Have a Sams 6 Volt Golf Cart Battery I purchased in May of 2011 that has lost water in the middle cell. The MH stays on shore power to keep frig power, and to keep batteries charged. The other 3 batteries show 6.37 Volts. The one that lossed water shows 4.25. I put separate charger on the low battery(disconnected from coach) and let charge 2 plus hours. This raised the battery voltage to 5.67 Volts. I let the battery sit overnight and checked voltage again. This morning the voltage is back to 4.3 volts. Is there any likelyhood that the battery may still be serviceable? The warranty is only 12 months on their(Sams) Golf Cart Batteries. I hate to buy a new battery and add it to the battey bank when the life of the other batteries are at half life. Anyone have any Constructive Comments/Suggestions? Thanks, David.

The low battery will sap power from the other battery in the bank causing a net loss of useful power since you cannot isolate a single 6 volt battery. My guess would be there is a short in one cell and it is POSSIBLE that it could be saved by discharging and emptying acid/electrolyte out by turning it upside down while discharged. You'd have to add battery acid and fresh distilled water and recharge the battery and see what happens but may not be worth it for a one year battery. NO guarantee it would work and not saving that much either. You could CONTINUE to use it even with low voltage if the power loss if acceptable (camping with electric hook ups nearly always) but watch it to be sure the case is not heating up from the short (if there is one) because they can be dangerous if they overheat. If it were me I'd replace it.Good luck / Skip

2 hrs is not going to fully charge your battery. The 5.67V you saw was just surface charge. How many amps does your 6V charger put out?EDIT: What skipnchar said is correct but first you have to fully charge that battery THEN let it sit overnight to see if it holds a charge. Is the acid in any of the cells in that battery milky looking?

There is only clear liquid covering the plates. Charger only has a 6 Volt Manual Setting. Just from an observation, there doesn't appear to be any reason for the loss of liquid. I did put some distilled water in all the batteries since they have been on SP since late February(last used). But, this is the only one which lossed liquid. Sure made a mess in the battery compartment. while I had the batteries out during cleaning, I checked the electrolyte in all 4 batteries with a hydrometer. This particular battery did show a low reading. I could add some electrolyte to the cells and see what happens, but I'm not sure of how much to add. Any thoughts?

Some of the acid is still in there more than likely. It may have just turned to sulphate on the plates (and other bad places). If I am right, then it has a very small working area so it charges faster. Once it is charged, it starts bubbling the electrolyte.If this is true, you need to see how much sulphation you can reverse before you think about adding acid. There are experts here can tell you options for how to do that in this case.How many amps is your 6v charger? What other chargers do you have?Jim

The loss of water is possibly due to heat from the weak cell. Especially since it is the one that is low on water. Did the water level go lower than the plates before you replenished?

6 Volt Battery Issue | Good Sam Community

20 Replies

mena661
Explorer
May 04, 2013
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Ready for recycling. Exchanging it isn't convenient or cheap.

QUESTION: How many TROJAN battery owners out there have had to take "advantage" of a battery warranty?
Question, why do you think it's dead? I must be missing something if you're dooming it.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
May 04, 2013
Ready for recycling. Exchanging it isn't convenient or cheap.

QUESTION: How many TROJAN battery owners out there have had to take "advantage" of a battery warranty?
mena661
Explorer
May 04, 2013
faucet1 wrote:
Unfortunately I believe you may be correct. Since I have a local dry camping outing shortly, and I don't have a substitute battery handy, I need to go ahead and get ready. Thanks for your comment.
David
None of your cells are below 75% SOC. A shorted cell will be way lower than that. Fully charge the battery and then see what happens.
faucet1
Explorer
May 04, 2013
Unfortunately I believe you may be correct. Since I have a local dry camping outing shortly, and I don't have a substitute battery handy, I need to go ahead and get ready. Thanks for your comment.
David
bartlettj
Explorer
May 04, 2013
I think you have a single shorted cell, but not the one with low water. The cell that lost water was because it boiled out- it saw more voltage than the shorted cell. I think it is very unlikely that you can recover this one and you need to swap it out.
faucet1
Explorer
May 04, 2013
I was in error when I posted the Specific Gravity at 1.25 for the low cell...it was 1.2, and the adjacent cells were 1.225. Sorry about that.
faucet1
Explorer
May 03, 2013
I'm going to look for another charger that has an automatic setting including the 6 volt setting. Since I'm in and out, I am a little concerned to leave the manual charger by itself.
mena661
Explorer
May 02, 2013
1.25 is above 80% SOC so that's not bad at all. If they're all the same SG, that's also good. Let's get a full charge in that battery then we can go on from there. 2 hrs won't do it. And if you're using the HF charger, it's going to take more than a day to do a full charge (that's if the voltage doesn't get too high on the manual setting).
faucet1
Explorer
May 02, 2013
The hydrometer reading was 1.25 as I recall. The other two cells had a similar reading. I had topped off the cells in all the batteries, but this particular battery/cell had only a small amount of electrolyte left above the plates when I found it the next day after adding the distilled water. In all my years of battery maintenance I have never run into this problem before.
mena661
Explorer
May 02, 2013
What was the reading on the middle cell according to your hydrometer? I'm not convinced you have a bad battery yet.

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6 Volt Battery Issue

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