Golf Cart Lithium Batteries Pro and Con

A golf cart battery is a beneficial option for all golf players to enhance the golfer’s performance. Adding a golf cart battery in the golf adds a lot of support to the player. There was a time when most people used to opt for lead-acid batteries.

Since lithium-ion batteries have come to the market, many people seem to have moved towards it. There are various benefits of using a lithium battery for the golf cart, but there are many drawbacks. When we talk about the pros and cons of lithium-ion batteries, nothing is entirely perfect.

The same goes for this golf cart battery. There are many advantages of using a lithium-ion battery. But along with the advantages, you have to tolerate some drawbacks. The question is whether using a lithium battery worth it or not?

Here we will discuss the pros and cons of lithium-ion batteries to help you decide whether it fits your requirements or not. Have a look at the details mentioned below.

Golf Cart Lithium Batteries Pro And Con

There are a lot of benefits and cons of using a golf cart lithium battery for golfers. Here we will discuss it all in detail.

Pros of Golf Cart Batteries

The advantages of golf cart lithium batteries are listed below.

Better Lifespan

When we talk about a golf cart battery’s average life span, it usually lasts up to 500 charge cycles. But the lithium batteries have a much better lifespan as compared to lead-acid batteries. It can easily reach up to or more than 5000 charge cycles.

It makes it fair enough to opt for lithium batteries over other batteries. Lithium batteries take extensive energy and enough time before it gets evacuated. If you opt for the wet golf cart batteries, you can relax in peace for several years.

Wet golf cart batteries can last for several years when they are maintained carefully. But when you compare it with regular lithium batteries, wet batteries have a lifespan of around half a regular battery lifespan.

Light in Weight

Most of the golf cart batteries weigh too heavy and big. It takes a lot of space, and it also feels inconvenient to use these batteries due to their heavyweight. When the golf cart has to bear such a heavy load, it means that it requires more power to charge the battery.

It brings in additional work for the battery to perform. A high-power battery requires much more energy to function correctly. When we talk about lithium-ion batteries, they are precisely the opposite.

Lithium-ion batteries do not weigh too heavy; they are light in weight compared to regular golf cart batteries. Its lighter weight allows the golf cart to move smoothly with no additional efforts involved. They do not even require much energy to charge fully.  

The maintenance of a light-weighted battery is easier as compared to heavy batteries. When you have to get the batteries repaired or even when you need to replace them with new batteries, light-weighted batteries are easy to carry. They are much flexible to handle due to the lighter weight.

No Issue of Acid Leakage

Traditional golf cart batteries are usually acid-based. The plates installed in the batteries are wrapped up into electrolytes and sulfuric acid. When these two ingredients interact with each other, they produce acidic energy.

When this formed acid gets merged with the saturated fluid, it causes releases a harmful acid leakage. Unfortunately, this is pretty much common that often happens in using golf carts. It happens more often when the golf cart is used quite heavily.

Using lithium batteries will save you from this kind of headache. You won’t need to worry about such leakage as these batteries do not use sulfuric acid. This reason is fair enough to opt for a lithium-ion battery as there is no risk of harmful fluid spilling.

High-Power Battery

Conventional golf cart batteries are too heavy in weight; therefore, they require a lot of energy to charge. On the other hand, lithium batteries are light in weight.

But they are more efficient in functioning despite having a lighter weight. When we compare lithium-ion batteries with regular batteries, lithium batteries are more powerful than traditional batteries.

These batteries are far quicker to release energy as compared to lead-acid batteries. It is one of the primary reasons why these batteries are becoming more popular among people.

No Maintenance

It is a feature that both extra-efficient and lazy golfers love that doesn’t require a lot of effort in maintenance. You do not need to put in many efforts to maintain a lithium battery, unlike a lead-acid battery. You should not be worried about checking the fluid level, whether it is low or high.

It doesn’t need to fill in any kind of fluid at all. Above all, the best part is, you will never have to think about cleaning and removing formed rust as it doesn’t corrode. In simple words, lithium batteries are maintenance-free.   

Cons of Golf Cart Lithium Batteries

Cons of golf cart lithium batteries are listed below.

Explosion Factor

It’s true that lithium batteries have much more benefits as compared to regular batteries. You just need to ensure that whether the shortcomings it comes with are worth taking a risk or not? At times it happens that a package comes with a thousand advantages and one drawback.

You have to make sure that the only drawback is heavier than the advantages or not. Here, when we talk about the lithium batteries disadvantages, one of the biggest ones is the explosion risk factor. Above all the benefits, the factor of safety comes at the top.

One should not risk his life safety for a temporary benefit. Unfortunately, lithium batteries fall short in providing the safety feature. It often faces the issue of overheating in the case when they are overly charged. Along with that, they also get unsafe when exposed to the outdoor temperature.

In hot weather, it is pretty risky to charge lithium batteries. In extreme summers, it is more likely to overheat.

Cost of Lithium Battery

When we talk about lithium batteries’ cost, they vary from up to down or down to up. But they are always more expensive than traditional batteries. Replacing a regular lead-acid battery doesn’t require you to invest a lot of money.

On the other hand, to replace a lithium battery, you have to arrange the price money as it is pretty much expensive to purchase. When we compare the prices, lithium batteries do not cost double the regular batteries. But they are almost four times more costly than the regular conventional batteries.

If a high price is not a big deal for you, you can go for lithium batteries. These batteries cost more than conventional batteries because it takes a lot more to produce them.

Charging Issue

The charging issue is there in lithium batteries more than the lead-acid batteries. You will be required to charge these batteries quite often, just like the cell phone batteries. The good part is, these batteries are virtually free from maintenance.

Charging lithium-ion batteries is somehow similar to charging a traditional battery. But there is a high factor of risk involved while charging as these batteries are sensitive to temperature. Suppose you overlook any step or made any mistake when charging. So, in this case, there will be a high risk of overheating or even explosion.

Factory Defaults

In lithium batteries, prepare yourself to deal with factory defaults a lot of time. It is something that doesn’t seem to happen with lead-acid batteries. A lot of lithium batteries die before even reaching half of the regular conventional battery life.

It often happens beyond the period of warranty. Despite having a higher cost, the sad part is there is still a fair risk of overheat or explosion as a factory default. These things should be considered before deciding whether to buy a lithium battery or not.

Conclusion

Lithium-ion batteries are found to be more trending as compared to regular conventional batteries. There are several benefits these batteries offer despite having a much higher price than lead-acid batteries.

These batteries have a more significant lifespan than regular batteries, and the maintenance is so easy. They weigh lighter which makes them easy to carry when required.

Lithium batteries have many benefits, like easy maintenance, longer lifespan, quick charging speed, etc. Still, there is a high risk of overheating and explosion when exposed to extremely hot summers or overcharging.

To decide whether you should opt for the lithium batteries or not, we have listed above all the possible shortcomings and the benefits of using a lithium battery.

Hopefully, it will be helpful to decide whether a lithium battery suitable option for you or not.