I am a 10 year GEM owner, just selling my 2001 e4.
I bought an untitled 2012 e4S GEM from a dealer. It is a new car (still under factory warranty) with only 120 miles on it that was sitting at the dealership all this time. The batteries were neglected and just replaced with a cheap deep cycle group 27 marine battery. I realize that is an issue and the price reflected the need for a battery replacement. I read through all the battery posts so I have soaked up the information in the past posts.
They showed me the batteries they took out of the car last month and they were a Deka Marine Master DC31DT (flooded). Those must have been replaced too since the warranty date shows the batteries were sold May, 2013.
All of this doesn’t surprise me. Even though dealer is authorized to sell GEMS, they are in an area where they just don’t sell. No one at the dealership seems to remember the history of this GEM that sat in the back of the shop all this time. They just dragged it out and got it ready for the owner’s family to drive when I came along and offered to buy it.
My questions are: (1) what battery came with the 2012 GEM e4S? What has to be done to the charger (if anything), if I want to change to the correct Gel batteries? Is this something that I ( a non technical person) can do? I would really like to change to Gel batteries. A good GEM dealership is at least 80 miles away, so taking it there is a real chore.
I had 10 relatively trouble free years with my 2001 and I am excited to get my “new” GEM delivered and on the road. I guess I need to change my user name too.
Gells were factory standard. The dealer will probably give you the procedure. It’s wierd and has to be followed exactly.
Theres a good chance the program was never changed and the floodeds died from undercharging.
Drive the batteries that are in it till they fail. If your on flat ground they will surprise you. In this case make sure the flooded program is the one your using.
[quote=OLD HOUSEBOATER;24721]Gells were factory standard. The dealer will probably give you the procedure. It’s wierd and has to be followed exactly.
Theres a good chance the program was never changed and the floodeds died from undercharging.
Drive the batteries that are in it till thew fail. If your on flat ground they will surprise you. In this case make sure the flooded program is the one your using.[/quote]
Thanks OH. That is a big help. Unfortunately, the dealer in this case really doesn’t understand GEMs. I can almost be assured that they did not change the charger programming when they changed batteries. Since the manufacturer date is Jan., 2012, and they replaced the original batteries in May, 2013 and then replaced them again 2 weeks ago with the marine batteries, they probably died from under charging and neglect, since the car just sat in their shop since the 2012 battery change. Now that I know the charger is programmed for gells, I’ll drive it until the batteries die and then get the correct gells.
Naw
You need to program it for Floodeds You will get 2 to 3 years out of the batteries you have if you reprogram and keep them watered. Dig into this it’s worth it.
[quote=OLD HOUSEBOATER;24723]Naw
You need to program it for Floodeds You will get 2 to 3 years out of the batteries you have if you reprogram and keep them watered. Dig into this it’s worth it.[/quote]
Well, OH, you have me thinking. I am going to call the dealer and ask them to make sure the charger is programmed to Flooded. I’m just not sure they have the capability to work on the GEM, since they don’t sell any of them. If I wanted to service a 4 wheeler, this would be the place to go. I’m just not sure about the GEM. I guess I don’t have anything to lose since I have a 2 year warranty.
You aren’t the first person to promote flooded batteries over Gels. Flooded are what I kept in my 2001. I was trying to be lazy and get the no maintenance batteries.
If range has any importance to you 150 AH Trojan or Deka floodeds are hard to beat.
I have zeroed in on the Trojan T-1275. Have you seen anybody discuss Trojan’s Hydrolink watering system? It looks very interesting. I tried a watering system on my old Trojans, made by another company, and they didn’t work right. They overfilled the battery. Since these are designed by Trojan, I suspect they work as designed. Sure make filling the batteries a lot easier.
I looked at their system when I purchased my Trojan 30XSH a few years ago and agree it would make filling them easier. In the end, I check the water levels every few weeks during the “heavy use” period (summer in NE Ohio) and monthly during the winter. If necessary I use a $4 bulb battery filler to top them off. Not really that difficult and a lot cheaper than the Trojan system.
Al
[quote=ARandall;24747]I looked at their system when I purchased my Trojan 30XSH a few years ago and agree it would make filling them easier. In the end, I check the water levels every few weeks during the “heavy use” period (summer in NE Ohio) and monthly during the winter. If necessary I use a $4 bulb battery filler to top them off. Not really that difficult and a lot cheaper than the Trojan system.
Al[/quote]
Al
You are probably right. I found in Texas in the summer the batteries require a lot of watching. I have entrusted the battery filling to “others” and I find that they either need water or they are over filled. I just bought an e4S and it looks like the back 2 batteries will be more of a challenge to fill (inside the carrier and under the steel plate.) I thought this watering system might make the job a little easier. I might price the system when I replace the batteries. If it is within reason, I might splurge and buy myself an early birthday present. I was curious from anyone else in the forum whether they work as advertised.
[quote=my2001GEM;24751]Al
You are probably right. I found in Texas in the summer the batteries require a lot of watching. I have entrusted the battery filling to “others” and I find that they either need water or they are over filled. I just bought an e4S and it looks like the back 2 batteries will be more of a challenge to fill (inside the carrier and under the steel plate.) I thought this watering system might make the job a little easier. I might price the system when I replace the batteries. If it is within reason, I might splurge and buy myself an early birthday present. I was curious from anyone else in the forum whether they work as advertised.[/quote]
My 01 has the batteries under the seat and in the front so not too hard to access. Yours might be more inaccessible and therefore worth the cost. However not entirely trusting I’d probably still want to eyeball myself and thereby defeating the purpose!
It only takes 1 missed/low cell to foul up your day. Takes me about 20 minutes and a little more than a gallon every few weeks. I’m retired and bored out of my mind. I actually look forward to these little tasks.
I always over fill a few holes. I have interesting patterns on my driveway.
[quote=OLD HOUSEBOATER;24753]It only takes 1 missed/low cell to foul up your day. Takes me about 20 minutes and a little more than a gallon every few weeks. I’m retired and bored out of my mind. I actually look forward to these little tasks.
I always over fill a few holes. I have interesting patterns on my driveway.[/quote]
My 2001 was not to bad to fill, but this e4S with the metal plate that has to be removed each time to fill the 2 back batteries, and it looks like a pain in the butt. I am retired too, but there are some things that I just don’t like to do and battery filling is one of them. I tried another auto battery filling system that was supposed to work with my Trojan SCS225s. It never worked right and over filled the batteries. I have the funny looking stains all over my driveway too. The manufacturer took it back and refunded my money. I liked this Hydrolink system because it was built by Trojan, so it should work, and it has a little window on the top of battery to show whether it needs water or is full. I may give it a try when the undersized marine batteries in the new car crap out.
I’m a old fart also. After years of water filling batteries on cars, Inboard boats with twin engines and 12 batteries including the generator and my first golf cart in 2001 when I retired down here in paradise. I’ve had enough of filling frgging batteries. Thank you, Please.
I bought a new Premier pontoon boat in 2012 and it came from the factory with Gel batteries. No more boat batteries to fill. I wish that I had that back in the 12 battery last boat… (me dummy).
I went out of my way stepping over wet battery Gem cars in my search for A GEM with gel cells. I found one that had new gels just installed in my “new to me” 2008 S.E Edition e2. I love just rolling into the garage and sticking the plug it its nose… without EVER having to worry about putting water in its batteries. Particularly the two under the storage box! I’m too old to screw with filling six frigging batteries in 94 degree FL heat.
I get bored too, but, never bored enough to want to water my gem’s batteries.
As Always… IMHO