Golf Cart Battery Charging | Battery Charging Tips | Golf Cart Battery

Posted on August 17, 2022May 31, 2024 by Don

Golf cart battery charging, in reference to standard lead-acid golf cart batteries, isn’t always as simple as just plugging the cart in or periodically refilling the water levels of the batteries. However, optimizing the performance and getting the most life out of the battery as possible can require additional steps to make sure that the batteries are functioning the absolute best they can.

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Batteries in an Advanced EV golf cart with an onboard charger

Batteries in an EZGO golf cart without an onboard charger

Golf Cart Battery Charging Algorithm

golf cart battery charging, battery charging tips, golf cart battery Most golf cart chargers use a 3-stage charging algorithm, consisting of a bulk charge stage, absorption charge stage, and finish charge stage. This algorithm determines how much power returns to the battery at various intervals, in order to make sure it is not undercharged or overcharged. During the bulk charge stage, about 80% of the discharged battery power will be recharged, usually taking around 4-8 hours depending on how low the battery charge was. The second stage, the absorption charge stage, the charge current slowly decreases until the 100% of the discharged battery power is recharged – however, this does not mean the battery is fully recharged. The final stage, the finish charge stage, slightly and safely overcharges the battery to account for efficiency losses. When using the right size charger, the battery is safely overcharged without damage.

In order to fully optimize the performance and life of lead-acid batteries, it’s recommended that the properly sized charger for the amp-hour (AH) capacity is used. The bulk charge stage of the charging algorithm should have a charge current of approximately 10% of the 20 hour capacity of the batteries, and the finish charge stage should have a charge current of about 3% of the 20 hour capacity of the batteries. The 20 hour capacity can be found on the battery’s sticker.

The voltage output of the charger should be sized to the number of cells connected in series in the battery pack. You find this by taking the number of cells connected in series times 2 volts per cell. A battery pack with 24 cells connected in series will use a 48 volt charger. The charger should also be able to provide an on-charge voltage of at least 2.6 volts per cell. A 48 volt charger for a 48 volt battery pack, therefore, should be able to provide at least 62.4 volts on a charge in order to completely charge the battery pack.

Depth of Discharge Meaning

When reading about lead-acid batteries, you may come across the term “depth of discharge”, or DOD. Simply put, the DOD refers to how much energy is cycled into and out of the battery on a given cycle, and is expressed as a percentage of the total capacity of the battery. For example, a battery that has been drained by 30% has a 30% DOD, and 70% of its capacity remains. It’s important to understand DOD because the more frequently a lead-acid battery is discharged and recharged, the shorter its lifespan will be. When the battery percentage gets down very low and is then recharged, this can shorten the life of the battery as well. To help with this, many battery companies recommend a 50% DOD. We have more on our 50% charging recommendation for our rental carts further down below.

Golf Cart Battery Charging Tips

golf cart battery charging, battery charging tips, golf cart battery When charging lead-acid golf cart batteries, it’s important to do it in a well-ventilated area. One of our recommendations is also to lift up the seat that covers the batteries – in 4 passenger carts, they are most often under the front 2 seats, and 6 passenger carts mostly have them under the middle row of seats – either before or directly after plugging in the charger. This is because when a lead-acid battery system is plugged in, as it begins charging, it can release hazardous fumes from the chemicals inside the batteries. Build-up of these fumes under the seats can be dangerous, so to avoid this, either leave the seat up as the batteries charge, or lift the seat and allow any possible fumes to clear out and ventilate before putting the seat back down.

Charge batteries as soon as possible after discharging. As a golf cart sits idle, even if it’s not on, the batteries will slowly lose charge, just like your phone might when it sits for a while without charging. Therefore, to keep your batteries charged and possibly increase their life cycles, plug in the cart after use and make sure to unplug the charger once it’s fully charged. Use the right sized charger to prevent overcharging as well. Check your electrolyte levels monthly and keep your batteries filled – use distilled or deionized water and cover the plates before charging, but don’t fully refill the batteries until after they are done charging to prevent overflow.

If storing your golf cart longer than a month, fully charge the batteries prior to storage. We have another blog with more on golf cart long-term self-storage, with additional tips for storing your golf cart on your own property.

Our 50% Golf Cart Battery Charging Recommendation

When renting one of our street legal golf carts, we always recommend that customers charge the batteries when the cart starts to get to around a 50% charge. Generally, during rentals, people use the carts during the day and plug them in overnight, and if the battery percentage doesn’t drop too low, most of the time the cart is fully charged by the next morning. When lead-acid batteries get too low, they take a much longer time to recharge back to 100% – depending on the cart, some lead-acid batteries can take up to 16 hours to fully recharge if the batteries were run down too low. Some carts, mostly older ones, won’t even respond to a regular golf cart charger if the battery is too low, and need to be supercharged – similar to jumping a car – before they can be plugged in to a standard charger. If the battery percentage is kept monitored and does not drop too far below 50%, the batteries will most often take about 6-8 hours to fully recharge. This is why we recommend plugging the cart in at night.

NOTE: Watch for Surface Charge

Sometimes, you may plug in a golf cart and after only a couple hours, the state of charge meter may say the cart is 100% charged. However, this is only a surface charge, meaning that it appears that the batteries are fully charged, but have not had a chance to deeply absorb all the power that they need. This cart will drive for a short time with regular battery charge decay, then suddenly begin to drop more rapidly if the battery has only had this beginning charging stage. To make sure the battery is fully charged: in our Advanced EV carts, the onboard Eagle charger will have a fan that comes on when the cart is plugged in, and when completely, deeply recharged, the fan will shut off. For carts that don’t have an onboard charger with indicators such as this, the charger will often give an indication with a light that the golf cart is fully recharged. NOTE: Not all chargers or carts make a noise when they are charging. The charger should give an indication with a light or something similar (a meter, for instance) that the cart is charging. To make sure the charger is working, you can always test the voltage of the batteries before and after charging with a voltage tester.

For more on golf cart battery charging, check out our page on golf cart chargers to learn more about how to determine the kind of charger that should be used on a certain golf cart, and read common troubleshooting tips. For a selection of golf cart battery chargers that we sell, check out our page on our Prime Cart Parts website, where we sell various golf cart parts and accessories.

Allied Lithium Batteries | Golf Cart Battery Lithium | 48V Lithium Battery

Posted on August 3, 2022May 31, 2024 by Don

On a previous blog, Melbourne Beach Golf Cart gives several examples as to how switching to a lithium golf cart battery could provide several benefits for the golf cart, including a much longer driving range, less weight for the cart, many more battery charging cycles, zero harmful emissions, a much faster charging time, and up to 10 years of life. These are our Roy Pow lithium batteries, available as 56AH, 105AH, and 160AH. We’re pleased to announce that along with our Roy Pow lithium batteries, we now have 48V Allied lithium batteries available for sale.

Allied lithium batteries, 30AH each, are different from Roy Pow in that a minimum of two are required, for 60AH. This will give a cart a range of approximately 30-40 miles per charge, and each additional battery will add 15-20 miles of range. For example, 3 x 48V 30AH (90AH total) batteries will have a range of 45-60 miles per charge. Up to 6 can be installed. They are the same size as your current lead-acid batteries which allow you to convert your vehicle from lead-acid to lithium in less than 30 minutes – simply remove the lead-acid batteries and replace with the Allied lithium batteries, attach cables in parallel, secure holding bracket, and the install is complete! They are approximately 1/4th the weight of lead-acid batteries, reducing the overall weight of your cart by 300lbs. This sizable reduction of weight has benefits for all aspects of your cart, including tires, brakes and suspension parts.

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• Mileages are based on stock fleet carts. Adjust for non-stock items: upgraded motors / controllers, AC units, older carts, etc.

• 2 x 48V 30AH batteries are required to run the cart efficiently.

• For carts with upgraded motors or controllers, 3 x 48V 30AH (90AH total) batteries (or more) are required.

• In order to maximize the life of the lithium battery, we require the use of the Allied charger.

• Includes OEM plugs, charge the batteries quickly and turn off when charging is complete.

• Additional batteries can be added to the cart up to 2 years after installing the first two or more! Great for users who want additional run-time after initial install.

More About Allied Lithium Batteries

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3-5 Hour Fast Charging

Allied 15amp charger uses the cart’s OEM plug and will use the existing port just as before. A full 48V setup will charge in 3-5 hours versus lead acid batteries that require 10-12 hours. They also use opportunity charging, meaning you can top off your lithium batteries any time you want without harming the batteries (just like your cell phone). You cannot do this with lead-acid without damaging and reducing the life of the batteries.

In order to maximize the life of the lithium battery, we require the Allied lithium battery charger. Allied lithium chargers come with OEM plugs, charge the batteries quickly, and turn off when charging is complete. IMPORTANT: Chargers are sold separately.

Included with every set of batteries is also our state of charge (SOC) meter, with an LCD screen that provides you an accurate percentage reading.

Allied lithium batteries are zero maintenance!

No watering, no acid, and no corrosion, meaning there is no need for rubber gloves and safety glasses when handling our batteries.

Tested and Safe

Allied Battery has over 30 years of experience in lithium and safety. LifePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) is one of the safest battery chemistry available.

Our BMS (battery management system) in each battery will detect any problems with the performance of the battery and shut down any cells not functioning properly. The BMS will also protect the batteries from any over-charging or under charging of the batteries.

FedEx and UPS have approved our product for air and ground shipping.

Allied lithium batteries are great for long term storage

For vehicles left in storage either for long winters, or snow birds leaving their cart for months, lithium batteries only lose 3-5% of charge per month. Lead-acid batteries will lose up to 33% of charge per month when not on the charger.

8 Year Warranty

Allied lithium batteries have a 8 year warranty to guarantee you will receive the full value of your investment.

Lead-acid batteries will last just 3-5 years based on how well you maintain the batteries, while lithium batteries under normal use will provide you over 10 years of maintenance free service!

For more on Allied lithium batteries, check out our page on our main website, Prime Golf Cars, and check out our website about our Roy Pow lithium batteries!

The Benefits of Switching to a Lithium Battery

Posted on July 28, 2022May 31, 2024 by Don

Melbourne Beach Golf Cart is in the business of selling lithium golf cart batteries, most notably Roy Pow lithium batteries. With our turn-key replacement system, anyone can easily convert their golf cart from the standard lead-acid batteries to lithium batteries in less than an hour. Switching to lithium batteries comes with several benefits, and can take you and your golf cart to distances far beyond where it could go before, and then further.

Why choose lithium?

Lithium batteries are slowly beginning to enter the mainstream world of golf carts – they are universal and can be installed in any golf cart. At Melbourne Beach Golf Cart, not only do we offer Roy Pow lithium batteries, but for a nominal fee, we can install it and easily convert a lead-acid battery system in less than an hour. Roy Pow batteries also come with a 5-year warranty.

When buying a lithium battery, the price is higher than a regular lead-acid battery, but the benefits far outweigh the cost. For one, once that lithium battery is installed, it won’t need to be replaced for up to 10 years – up to 70% in expenditures can be saved over a 5 year period, since it won’t need to be continuously replaced like a lead-acid battery. Roy Pow lithium batteries have a quick charge time of approximately 2.5 hours, and can be rapidly charged to about 80% in only an hour. It takes up to five hours to charge the battery completely, and once fully charged, it will hold that charge for about 8 months when not in use. – they also have a life cycle of up to 3,500 charge cycles. The distance a golf cart can travel depends on the power level of the lithium battery, measured in amp hours (A/H):

56 A/H: 30-35 miles per charge.

105 A/H: 60-65 miles per charge.

160 A/H: 95-100 miles per charge.

Lithium batteries are also much better for the environment, since they aren’t made with harmful chemicals like lead-acid batteries and give off no dangerous fumes. Since they aren’t filled with water either, they don’t need to be maintained like lead-acid batteries, and are considered maintenance free. Roy Pow lithium batteries are much lighter as well – since multiple lead-acid batteries are used to power a cart, the weight increases vastly, but only one lithium battery is needed, and depending on the level of power, can weigh less than 100 pounds. This puts less stress on the golf cart, and allows it to carry more weight and reach higher speeds with less effort. A Roy Pow lithium battery also has multiple built-in safety measures, such as fire detection systems, water spray systems, flammable volatile monitoring and alarms, battery box warnings and protections, battery operating situation monitoring, and anti-collision, along with many other active safety systems. They have systems that prevent them from overcharging, over discharging, short-circuiting, overheating, and even have anti-theft systems and remote GPS tracking, with the ability to check the battery status remotely in real time.

To power a golf cart, 6 or 8 lead-acid batteries are needed. Only one lithium battery is needed to power this whole cart.

Why switch from lead-acid batteries?

Lead-acid batteries are the standard in almost every golf cart, most of the time being flooded lead-acid. These batteries need to be regularly filled with water, and also contain multiple chemicals and gases, including sulfuric acid and lead compounds. Not only are these batteries filled with a multitude of harmful chemicals, they have a possibility of giving off potentially dangerous fumes when plugged in to charge, and can even explode if something goes wrong during charging. The water inside also makes them very heavy, and with 6 or 8 in a golf cart, a lead-acid battery system can add over 300 pounds of weight to a golf cart. When plugging in a golf cart with lead-acid batteries, it’s very important to remember to lift up the seat to ventilate the fumes that may come off the battery, as buildup under the seat can be extremely dangerous. Cart owners with lead-acid battery carts must regularly perform maintenance on them, like waterfilling and terminal tightening, as well as cleaning potentially harmful acid deposits. Lead-acid batteries will also only last a few years at most, with a life cycle of about 500 charges. They need to be charged every day as well, and can take about 12 hours to fully charge. In short, lead-acid batteries do have their benefits and are easy to find, but don’t last long, and need to be replaced often – replacing them also comes with the cost of having them installed.

If you’re interested in switching from lead-acid to lithium batteries, or just want more information, you can visit our lithium battery site to view the various types of lithium batteries available and contact us using the phone number or contact form.

the benefits of switching to a lithium battery