OPPORTUNITY CHARGING: Why It Ensures your Lithium Golf Cart Battery stays at optimal health.

Written by A.J. Hrushka, Allied Battery, Regional Sales Manager - West Coast

What is the Best Way to Protect your Lithium Golf Cart Batteries?

With so many snowbirds coming back to their golf carts this time of year, it’s a great time to talk about keeping your Allied Lithium Battery setup in optimal condition.  One important part of this process is opportunity charging your battery.  Below, I’m going to answer some commonly asked questions on opportunity charging and why it ensures your Allied Battery stays at optimal health.

What is Opportunity Charging?

Opportunity Charging is charging your battery after each use, regardless of the state of charge level shown on the state of charge meter.  This ensures that your battery has the most power and amp hours (“gas in the gas tank”) available at your disposal each time you use the cart.

With Lead Acid Batteries, I was told not to charge after EVERY ride…Why are Lithium Golf Cart Batteries Different?

The chemistry in a Lead Acid battery and your Allied LiFePO4 battery are completely different.  Lead acid batteries experience a drastic decrease in their lifespan when they’re opportunity charged, and have to be equalization charged every week or two to helps to eliminate the acid stratification and sulfation to keep the batteries at their highest performance.  Lithium batteries are designed specifically to be opportunity charged.  The lithium battery cells stay healthier the closer they are to a 100% charge.

I saw on your website that my Allied Lithium Battery can get up to 3500 cycles if properly maintained.  Would each time I charge the battery constitute as a cycle?

No!  A cycle is defined as the battery discharging 80%. So, if the customer uses it 40%, then charges it to 100%, then uses 40% more...That ONE cycle. Similarly, if customer uses it 10% for 8 times and charges after, that still counts as ONE cycle. Allied wants you to know the true lifespan of your product for research and development to help make them even more powerful. By using the cumulative approach, you know where you stand without inflated cycle counts.

I’m not tech advanced and don’t really understand any of the above terms.  So I just charge the battery after every time I use my cart?

Yes!  Think of it as a cell phone.  Whenever you aren’t using it and you are sitting around the house, you plug your cell phone into the charger in case you are going to be away from a charger for a while.  Do the same with your golf cart.  A great way to ensure you have a full charge whenever you are on the go!

There are many ways to ensure the health of your Allied Battery set up, Opportunity Charging is only one of the way to save your batteries.  Stay tuned to the LITHIUM ADVANTAGE blog for other tips and information from Allied Battery’s Regional Sales Manager’s around the US! Upgrade your ride with the secrets of lithium batteries!

ALLIED COMMERCIAL LITHIUM BATTERIES

Choose from 4 great sizes that cover all cart brands: The 65Ah, 105Ah, 160Ah and 210Ah 

Packages include State of Charge Meter, Install Brackets, Cables and internal Bluetooth.