Battery issues - what to do?
 

"A fully charged battery at 12.7 volts will freeze at -70°F. A half-charged battery (12.0 volts) can start freezing at 5°F and a fully discharged car battery (11.5-volts) will freeze at 32°F."

I have 6 dead 8 volt golf cart batteries and a dead 6 volt battery for my Speedster. None of them will charge up to their full voltage. The 6 volt tops out at 5 volts after a week on a 1.5 amp charger.
They are all old and all need to be replaced.
I don't need the cart and won't be operating the Speedster for at least 6 months, so I don't want to go out and buy $1000 worth of new batteries just to let them sit.
But it gets cold here. Five degrees isn't out of the question, and I don't have a good place to keep them warm. I'm afraid they'll freeze and break and spill acid all over the place even if I keep them on maintainers.
I'm sure folks who handle batteries have encountered this.
I've thought of totally discharging the batteries and dumping the liquid out. What would be the acid content of a battery at 0 volts?
Any suggestions?

Pull them. Take them to a battery recycling center. Buy new when needed. Golf cart and your Speedster shouldn't have any memories to need saving.

You could try adding some battery acid to each cell and charging them up.

Or build a styrofoam box to house all of them, and put a heated battery blanket on one of them.

Core charge on the golf cart batteries is $22 each. I need to have the old batteries on hand when I buy the new ones to avoid the charge.

How about just removing them and putting them in the basement or somewhere?

Put the batteries in a large enough plastic storage bin with a 60W light bulb fixture with power. I did this when I had problems with a sprinkler system manifold and it kept the valves from freezing up.

I read that leaving a battery on a concrete floor will discharge it.

Also, if you are renting, don't refill with new acid and 10A it indoors or the acid will boil over and burn a large hole through the carpet which will have to be replaced.

Daisy chain them on a tender?

Or put them in a crawl space until spring...

New plastic case batteries don't discharge on concrete.

I had luck when I was young dumping the electrolytic and doing the best pressure wash I was able. Red stuff comes out from the bottom that shorts the plates. I don't remember what that is called but all the garage guys know.

New electrolytic from the FLAPS always got me another year or 2.

Can you store a battery empty? IDK. Can you refill with distilled water until you want to charge it? Again, IDK, but that won't solve a freezing problem.

Answer: golf cart forum.

Yes, you can drain the battery.

It's scrap, you can drain it, rinse it, and fill it with RV antifreeze, or leave it empty.

Our golf cart's batteries are approaching the end of their useful life so I've begun investigating lithium replacements. It appears they'll offer more range, charge more quickly, reduce weight by some 300 lbs and cost about the same as a set of good quality lead-acid replacements.

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There's a dead battery sitting in my garage near the door. It's been there at least two years now, maybe longer. It gets plenty cold here, and the garage isn't heated, so it gets cold enough in there. I've never had a battery burst from frozen contents. Never.

There’s got to be a lot of storage area under the quilting machine???

Growing up in Illinois winters, never had an issue with garden tractor batteries and they were kept in the unheated garage.

Replace the batteries