After

  1. Recently replaced batteries
  2. Recently cleaned battery terminals
  3. Your cart has been sitting for multiple months

The Problem

The most common culprit is a weak or bad cable connection between the receptacle and the battery pack

The wire from the receptacle to the batteries is often a small gauge wire very similar to cheap speaker wire, and the end connected to the batteries often frays or corrodes over time, making it difficult to reattach or easily dislodged when replacing batteries or cleaning battery terminals.

How to Confirm

  1. Set Multimeter: Set your multimeter to DC Voltage at 200VDC
  2. Read Battery Pack Voltage: Take a reading of the combined battery pack voltage by placing your positive probe on the positive terminal of battery 1 and the negative terminal of the last battery in the series.
    • If your batteries are full, this reading should be between around 38 Volts for 36V carts and 51 Volts for 48V carts
  3. Read Voltage at the Back of the Receptacle: Take a voltage reading at the back side of your receptacle.
    • If this reading is more than 0.3 Volts different, then you know you have a receptacle cable issue.
    • If the voltage is within 0.3 Volts, move on to step 4
  4. Read Receptacle Voltage: Take a voltage reading at the front side of your receptacle where you would insert your charger plug. 
    •If you are not able to read any voltage at the front side of the receptacle, you likely have a blown fuse inside of your receptacle that will require replacing the receptacle

How To Fix

  1. Remove Positive and Clean: Remove the positive receptacle wire from the batteries, clean the wire, and twist the end to create a stronger connection point.
  2. Reattach Positive: Reattach the positive receptacle wire to the battery.
  3. Repeat for Negative: Repeat steps 1 & 2 for the negative wire
  4. Retest Voltage: Take another voltage reading at the back of the receptacle to see if you have fixed the problem.
    • If the problem persists, replace the positive and negative wires between the receptacle and the battery pack.

Equipment Used / Where To Buy

 

Alternative Solutions

How to Properly Maintain the Water in Your Batteries

How to Diagnose a Bad Cell In Your Batteries

 

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