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Battery Information
Golf Cart Lead Acid (Flooded) Battery Maintenance
Maintenance
You should always keep your golf cart batteries clean and check their fluid level every month. You can just pop off the tops and peek in to see the water levels. Make sure that the water is higher than the plates, but not too full.
“NEVER EVER USE TAP WATER!” Always use DI (De ionized Water) water or Distilled water.
You can also use a battery watering system to help with the process. You can also use a turkey baster to make sure you can get the right amount in each cell.
The hotter the temp, the quicker the set of batteries will discharge. The older the batteries, the more frequently you need to check your water levels.
Older batteries use more water.
Correctly watering your flooded lead-acid batteries is the most important battery maintenance tip. Water loss must be replaced to prevent battery plate damage.
Never allow the electrolyte level to fall below the plates. The worst thing you can do to electric golf cart batteries is to let them sit in a hot garage without ever charging them. Avoid running your golf cart on a low charge as this can be very hard on your batteries and can shorten their running range.
Can you use regular Car Batteries in a Golf Cart?
The short answer is yes. Standard car batteries are 12-volts, and you could connect three or four of them in series to provide the required 36 or 48 volts to your golf cart motor.
However, the design of car batteries provides a huge surge of current for short periods. The purpose of the battery in your car is to provide power while starting the engine. After that, the alternator takes over to power all of the electronics in your vehicle. Repeatedly draining a standard car battery below 50% would ruin it very quickly.
So, while you can technically use standard car batteries in your golf cart, they likely wouldn’t last very long.
Alternatively, deep-cycle batteries are explicitly optimized to provide steady current output over long periods of time and repeatedly be deeply discharged. This makes them a much better choice for golf cart applications.