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davidbr13 · 10-11-13, 08:57 AM

100A! Wow! I pull around 50A on my E15 Elec-Trak and I thought that was high (it goes higher through tall, tough grass if you don't slow down, but I try to keep it at 50A or less on average). Its a 36V system, really not high enough. Are you running 24V?

Unfortunately, I know from experience about this. Put a resistor (a light bulb works great) in series with your bad battery and charge it separately until the voltage comes up to a more 'normal' range. Then you can take the resistor out and charge with a normal charger. The reversed cell will re-reverse. The damage has been done, however, and that cell will never recover its full capacity. To get the battery charged again, the one cell will charge normaly, but the undamaged cells will be overcharged every time. Therefore the life of that one battery will be much shorter, and the capacity of that one battery is limited to that of the damaged cell. Naturally, this brings down the entire pack's capacity to that same point.

I just recently had one battery go bad on the ET in the same way - one bad cell had a lot less capacity than the rest, so it tended to get discharged further than all the others every time until it finally would reverse while mowing. You could feel it and hear it in the motors, even a 2V overall drop is very noticeable in a 36V system. Eventually it would not come back. Fortunately, my local battery place sells "blems" - lightly used, reconditioned batteries - for only $45, so I got one of those to replace it. You will likely only be able to wring enough extra life out of that battery to last til you can buy yourself a used one to replace it.

10-11-13, 08:57 AM	#307
davidbr13 Lurking Renovator Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Savannah, Georgia Posts: 27 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	100A! Wow! I pull around 50A on my E15 Elec-Trak and I thought that was high (it goes higher through tall, tough grass if you don't slow down, but I try to keep it at 50A or less on average). Its a 36V system, really not high enough. Are you running 24V? Unfortunately, I know from experience about this. Put a resistor (a light bulb works great) in series with your bad battery and charge it separately until the voltage comes up to a more 'normal' range. Then you can take the resistor out and charge with a normal charger. The reversed cell will re-reverse. The damage has been done, however, and that cell will never recover its full capacity. To get the battery charged again, the one cell will charge normaly, but the undamaged cells will be overcharged every time. Therefore the life of that one battery will be much shorter, and the capacity of that one battery is limited to that of the damaged cell. Naturally, this brings down the entire pack's capacity to that same point. I just recently had one battery go bad on the ET in the same way - one bad cell had a lot less capacity than the rest, so it tended to get discharged further than all the others every time until it finally would reverse while mowing. You could feel it and hear it in the motors, even a 2V overall drop is very noticeable in a 36V system. Eventually it would not come back. Fortunately, my local battery place sells "blems" - lightly used, reconditioned batteries - for only $45, so I got one of those to replace it. You will likely only be able to wring enough extra life out of that battery to last til you can buy yourself a used one to replace it.