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                    Battery Maintenance - Fact or Fiction?
           by Rick Farris - Manager of Technical Reliability at Club Car, Inc.

     If there's one question I get asked more than any other when it comes to electric golf car maintenance, it's how to charge and maintain batteries. From some of the phone calls and e-mails I receive, there appears to be common, often asked questions among fleet owners, private owners and even some dealers.
     There are certainly inconsistencies in some of the charging and maintenance practices and procedures I hear about, and some can lead to the early demise of perfectly healthy batteries. As a dealer, you owe it to your customers to provide them with the best in service and factual answers to their questions about their cars. They are looking to you as the expert and the advice you provide must not only be consistent, but accurate as well. I've listed below, a few of the actual questions and comments I've hard from customers over the years about the care and feeding of golf car batteries. I'm sure you'll recognize several of them.  Hopefully, my answers will dispel some of the myths and untruths about battery maintenance.
     "I'm told that I should run my car until the batteries are completely dead before I recharge it."
     That's not correct. Golf car batteries should never be completely discharged prior to charging. This dramatically reduces their service life and will lead to early failure. Most cars will easily go two rounds of golf without "deep cycling" their batteries. At the end of the day, even if you've only played 9 holes, always plug in your charger and let it run until it shuts itself off. Always start each day out with freshly charged batteries.
     "I fill my batteries up with water each time before I charge them because my neighbor told he his dealer said to. Is this right?"
     Certainly not. You only need to add water to your batteries' cells when the electrolyte level gets low. Also, never fill up the cells then place the car on charge. The water will expand during charging, come out of the cells and onto the floor. If you have a low cell or cells, add just enough water to cover the tops of the plates, then charge the car. After the charger has shut off, and the batteries are cool, add water to each low cell to the appropriate level, about 1/2 inch above the plates. Just maintain this level and remember to never fill battery cells to the top.
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