Deep Cycle Golf Cart Battery Maintanence tips

Tips from the Golf Car Pro for Deep Cycle Golf Car Batteries

1. Charge your golf car batteries after each use.
2. Never run the fluid level below the plates.
3. Prevent corrosion from forming on the battery post and all the connections.

You should never allow your battery to discharge more than 70% of its rated reserve capacity because the longer a battery takes to recharge; the more heat it creates. Heat destroys batteries. For example, suppose you have two identical cars and each one can go 100 mph. If you ran one engine at the top speed of 100 mph all the time and the other at the half speed of 50 mph, the engine running at half speed would last two to three times longer because the engine is not running as hot, heating up the rings and pistons, breaking the engine oil down sooner, etc. Heat affects a battery similarly. If you run it until it is dead each time, that is like running the car engine wide open at the 100 mph, which creates much more heat. Heat destroys batteries and the more you discharge the battery the longer it takes to charge, which in turn creates more heat. The more heat, the more paste you wear off the plates.

Trojan Golf Car Batteries

Trojan makes one of the best deep cycle batteries in the market place. You get what you pay for. People think a battery is a battery but they could not be more dead wrong. Think of it this way; let’s go back to the engines again. Say that you and a friend are retired and you both have a big travel trailer that you’re going to pull and travel the country the rest of your life. You each buy identical pickup trucks to pull these trailers with one exception; you get a diesel engine and your friend gets a gas engine. We all know that the diesel engine will last much longer but it cost more. Batteries are something like this. You can buy a cheap one, which will have less lead, thinner plates, etc., or you can buy a good one, which will have more lead, thicker plates, etc. Now, if you do not take care of your batteries, don’t charge or water them on time, etc. then you might as well buy the cheap batteries because the good ones would not last long either. However, if you maintain them properly, the good ones will last much longer. Like stated above, you get what you pay for.

Sulfation and Golf Car Batteries

Sulfation happens when the sulfur in the sulfuric acid forms and starts to crystallize on the lead plates. The electrolyte in a battery is about 35% pure sulfuric acid and 65% pure distilled water. Think of it this way. When you are running your golf car or discharging your battery, this 35% acid starts to enter the plates in the battery, which in turn creates energy. If you ran your battery flat dead, all this sulfuric acid would be in the plates. That is why if you did a hydrometer test at that time, it would show your battery completely dead because the only fluid that would be in the hydrometer would be the 65% pure distilled water. The 35% pure acid is inside the plates. When you put the battery charger on, the charger drives this acid back out of the plates to mix with the distilled water. When all the acid is driven back out, then your battery is fully charged. So, the acid goes in and out and in and out and slowly starts to wear some of the paste off the plates. When all the paste is worn off the plates, you got the full life out of the battery.

IMPORTANT

If you discharge your battery or your battery sits idle for periods of time, this acid is in the plates and if you do not charge it to drive the acid back out of the plates, sulfation will start to form. Sulfation is like a concrete crust that forms on the outside of the plates. The longer it sits without being charged, the harder this concrete crust gets. Now say you realize that you have not charged your batteries in a timely manner and you put the charger on to drive the acid out of the plates. After sulfation occurs, the acid cannot get out because it cannot break through the concrete crust that has formed on the outside of the plates and your battery then starves to death.

Bottom line, always charge your batteries after each use as soon as possible. If your golf car is going to sit idle for long periods, charge every month or so, and even more in hot climates because the hotter the climate the more a battery self-discharges every day.

Thanks,

Steve Ameen

The Golf Car Pro at

Golf Car Ranch Holly Lake

and Golf Car Ranch Lake Fork