:: Precedent
    :: Turf Equipment
    :: Golf Hospitality
    :: Club Car Options
    :: Batteries
         >>Top 10 Myths
         >>Proper Care
         >>Battery Maintenance
    :: Used Cars
    :: Rentals
    :: Current Clients
    :: Contact Us

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

     "My dealer tells me I should periodically wash the tops of the batteries in my fleet cars with water. Isn't getting everything wet under the seat bad for the batteries and electrical parts?"
     Not at all. Keeping the tops of your batteries free from dirt, grass clippings and acid residue from charging is one of the most important basic preventative maintenance chores you can perform. Damage from corrosion brought about by the lack of maintenance accounts for the majority of battery/battery terminal failures and vehicle downtime. Don't' deliberately force water into electrical components, be sure all battery caps are tight, and there'll be no problems.
     "I was told it was ok to leave my battery charger plugged into my golf car after it finishes charging. If that's true, can I leave it connected in my garage while I'm away for several moths so the batteries will stay charged?"
     I get asked this one a lot. There are certain model golf cars that have battery chargers that are engineered so they can be left connected to the car to provide off-season or winter storage maintenance battery charging. This feature is primarily for fleet operators to keep the batteries in their cars from sulfating or freezing while sitting idle. This works extremely well, but the operator has to realize that to make this work effectively, he or she must check at least monthly for things like tripped circuit breakers, blown fuses, water level, lightning damage, etc. Any of those conditions can cause ruined batteries. As for private owners, I always recommend that they disconnect the DC power cord after the car's fully charged and the charger has shut itself off. Never leave a car unattended with the charger still plugged in, especially for an extended period of time.
     "My batteries are just about dead, so I'm going to put new acid in the cells to increase the performance of my cars and save the cost of installing new batteries."
     Sorry, but this just won't work. When a battery reaches the end of its life, that's it. There is nothing you can add to revive it, and you never add acid to a cell. Trying to add acid to a battery with watery in the cells is also dangerous. Pouring sulfuric acid in to a wet cell can cause the water to react and blow the mixture out and on to you. The only solution to this problem is to replace the batteries.
                                                  1 :: 2 :: 3