Beginner Info

If you have an electric golf cart, you may be aware of the overflow that can occur if you do not maintain your batteries properly. This overflow can be very damaging to concrete or other surfaces that you may park your golf cart on. When I first purchased my electric golf cart, the salesman from the place I purchased it from told me how to properly maintain my batteries and fill them with water. However, I haven't always adhered to this way of doing it. I'll admit that I have often been sloppy or just lazy in my way of maintaining my cart and it has caused damage that I did not foresee in the beginning. As you can see from the picture above, the damaged spot on my concrete garage floor happened over a few years of owning my golf cart. I regularly charged and filled the water and maintained the batteries within my garage. I thought I was taking proper precautions by placing cardboard underneath my golf cart so that nothing would spill over onto the floor and cause this damage. However, I was surprised when I went to change out the cardboard with new cardboard and noticed this damage. It was then that I realized I had been doing things wrong and I needed to change the way I was maintaining my batteries. It was too late for me to repair this damage on my floor but I was able to clean up what was left behind from the battery acid and prevent any additional damage from occurring. In this article, I will discuss some of the things I did in order to ensure that this doesn't happen again. I'll also talk about ways that you can prevent any battery acid damage to your garage floor. Is It Normal For Golf Cart Batteries To Leak? Under normal circumstances, properly functioning golf cart batteries will not leak. These batteries generally leak when they are filled with water before they are fully charged. When they are filled with water when cold, the water will heat up and expand as they are charged. This could cause the batteries to overflow with water if they are overfilled. In order to avoid this, you should always fill water into your batteries after they are fully charged. This will result in batteries they do not expand with water causing them to leak. I learned this the hard way because I ignored doing this for a while as I thought it would be better to fill water into the batteries first and then charge them. This is not a good idea and as you can see, it could potentially leak and damage the surface that it leaks upon. The best way to avoid this is to always charge your batteries first and then check the water levels only after they are fully charged. How To Remove Battery Acid From Concrete Once battery acid has leaked out of your batteries and onto your concrete floor, you will now need to clean this up before it does any damage to the surface. If you do not clean it up, you may end up with a damaged area on your concrete floor similar to the one that I had on my floor. I did not find my battery leakage in time to clean it up. I only discovered mine after it had leaked and had remained untouched on the floor for many months or even more than a year. At this point, it was too late and the damage had already been done. Although the damage that I had received was only surface level and did not compromise the integrity of the floor. It did cause damage enough that I will need to re-fill the damaged area with additional concrete in order to smooth the floor back out. If you have battery acid that has spilled onto your floor, you will want to clean it up as soon as possible. First and foremost, before you touch anything that has to do with battery acid, you will want to take precautions and make sure you are wearing safety gear. Safety glasses or a face shield, gloves, and proper clothing so that none of your skin is exposed. You don't want any acid possibly getting on your skin. To clean your floor from battery acid, you will want to use an alkalizing cleaner that will neutralize the acid. Baking soda can be used in this case. If it is a small spill, you can simply pour the baking soda over the acid and allow some time for it to neutralize the acidic liquid. After the acid has been neutralized, you can then clean it up with paper towels and dispose of them properly. Tips For Preventing Batteries From Leaking If you have an electric golf cart, inevitably, you will eventually have at least some battery acid leakage. Here are a few tips that will help you prevent your batteries from leaking onto your garage floor. Only refill your batteries after they are fully charged. Water expands during the charging process so if they are filled too full, they may leak.Don't overwater the batteries. The water level should just cover the plates inside the battery. Many batteries have a gauge that you can use to make sure they are at the proper level.Disconnect your golf cart from the battery when not in use. I leave my golf cart unplugged at all times unless it's time for a recharge. Even if you have done all that you can to prevent leakage, there will sometimes be mishaps and leakage may occur. In this case, you should strive to protect your floor so that no matter if leakage occurs, you'll be ready. Preventing Damage To Concrete Floor When your batteries overflow and leak onto the ground, it will not cause a problem if you take care of it promptly. If you are fortunate enough to know that your batteries have leaked, you can easily clean the leaking mess up and then you will not have additional damage. When I first brought my golf cart home and parked it in my garage, I put cardboard underneath it to catch any kind of leakage that may occur. I didn't know that leakage would occur but I did it as a precaution in order to protect my floor in case it did. What I learned the hard way is that cardboard is not enough to ward off the potentially damaging effects of battery acid. Battery acid will eat right through cardboard and will end up on your floor, causing damage to the concrete beneath the cardboard. As you can see in the picture, I had cardboard placed to where it would catch anything that was to fall from the batteries. I thought I was doing it right and I thought that I could just change out the cardboard occasionally and it would be sufficient. I was wrong and my floor got damaged because of it. I had to change my approach by using a product designed for this purpose. In order to protect my floor, I purchased a mat that is used to catch spills such as battery acid, gasoline, oil, and other liquids that might spill from vehicles. The mat I use is specially made for golf carts as well as other recreational vehicles. It's lightweight, easy to clean off and is supposed to catch nearly any kind of dirt, debris, and liquids that might fall from vehicles that are sitting on top of them. It provides an impermeable membrane that doesn't allow acids and other liquids to get to the surface of your floor. Learn more about the mat that I use (affiliate link). Besides properly maintaining your batteries, using a protective mat like this is the best thing you can do if you want to protect your floor. Conclusion If you intend to have a clean garage floor along with an electric golf cart that lasts for years, properly managing the batteries is a must. You must learn to properly care for them and add water to them in the proper way to avoid any kind of damage to your flooring. Battery acid can be a difficult liquid to deal with especially when it gets into places that you do not want it. It can be dangerous to work with and you must take proper precautions anytime you are going to be around your batteries. Always wear proper clothing including gloves and safety glasses anytime you are working with your batteries. You just never know what will happen and it's always best to be prepared. Take care of your batteries, water them properly and also make sure you have protection on your flooring at all times and you will avoid many of the problems that golf cart owners have with electric golf cart batteries.

Beginner Info

Golf Cart Battery Acid On Garage Floor – How To Avoid It