Re: [EVDL] Battery Revival

Re: [EVDL] Battery Revival

I haven't had anything to say for a couple of years now, but I always enjoy reading the experiences and insights of the people who made it possible for me to build and drive EV's.
I had the experience last year of reviving a totally dead 72v pack in a 4 passenger GEM that my "87 year old teenage" friend Brad had bought for $500. The charger had failed, so the owner just left it parked on his chicken ranch outside Petaluma for a couple of years; he was convinced that it was going to cost more than it was worth to get it going again. I told Brad to get it to me, and I would see what I could do. I mixed EDTA in distilled water, used 2 Tbsp per cell, then started charging the batteries individually with 75 watt PV panels. Once they got to a reasonable voltage, I used 12v chargers to bring them up as well as they would. When I pulled out the dash to get to the charger, I found it was a Zivan NG1; plugging it in gave me the error codes, calling Zivan in Sacramento told me what to do (disconnect the thermal sensor), and we had a working EV. I first drove it at a good speed around my pasture, (which was a VERY rough ride) to shake up the batteries and put a l!
oad on them, then charged again. I did that 4 times, then took it out on the road, and drove it up and down until the low battery alarm came on. After I did that 3 times, I drove it up the very steep hill into a housing development toward town, again, driving it until the low battery alarm came on, then easing it back home to charge again. After that, I started driving it to work, which is some climbing, and lots of stop and go. The batteries had enough capacity for me to drive 6-8 miles before the alarm sounded. Obviously, that is not enough range for any normal EV, but it worked well enough for me to demonstrate that the GEM was a good serviceable EV, and well worth putting a fresh pack into (which I did).
The batteries I took out are still powering my RV (with a PV assist) and my on-the-farm golf cart (which needed batteries.
The EDTA treatment may need to be repeated, but for the cost, it was effective in this case.
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