Interstate Golf Cart batteries, which line is best deal?

[JoeChiOhki]

So, I've resumed work on Ms. Merry, and was looking back at one of my battery compartments and thinking "Hmmm..... I think that may be big enough to fit two golf cart batteries in".

So, I did a little digging, first looking back at the Costco Golf Cart batteries, because Interstate makes them, but alot of the reviews were coming back negative with the batteries having failed within the first year or just outside the 12 month warranty period.

So, since there's an actual Interstate Battery store literally across from that costco in the parking lot, I thought I'd take a look at interstate's main golf cart lines, because I've had decent service from their Group 27 Starting and Deep Cycle batteries.

There are, actually four different model lines of Insterstate Golf Cart battery:

Extreme Golf Cart Series
High Cycle Golf Cart Series
PowerFast Golf Cart Series
M Line Golf Cart (These are the ones I suspect are the ones Costco sells with their Kirkland branding on them).

Of the four, which tier is the best middle ground for durability vs cost?

[JoeChiOhki]

mkirsch wrote:
Isn't it curious how you look at a product that has an overwhelming number of 5 star reviews, but those two one-star reviews STILL make you question purchasing the product?

Of course 90% of those 5 star reviews are from people who "review" the product the minute they get it home from the store, "It's all shiny and new! Great product!" There again 90% of the 1 star reviews are from people who either have irrational expectations or abuse the product, "Does not stand up to being beaten repeatedly with a pickaxe! Horrible product!"

Due to the large amount of bot generated positive reviews you find on market places like amazon anymore, I generally tend to give vastly more weight to negative reviews. Especially if the reviews are all of a similar logical theme spread across a fairly large time period (If folks have been giving it poor reviews for months for the same reason, odds are good that the product actually has this defect).

In this particular scenario, I'm deviating from my normal battery procedure which is "Trojan all the things!" because Interstate batteries were the second most praised flooded cell lead acid battery line on this forum in the past seventeen years. 🙂

Also keep in mind, its been eight years since I last used my RV or camped at all, so I'm having to update alot of knowledge that's now stale.

[mkirsch]

Isn't it curious how you look at a product that has an overwhelming number of 5 star reviews, but those two one-star reviews STILL make you question purchasing the product?

Of course 90% of those 5 star reviews are from people who "review" the product the minute they get it home from the store, "It's all shiny and new! Great product!" There again 90% of the 1 star reviews are from people who either have irrational expectations or abuse the product, "Does not stand up to being beaten repeatedly with a pickaxe! Horrible product!"

[StirCrazy]

wopachop wrote:
Most people here drive to campsites and plug into 120v. So the batteries never get cycled. Never see a strong charge. Sits there on solar and ruins the flooded battery.

If that same person did not have solar their batteries would self discharge and then get recharged at a high amp rate. Which i think would improve the life of the battery. Sitting there on float all day is no bueno. From what ive read on the trojan website regarding flooded batteries.

Makes me think some of those bad costco reviews are probably from people with solar hooked up and never give the battery a proper charge.

I dont know I have solar and am pluged in with my fith wheel pretty much 90% of the time. the 14 years I got out of my four 6V GC batteries tend to disagree with you. I think what would be the real cause is people not checking the water enough or draining them down to far causing dammage. shallow discharging is the way to make them last longer.

Steve

[pianotuna]

pianotuna wrote:
JoeChiOhki,

I'm aiming at 600 amp-hours @ 12 volts myself. I'll be using SiO2 batteries.

JoeChiOhki wrote:

Do SiO2 batteries require special charging sauce like the LiPOs where DC-DC charger is needed? My equipment is all old school so the alternators a bit more on the "dumb" side and has worked well charging my battery banks back up going down the road with the 100amp charging setup I use.

Joe,

The dc to dc for Li is to prevent letting the magic blue smoke out of the alternator.

Depending on the BMS of the Li they can accept charge at extremely high amperage. C/1 is more than possible.

As far as I am aware SiO2 do not require a specialized charger, nor a tweaked alternator.

The acceptance rate for SiO2 is C/4 as opposed to lead acid which are C/8.

Bulk charging is 14.2 to 14.6.

I don't remember the float value at the moment.

[JoeChiOhki]

pianotuna wrote:
JoeChiOhki,

I'm aiming at 600 amp-hours @ 12 volts myself. I'll be using SiO2 batteries.

Do SiO2 batteries require special charging sauce like the LiPOs where DC-DC charger is needed? My equipment is all old school so the alternators a bit more on the "dumb" side and has worked well charging my battery banks back up going down the road with the 100amp charging setup I use.

I've been sticking with standard flooded lead batteries, simply because I can usually find replacements anywhere on the road, but other stuff may be a bit trickier.

wopachop wrote:
I still think the reason costco batteries are getting a bad rap is because of solar charging and the internet.

People think their solar is maintaining their flooded batteries. Which is not true.
Those same people have a battery fail and within 5 minutes they sign into costco and leave a bad review.

Most of the reviews were not from Solar folks but from folks who had been using them in golf carts and were seeing poor durability with them vs the previous ones.

StirCrazy wrote:
when I put GC batteries in mine I measured the size of each one, then measured the space and opening I had to get them in. granted I was putting them into an older one that wanst made for more than a car battery so I had to turn the battery compartment into a small storage compartment and use the storage compartment for my batteries. the deciding factor on the batteries was the door opening. the 210AH batteries left me 3/4" of clearance through the door, the 220AH set would only leave me 1/8" and the 235AH were bigger than the door. I also bought a watering kit as although the space was bigger inside there just want enough room to get a turkey baster or measuring cup in there to add water, or your head to see how far it was down. the watering kit works awsome, I just plug the pump extension into the harness put the end in my distilled water and pump it till it wont pump anymore. fills the batteries perfect and takes two min. so now I do this every time I am getting ready to leave instead of the twice a year check I do on the 5th wheel. I am buying a set for the 5th also I like them so much.

Steve

In this situation, the compartments are loaded from the top from inside the camper (the sealed exterior vented compartments I built are part of the dinette seats), so there's quite a bit of height left. My main thing I need to still measure for is if the batteries are too wide to fit turned 90 degrees from the current group 31 sitting in there and if there's enough space to fit two in without making it impossible to fit them and the wires.

I use the aftermarket refilling caps that you use with the squeeze ball to correct fill them every time from a jug of distilled water, and since they have a hose that runs between the two compartments, I only have to open one to top up all the batteries in one go.

[theoldwizard1]

pianotuna wrote:

Kayteg1 wrote:

But then you drive Ford right?
My Fords over the years always had charging at 14.5V or above and that was killing batteries prematurely all the time.

My Ford e-450 does not exhibit that sort of charging behavior--it is a 2005.

Your E450 likely has "smart charging". You will have the opposite problem charging house batteries, low voltage, unless you use a DC-DC charger.

[Lwiddis]

“Sitting there on float all day is no bueno. From what ive read on the trojan website regarding flooded batteries.“

Please post a link to this information on Trojan’s site.

[wopachop]

Hoping mine last. I have the newer costco version. Last camping trip i was a little surprised by my voltage readings. Seemed a bit low. I dont really like that they are the generator starting battery. Already low and then you blast it with a huge load.

Would like to monitor amp draw. Whats the cheapest way to do it these days? I like to solder if you can build your own unit for cheap. Suppose its a google search away. Still fun asking here and gaining knowledge.

[time2roll]

wopachop wrote:
Most people here drive to campsites and plug into 120v. So the batteries never get cycled. Never see a strong charge. Sits there on solar and ruins the flooded battery.

If that same person did not have solar their batteries would self discharge and then get recharged at a high amp rate. Which i think would improve the life of the battery. Sitting there on float all day is no bueno. From what ive read on the trojan website regarding flooded batteries.

Makes me think some of those bad costco reviews are probably from people with solar hooked up and never give the battery a proper charge.

Yes and the other half cycles them flat dead between trips.

[wopachop]

Most people here drive to campsites and plug into 120v. So the batteries never get cycled. Never see a strong charge. Sits there on solar and ruins the flooded battery.

If that same person did not have solar their batteries would self discharge and then get recharged at a high amp rate. Which i think would improve the life of the battery. Sitting there on float all day is no bueno. From what ive read on the trojan website regarding flooded batteries.

Makes me think some of those bad costco reviews are probably from people with solar hooked up and never give the battery a proper charge.

[pianotuna]

wopachop wrote:
I still think the reason costco batteries are getting a bad rap is because of solar charging and the internet.

People think their solar is maintaining their flooded batteries. Which is not true.
Those same people have a battery fail and within 5 minutes they sign into costco and leave a bad review.

Any properly designed solar installation may dramatically improve battery life. Especially with SiO2. Or Li if it is not cold.

[StirCrazy]

when I put GC batteries in mine I measured the size of each one, then measured the space and opening I had to get them in. granted I was putting them into an older one that wanst made for more than a car battery so I had to turn the battery compartment into a small storage compartment and use the storage compartment for my batteries. the deciding factor on the batteries was the door opening. the 210AH batteries left me 3/4" of clearance through the door, the 220AH set would only leave me 1/8" and the 235AH were bigger than the door. I also bought a watering kit as although the space was biger inside there just want enough room to get a turkey baster or measuring cup in there to add water, or your head to see how far it was down. the watering kit works awsome, I just plug the pump extension into the harness put the end in my distilled water and pump it till it wont pump anymore. fills the batteries perfect and takes two min. so now I do this every time I am getting ready to leave instead of the twice a year check I do on the 5th wheel. I am buying a set for the 5th also I like them so much.

Steve

[wopachop]

I still think the reason costco batteries are getting a bad rap is because of solar charging and the internet.

People think their solar is maintaining their flooded batteries. Which is not true.
Those same people have a battery fail and within 5 minutes they sign into costco and leave a bad review.

[pianotuna]

Kayteg1 wrote:

But then you drive Ford right?
My Fords over the years always had charging at 14.5V or above and that was killing batteries prematurely all the time.

My Ford e-450 does not exhibit that sort of charging behavior--it is a 2005.

[Kayteg1]

deltabravo wrote:

Because I have an inverter/charger, the batteries gassed more when charging, losing water.
I killed the batteries due to poor maintenance.

I guess there are different quality inverter/chargers.
On bus mentioned above - I had Xantrex (?) inverter/charger rated at 2600W.
That thing had like 3-stage charging and in 12 years the house batteries lasted, I recall adding water 2, maybe 3 times.
I would not call it neglect, but I had yard storage at the time and after pulling clamps from batteries - they would wait off-season 8-10 months till next charging.
But then you drive Ford right?
My Fords over the years always had charging at 14.5V or above and that was killing batteries prematurely all the time.