Electric Golf Cart Maintenance
 

Should you keep an electric cart plugged in when garage is closed. Can it cause a fire?

We close our door..... and feel safe <knock on wood>
 

/**** caveat reader, I am not a subject matter expert, just relaying how I perceive the threat from my reading ****/

In our house we charge the carts with the garage door closed. From my reading most fires appear to be caused by poorly maintained batteries (literally going dry), people using cords not rated for the AMPS of the circuit, voltage reducer issues, people using a charger not designed for their cart cooking batteries, dirty electrical connections, etc.

I take special care to maintain packs, inspect all charger related plug ends for dirt or corrosion and periodically check heat of components during charge cycle, i.e., charger, cords, batteries..... I am not fanatic about the heat checking, but if I am in garage and a cart is charging I will walk over and see if anything too hot. OH yeah, and I do not smoke, if you, do not do it around a charging cart :ho:

BUT with all that said.....

I assume you are asking about the garage door because the act of charging deep cycle batteries produces hydrogen. I have never read of a case where a fire started due to the hydrogen being output during the charge cycle got to a ratio that a spark started a fire, but I do not read that many fire marshal reports.

Hydrogen detectors are way to expensive for me to find out. If someone has one I will happily do some tests and report back.

Check out these papers. The first is a quick article and the second is really boring but has some interesting data.

The Unexpected Golf Cart Hazard - Firehouse - Page 2

http://www.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/efop/efo27803.pdf

I charge mine with the door down but I do a couple things:

I place a small fan blowing across my charger to help dissipate some of the heat that it generates while charging.

I prop open the seat so that air can circulate a bit. The batteries do "gas" a bit when charging and this keeps the gas from staying trapped in the battery compartment.