On 06/17/2015 01:55 PM, EVDL Administrator via EV wrote:
Can you be a little more specific here? What makes them so expensive?
The miniBMS modules suffer from exposure to the elements and they are
not well protected in golf carts or the Zap. Or my Ranger. Rodents have
chewed a lot of the signal wires, which have been too light a gauge.
I've been told that the cells self discharge at quite different rates so
that, when left sitting, the battery gets badly out of balance or some
cells go to zero and self destruct. Also, I seem to have some vampire
loads that lead to discharge in a few months or less of non-use. The
real problem is that I'm not willing to jump on a problem as soon as it
develops; I tend to let it sit for months. By that time, I'm likely to
have lost some cells. I may use only one or two of these farm EV
conversions at a time but I've been trying to keep about five ready to
use at any one time. Right now, I have two golf carts, the Zap, and the
Ranger all dead and I am able to use only a golf cart and the imiev.
The imiev is WONDERFUL, completely trouble free. So far. I believe the
imiev is going to be considerably cheaper than the Zap. Or even a golf
cart.
My experience is that the big cells with miniBMS have a mean time to
failure of about two months. Maybe less. I'm looking for a year or
more with no more maintenance other than charging every couple of months.
Golf cars are pretty economical and reliable with lead golf car batteries.
I can not agree. In my experience, lead in golf carts is FAR more
demanding in terms of maintenance. Monthly watering, bad battery
connections, corrosion, rusted out battery boxes, general nastiness,
ever declining capacity.
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