Are modern lead acid batteries worth buying

[JohnnyDee]

I bought a new Motocaddy S1 Pro at the end of June. Within a month there was a fault where the battery would not go into charge mode.

Battery (lead acid 18 hole) and charger went vpback to Motocaddy only to come back a week later somewhat mysteriously with a diagnosis of no fault found - despite me having tried at leat 20 times to make it charge before taking it back to my Pro.

Now the red light is coming on around hole 14. I'm not impressed.

But it seems to highlight a wider problem that I'm hearing about more and more, that lead acid batteries (all makes) are becoming next to useless and frequently packing in long before their one year warranty period expires.

Have decided to bite the bullet and get a lithium replacement, but find this really annoying as my previous trolley only had 2 lead acid batteries throughout its entire 8 years; the 2nd of these was still going strong when I retired the trolley from service.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

From what I've read it seems lithium batteries work out cheaper per round as they last considerably longer than lead acid. Having said that, I have 2 18hole batteries that are still going strong after 5 years. When I have to replace one or both I'll probably go lithium though.

 

[Old Skier]

I bought a new Motocaddy S1 Pro at the end of June. Within a month there was a fault where the battery would not go into charge mode.

Battery (lead acid 18 hole) and charger went vpback to Motocaddy only to come back a week later somewhat mysteriously with a diagnosis of no fault found - despite me having tried at leat 20 times to make it charge before taking it back to my Pro.

Now the red light is coming on around hole 14. I'm not impressed.

But it seems to highlight a wider problem that I'm hearing about more and more, that lead acid batteries (all makes) are becoming next to useless and frequently packing in long before their one year warranty period expires.

Have decided to bite the bullet and get a lithium replacement, but find this really annoying as my previous trolley only had 2 lead acid batteries throughout its entire 8 years; the 2nd of these was still going strong when I retired the trolley from service.

I know now of three people with this problem, I reckon there could be a fault on their unit somewhere.

 

[shewy]

I really don't know where you read it but lead acid batteries are far from 5he scrap heap, if kept and charged/discharged properly then they have plenty of life. Have you looked under your car bonnet recently?
Lithium has the benefit of being light so great for trolleys and aviation.
I suspect it's a charger issue by the sound of it.

 

[JohnnyDee]

I really don't know where you read it but lead acid batteries are far from 5he scrap heap, if kept and charged/discharged properly then they have plenty of life. Have you looked under your car bonnet recently?
Lithium has the benefit of being light so great for trolleys and aviation.
I suspect it's a charger issue by the sound of it.

Haven't read it to be fair but at least 4 of our group have suffered similar problems of late on both Motocaddy and Power Bugs (on new trolleys or replacement batteries only)

I am pretty suspicious that the charger could be knackering the cells but as both have been back to Motocaddy and given a clean bill of health last time I'm not sure what to believe. Battery has been looked after all as per instructions that came with it and two faults in four months is two too many.

 

[shewy]

Don't get me wrong if I had to buy a trolley I'd go lithium every day, seems you may have been sold a dodgy battery, they don't have a great shelf life.

 

[duncan mackie]

I got both the 18 hole lead/gell batery and the 18 hole Li with my S1 pro earlier this year.

No problems with either.

It's a lot easier to maintain the Li one as, basically, it's a lot more tolerant of a slight delay in charging and because it charges so fast it's alwaya fully charged. The Li charger is more substantial and delivers a much higher charge (higher than the valve regulated gell battery will accept) - but the gell charger has such a low output I would be surprised if they were failing.
Given that the primary purpose of the gell batteries used by Motocaddy is as disaster recovery / emergency backup to data server drives it's unlikely to be a battery technology issue!

 

[Fish]

I've got a Motocaddy S1 Pro battery and its great, in fact its got me through 4 straight days back to back from last Friday through to Monday with it being only charged overnight in hotel rooms. I did have another battery that was half the size but the same spec and it failed on the 16th whether I charged it overnight or over a week!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I was bought a motocaddy by HID and she went with lithium on the advice of the salesman. Of course it's more expensive but hopefully that is made up for in terms of longevity and the lightness. I have had a go kart for about five years and that has lead acid and had I'm on the 3rd battery.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Seems a lot more people are moving to lithium - have had mine for 3 years now and still does 36 holes with no issues

I still have my old lead acid battery in the house and it was used recently and it did 18 comfortably and it's 5 years old

I guess looked after correctly and charged properly then the lead acid should be fine

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Seems a lot more people are moving to lithium - have had mine for 3 years now and still does 36 holes with no issues

I still have my old lead acid battery in the house and it was used recently and it did 18 comfortably and it's 5 years old

I guess looked after correctly and charged properly then the lead acid should be fine

I take the point but I looked after the GK ones as per instructions and they failed twice. Coincidence?

 

[Hendy]

For my old hill billy I normally get a 18 hole acid lucas from the bay 32quid. I get 18 months from it.

Lithium battery would cost me in around 150 quid.

So works out about 4/5 battery's for the price of one lithium so for me it's the acid every time. As I don't feel I get 6 years from a lithium 18 hole battery

Used to be a even better deal when scrap value was high as I scrapped the old acid battery for a 8quid on top.