Golf Cart Voltage Reducers - How they work and why you want one
We know the feeling – you just got a shiny new golf cart and you want to deck it out with all sorts of lighting, fans, stereos, auxiliary plugs, the works. While all of this is definitely doable often times the importance of using a voltage reducer, let alone the proper kind, is overlooked. Granted, all you need to power your fun new accessories is 12-volts DC, however, the way you go about obtaining that 12-volts can make a world of difference when it comes to the life of your batteries.
First, for those who may be new to this arena, a simple definition may be in order. A voltage reducer does exactly what one might guess – it takes an existing DC voltage (input), usually 36-volts, 48-volts, or even 72-volts from your battery bank and reduces it down to a more commonly used 12-volts DC (output). This is not to be confused with an inverter which takes a DC voltage and turns it into an AC voltage – something totally different.
Given the many different configurations of battery banks people have a tendency to acquire 12-volts the easiest way possible, whether it be by tying two 6-volt batteries together from within the bank or even by using one single 12-volt battery depending on the configuration. Simply put, don’t do this.
In order to see why that’s a bad idea you have to think of your batteries as a team where each individual battery has an equal amount of equally important work to do – this particular team happens to power your golf cart motor. They power your cart together, are discharged together and recharged together as a team. Once you start adding accessories their work load increases and not only must they power your motor but your head and tail lights and a stereo system to boot.
If you power these accessories as described in the example above (with only one or two batteries) you’ve essentially broken up the team dynamic. The workload isn’t shared equally anymore, so the misfortunate batteries (or battery) chosen to do the job have to work overtime to power your motor and accessories. They discharge faster and to lower depths, forcing the remaining batteries to pick up their slack. Then, when it comes time to recharge the bank they’re all at different levels and won’t charge equally. Depending on your usage this can result in a significantly shortened lifespan for your golf cart batteries and can prove to be quite costly.
Installing a voltage reducer on your golf cart solves all of these problems and is relatively simple to do. One important thing to note, however, is to stay far away from voltage reducers that simply reduce 16-volts down to 12-volts. This creates the exact same scenario as described above and they are essentially worthless - which is why we don’t bother to sell them. My favorite voltage reducer is our model 50388 – a 30A reducer (plenty of power for most any application) that also features an on/off wire to be tied to your golf cart’s key switch so it’s not drawing power while sitting in your garage – an excellent feature. So protect your investment and don’t take needless shortcuts, especially when it comes to your batteries.