Your golf cart battery charger is basically a electrical device that can redirect electric current back into your golf cart’s battery system. Some are designed to recharge your batteries quickly and others that charge your batteries slowly. Then you have what we call a trickle charger that produces a very small current that is applied constantly to a battery or battery bank. Then you have what we call a battery charger analyser that can not only charge a battery but analyse the state of charge (SOC) to maintain the internal condition of the golf cart battery.
Choosing the right charger for you
Which type of battery charger is best all depends on the needs of the consumer and what exactly is the application.
Cars
Pete is a car guy, so for him trickle chargers are important because the cars sit for long periods of time in between use. The trickle charger is designed to offset the discharge rates that are inherent with traditional lead acid batteries.
RV’s & Boats
Then you have charger/maintainers which combine features found in a simple charger and a trickle charger that monitor the battery bank by internal circuitry and external sensors. These type of chargers are most prevalent on boats and RVs because battery banks need to be recharged fairly rapidly after dry camping or at sea anchored not underway. These type of vehicles or vessels use the battery banks to power lights and appliances when the engines are not running turning alternators or generator to create power. Then they as well tend to sit for long periods of time in between use so they need to be either plugged into what they refer to as shore power in the industry. This gives them the ability to get an electric current back into the system to maintain a charge like Pete’s cars collection without draining the system.
Teslas
Then you have for instance a Tesla electric car you will want a rapid charger to recharge on demand without having to wait hours for the charge to be complete. Most newer electric vehicles use a totally different battery chemistry.
Old, yet reliable
Lithium batteries have different characteristics than say your golf cart battery. Heck lets face it the same battery technology that is in your golf cart today was around over one hundred years ago. It is still used today for numerous reasons like its power to weight ratio, or its ability to be recharged effectively again and again for years. Not to mention it is fairly cheap to make a traditional lead acid battery if the manufacture has their plant optimized correctly. I say this because if they can utilize old batteries for raw materials to make new ones they have a almost endless supply of raw material at a fraction of the cost of raw elements.
Recycling
Lead acid batteries are the only true success story on the plant when it comes to recycling. Your golf cart battery charger should be able to perform all of these things effectively to meet the demands of the golf cart and the user. Recharging fairly quickly when the battery system has been drained from prolonged use, then being able to be plugged in and left for the summer or winter until the weather permits the use of the golf cart once again.
Recommendation
Lester Electric makes a great golf cart battery charger that will do just that. Giving you the peace of mind to plug it in and forget about it. For more information or to ask a question, simply get in touch with Pete’s team.
