Golf Cart Battery Acid On Floor (Reasons, How To Clean Up)

 

Most golf carts are kept in a garage.

Your garage is the perfect spot to allow for the golf cart to be protected, have easy access for maintenance, and keep it in great shape long term.

Although electric golf carts are relatively clean, there are times when they can have issues with battery acid.

Battery acid that leaks on the floor can be detrimental.

If you know that your batteries have leaked and you think there is damage, there will be some additional steps you may need to take.

Let’s take a look at golf cart battery acid on the floor and what you can do about it.

 

Golf Cart Battery Acid On Floor—Reasons

 

Golf cart battery acid on the floor can happen for several different reasons.

The most important thing for any golf cart owner to do is to figure out why this is happening.

If you can find the reasoning behind the golf cart battery acid on the floor, you can stop it and prevent further damage.

One of the major issues with this is that the golf cart battery acid tends to leak quietly and do its damage before you have a chance to even clean it up.

Here are three of the main reasons you may have battery acid on the floor and what you can do about them.

 

1. Cleaned Batteries Without Protection

 

A golf cart that is properly maintained will require you to clean the terminals from time to time.

Cleaning the terminals means that you will remove corrosion and excess acid from the top of the battery.

This is typically done with a solution of baking soda and water to help neutralize any of the mess on the top of the batteries.

When you clean the batteries, the leftover liquid and substance will fall under the cart.

If you are doing this in your garage, expect there to be a mess under your cart when you are finished.

The best idea is to do this outside of your garage and put something under your cart to protect your driveway.

Make sure that you allow the cart batteries to dry completely before parking the cart back in the garage.

If you do this, the mess will be much less severe, and you won’t have to worry about anything else getting destroyed.

Cleaning batteries is a good thing, but you need to make sure that you are doing it properly.

 

2. Filled Batteries Before Charging

 

Batteries in an electric golf cart need to be filled with water from time to time.

It is best to set a time once per month to maintain and fill your golf cart batteries properly.

By doing this, you will ensure that the batteries never get too low.

A golf cart battery that gets too low is going to stop functioning, and in general, it is just bad for the batteries to be running with less water than necessary.

The best thing to do is fill the batteries after your cart is fully charged.

Many people don’t realize that after they fill the batteries, the water inside can sometimes heat up and expand.

If the water heats and expands, it can actually overflow and come out of the top of the golf cart battery.

Those who are concerned about their garage floor and want to avoid any issues will ensure that their golf cart is ultimately charged prior to working on the batteries.

If your golf cart is charged and you have the time to work on batteries, you should not experience this leaking of battery acid.

Take the time to charge your cart before filling the batteries, and you can avoid this issue entirely.

The next thing to consider is how much water you are putting in your batteries.

Look for a fill line with your golf cart batteries and ensure that you are not filling above this line.

Some of the more modern batteries make it much easier for you to see how much water you are adding.

If you find that you are adding too much water, it could also cause the battery acid to leak out onto the floor.

The batteries typically do not get filled to the top.

There is usually a line that you can see where the water should flow to, and it stops well before the top of the battery.

When filling golf cart batteries, it makes sense to do it carefully and to watch what you are doing.

If you get a little quick with this process and the battery gets overfilled, you will be cleaning up a much bigger mess.

There are times when it could make sense to watch a video about filling golf cart batteries to make sure that you are planning on pouring in the proper amount.

 

3. Battery Has A Malfunction

 

A golf cart battery will sometimes go bad.

This typically doesn’t happen until the end of the battery’s life, but it certainly is a possibility.

When a battery starts to go bad, it is often because of an acid leak inside the battery.

What will happen is the battery cover will start to crack, and all kinds of corrosive material will leak out.

Obviously, this is a bad situation, and the malfunctioning battery will be quietly eating away at your garage floor without you even knowing it.

This is why, at the very least, we suggest checking on your golf cart batteries at least once per month.

The more often you can check on them, the better your chances of protecting your home and your garage.

In addition, you will ensure that things are functioning with your golf cart as well.

 

What To Do If Battery Acid Has Leaked On Garage Floor

 

Now that you know what causes this battery acid to leak on the floor, it’s time to take a look at what to do about cleanup.

Cleaning up the battery acid is not all that difficult, but the problem is that it can be dangerous.

The last thing you want to do is reach for a rag to wipe this up without properly protecting yourself.

Let’s take a look at some of the steps you should take to clean up battery acid on your garage floor.

 

1. Proper Safety

You will need to make sure that you are protected when you are dealing with a battery acid spill.

This is a very corrosive material and getting it on or near your skin or eyes is dangerous.

If you are worried about the golf cart battery acid leaking through and damaging the garage floor, you can only imagine the damage it will do to your hands, face, or eyes.

Therefore, we recommend using gloves, safety glasses, and even a mask to make sure that you are not breathing anything in.

When dealing with a battery acid spill, time is of the essence, but you must ensure that you are prosperity protecting yourself, first and foremost.

It does not pay to be quick to protect the garage floor but end up hurting yourself in the process.

 

2. Assess The Spill

Once you are properly protected with safety gear, it is time to assess the spill.

You will need to determine if the spill has just happened or if it is something that occurred a long time ago, and you are just finding the damage now.

If the spill is old and you have not had the chance to attend to it quickly, chances are the damage has already been done.

For old spills that have eaten away at your garage floor, you are likely going to have to patch the garage floor and find another way to fix it.

Cleaning up the battery acid at this point is not going to help you fix anything.

If you know that the spill has just happened, you can move to the next step to work to carefully fix the issue without allowing further damage.

 

3. Neutralize The Acid

The first step is to neutralize the acid.

To do this, you are going to want to use baking soda.

When we do maintenance on our cart, we always keep a box of baking soda nearby.

It is a good thing to have in case you experience an issue like this.

The first step is to take plenty of baking soda and cover the area where the acid spilled.

Do not worry about touching this acid or doing anything with it just yet.

Instead, simply spread the baking soda out and then let it sit.

Once you have let the baking soda do its job and sit on the spill for several hours to neutralize the acid, you can then start the cleanup process.

 

4. Clean Up Mess

Once the baking soda has sat on the battery acid for a sufficient amount of time, you can start to wipe it up.

Be aware that sometimes the battery acid could still be active, and this will eat through any rags that you are using.

Always wear sturdy gloves and work in small sections so that you can ensure the battery acid has all been neutralized.

If you think that more baking soda is necessary to fix the issue, start pouring it on generously.

In the grand scheme of things, it is much easier to clean up a baking soda spill on your garage floor than it is to deal with the long-term results of battery acid leaking and causing these issues.

The cleanup process becomes stressful because of the dangers of the battery acid.

However, if you catch this issue before things get really bad, you will be pleasantly surprised by the way it can work so well.

 

Tips For Preventing Battery Acid On Garage Floor

 

Now that you have cleaned up your garage floor, it’s a good idea to try and prevent further issues.

The more you can prevent this from happening, the easier it’s going to be to clean up in the future.

There are some ways to make sure that your floor stays protected at all times.

 

1. Purchase A Mat For Under The Cart

 

Putting a mat under your golf cart will help prevent any leakage from reaching the garage floor.

Many people will put cardboard or an old remnant carpet under their cart.

However, this is not a great idea.

If you take a look at the cardboard or the cart, you will see that they will quickly burn through should any acid leak in this area.

Instead, you must find a mat that can withstand any type of leaking.

If you find something like this, the chances of doing damage to your garage floor are going to be significantly reduced.

The problem, of course, will be the upfront cost of the mat, but once that is done, you may save yourself the cost and effort of having to refinish your garage floor.

For some people, a garage floor is already a mess with old stains, cracks, and breaks.

However, the garage floor may be in perfect condition for others, and you will want to keep it this way for as long as you can.

The damage that a golf cart battery can do is mostly superficial.

In other words, your garage floor will look terrible, but it should not end up causing the garage floor to get cracked or damaged in any way.

If you are worried about the floor being damaged or broken, the golf cart batteries are typically not going to do that much damage.

However, if left unattended and leaking for a very long period of time, the damage you see is going to be much more extensive.

 

2. Don’t Put the Cart Away When It Is Wet

 

If you go out for a ride and come back in the rain, the golf cart is going to have lots of water dripping from it.

If you have not checked the batteries lately, that water could be leaking through, cleaning battery acid off the batteries, and then spilling it all over your garage floor.

We would not recommend putting a golf cart away when it is wet.

It is certainly best to wait until the golf cart dries out a bit before you park it in your garage.

This can be hard to do when all you are trying to do is get in from the rain.

One tip we have is to get your cart in the garage and out of the rain, but soon after, try to go outside, pull the cart back out into the dry weather, let it dry and assess the floor for any leaks or damage.

Most of the time, there will be no issues, but they can occur.

This is another reason that it can be a good idea to get a golf cart mat to place underneath your cart.

 

3. Do Golf Cart Maintenance Somewhere Else

 

Another smart thing to consider is to do your golf cart maintenance in another area.

If you are worried about your golf cart leaking onto the garage floor, do your golf cart maintenance elsewhere and then pull the cart into the garage later on.

The problem with this is that you will still need to find a location to do the maintenance.

If you are not careful about where the golf cart is parked while working on it, you may do damage to your driveway or a patio.

Essentially, you will always have to watch under the cart to make sure that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing.

If you are not aware or careful, the battery acid will take a toll and leave you with quite a disaster to clean up.

 

Is It Better To Get A Gas Cart?

 

Sometimes all the talk about battery acid and the damage that it can do can make people nervous about the electric cart.

You should not let the battery acid issues with electric carts keep you from using them.

If you are a serious golfer and you want something that is very easy to maintain long term and overall clean and simple, the electric cart is the best answer.

Electric golf carts have a ton of benefits, and they are typically cheaper to maintain.

As long as you are smart about how you do the maintenance on your cart, you should not run into too much trouble with your garage floor.

One of the most common reasons for the garage floor getting destroyed is that people just have no idea that this is an issue.

They work on their carts for years, park the cart in the same spot every day, and never take the time to look underneath and see the damage that has occurred.

Since you are being proactive about the situation and reading up on it now, chances are you will not have these long-term issues to contend with.

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now feel a bit better about how to clean up a battery acid spill on your garage floor and how to prevent one in the future.

If you are smart about how you store and maintain your cart, you should not have too many long-term issues to contend with.

Always make sure that you are keeping track of your cart every month.

We like to set reminders for the first or last day of the month and just schedule an hour to do some golf cart maintenance and cleanup.

When this is done, you will find that the overall condition of your garage floor should remain just fine.