Does A Weak Battery Affect Your Golf Cart's Performance?
Golf carts aren't exactly performance machines, but it's also no fun watching turtles race you around the golf course. Many factors can influence the performance of your golf cart, and reduced performance can indicate a wide range of potential maintenance problems. If you know your golf cart used to feel much zippier hauling you from hole to hole, it's time to start looking for the problem.
Fortunately, golf carts are relatively simple machines, and the list of potential problems is small. Surprisingly, a weak battery can be one issue impacting the performance of your cart. Whereas the battery in a (non-electric) car mostly just runs accessories once the engine is going, your golf cart's battery has a more central role to play.
Understanding the Relationship Between Battery Power and Performance
Most golf carts use an electronic or mechanical governor to limit their top speed. In other words, your golf cart's top speed is an intentional design decision and not necessarily a limitation of its hardware. As a result, "performance" in this case refers to how quickly your golf cart can accelerate and travel over challenging terrain or hills.
Your golf cart's electric motor performs best when its battery pack can deliver the appropriate level of voltage. This impact can be more noticeable on golf carts with smaller battery systems. For example, you're less likely to notice a slight drop-off with a powerful 72V golf cart, but you'll likely feel any decrease in power if you're using a 36V system.
Remember that a weak or failing battery pack won't necessarily keep you from reaching your top speed since the cart's design largely determines this. You'll generally still be able to reach your limit with a failing battery, but it'll take you much longer to get there.
Knowing When You Need a New Battery
Poor performance can have causes other than a weak or failing battery, so you'll need to watch out for a few other symptoms. In addition to weak acceleration, pay attention to long charging times and quick discharge rates. If your cart seems to run out of juice much sooner than usual, that's a good sign the batteries are no longer holding sufficient charge.
Although your golf cart's battery bank consists of numerous individual batteries, you'll still need to replace the whole set when one or more begin to fail. Leaving your old batteries in place can impact the ability of the entire bank to discharge evenly and may even result in damage. Once you're sure that your batteries are responsible for your cart's poor performance, it's time to replace them all.
For more information about golf cart batteries, contact a local company, like Battery XChange.