---
title: "PowaKaddy and Motocaddy agree on winter storage: full charge, room temperature, and not the garage"
url: "https://ifrothgolf.com/read/golf-gear-winter-storage"
type: "explainer"
topic: "tech"
author: "Tom Whitaker"
published: "2026-09-27T10:00"
publisher: "ifrothgolf"
---


# PowaKaddy and Motocaddy agree on winter storage: full charge, room temperature, and not the garage

> The clubs survive a winter in a cold shed without complaint. The battery, the grips, the shoes and the laser are the things that quietly die out there, and the two biggest trolley brands in Britain publish advice that contradicts everything you have read about storing a lithium battery.

## In short

- Four jobs, under an hour. Take the trolley battery into the house fully charged and check or top it up inside two months — PowaKaddy and Motocaddy both publish that advice and both say never below about ten degrees Celsius, which rules out the garage, the shed and the boot. Wash the grips with a soft brush, warm water and soap and dry them without dunking the club, because glazed grips are the only part of a set that a winter genuinely degrades. Empty the bag and leave it open. Bring the laser and the shoes indoors, and dry wet shoes with newspaper and cedar trees rather than on a radiator. Skip the head-polishing and the off-season loft check; neither survives contact with April.

The last competition of the season goes off in the first week of October at most clubs, and afterwards the bag goes where it always goes. Against the cold wall in the garage, behind the mower, zipped shut, with everything still in it.

Five months later it comes back out and something in it has died. It is almost never a club. Steel shafts and forged heads are the most neglect-proof objects in the entire game, which is the irony, because the heads are the part everybody remembers to wipe. The casualties are the things with a battery in them, a rubber surface or a leather upper, and they do not fail from being used. They fail from being left somewhere cold and damp for twenty weeks.

Four jobs genuinely change the state of your gear in April. A longer list of jobs feel productive and change nothing. Here is which is which.

## The battery advice for golf is the opposite of the phone advice

If you have absorbed one piece of lithium folklore, it is probably that you should put a cell away at about half charge, because a battery held full ages faster. That is a fair description of the pack in your laptop. It is not what the two biggest trolley brands in Britain tell their own customers.

PowaKaddy's technical FAQ says to make sure the battery is fully charged, disconnect the charger, and store it "at room temperature and never at low temperatures (under 10 degrees centigrade)" — about fifty Fahrenheit — and not to leave it "longer than two-months without recharging for a few hours or being checked". Motocaddy's winter care advice says the same thing in almost the same words.

Two rivals landing independently on the same instruction is about as strong as published guidance gets, and the divergence from the phone advice is that the two batteries face different enemies. A phone is cycled daily, so calendar ageing at a high state of charge is what is worth managing. A trolley battery goes away in October on whatever the eighteenth hole left in it and is not touched until March, and its enemy is the slow walk down to zero: the pack's protection circuit draws a trickle with nothing switched on, cold slows the chemistry that would hold the voltage up, and a lithium cell taken below its floor does not come back at any price. A full charge here is not a performance setting, it is a head start on five months of self-discharge — which is why both brands attach a *check interval* rather than just a number.

Which leaves the room, and the room is where most people get it wrong. A British garage in January spends most of its life under ten degrees. So does a shed, and so does a car boot. When both brands say room temperature they mean the actual house. The battery is the one thing on this list that should not be stored with the trolley — and once the light goes green, Motocaddy is explicit that the charger comes off rather than staying on overnight or indefinitely.

None of this scales with what you paid. The pack in an entry trolley like the [Motocaddy SE](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/motocaddy-se-electric) is the same chemistry as the one in a four-figure follow trolley, and a replacement battery is the biggest out-of-warranty bill in the category.

@photo motocaddy-se-electric

## Grips are the only part of a club that keeps a diary

The club survives the winter. The grips record it.

Grip rubber rarely wears out from hitting golf balls. It glazes. Every round leaves a film of skin oil, sun cream and fine grit on the surface, and left in place through five cold months that film hardens into a slick layer no amount of squeezing brings back. You then spend April gripping harder to compensate, which is the fastest way to ruin a golf swing that does not involve buying anything.

Golf Pride's own grip-care guidance is unglamorous and short: a soft brush, warm water and soap, then dry them properly. The warning worth repeating is not to dunk the club, because water past the butt end runs down the inside of the shaft, and the inside of a shaft is where clubs actually rust. A brush like the one on the [Callaway 4-in-1](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/callaway-divot-tool) does the grips and the grooves in the same ten minutes — wet grass and sand packed into a wedge face over winter is a rust starter, not a cosmetic issue.

@photo callaway-divot-tool

The trade's rule of thumb is a regrip every forty rounds or once a year, and it is genuinely a rule of thumb rather than a specification. The useful part is the timing: wash them in October, and if they are still hard and shiny once clean and dry, book the regrip now. A fitter's bench is empty in autumn and three weeks deep in April.

If you do one job on this page, do this one. Polishing the heads until they shine feels like maintenance and changes nothing you will ever notice. A glazed grip changes your grip pressure, and grip pressure changes everything downstream of it.

## A zipped wet bag is a five-month experiment

Mould needs three things and a golf bag in a garage supplies all three: moisture, something organic to eat, and no moving air. Zipping a damp bag shut in October is the controlled version of that experiment, and the smell in March is the result.

Empty it and leave it open. That is the entire instruction, and the interesting part is what comes out. A glove balled in a pocket dries into a hard little sculpture. Balls are fine. What you find, reliably, is the expensive small stuff: a laser, a spare battery, a watch, sometimes a wallet. A soft-lined [waterproof valuables pouch](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/valuables-pouch) is not exciting, but it is the reason all of that leaves the bag in one lift rather than being discovered in spring.

@photo valuables-pouch

## The rangefinder does not mind the cold. It minds the change.

A laser left in a car boot over winter is not sitting at a steady temperature. It is cycling — below freezing at seven in the morning, twenty degrees under afternoon sun through the glass, back down overnight, every day for months. Each swing pushes warm, damp air against cold glass and drops its moisture out as condensation.

Sealed optics are gas-purged at the factory for exactly this reason: dry gas inside the housing has no moisture to give up, so the lenses cannot fog from within. That protection depends entirely on the seal, and a seal that has taken a knock will fog on the inside surface of a lens, which is the one place you cannot wipe. The battery is the smaller half of the same story — a cold cell reads low, and a laser reading low starts refusing ranges on the first cold morning of the year.

A magnetic case like [Bushnell's](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/bushnell-rangefinder-case) solves the other problem, the one that actually breaks lasers in June: a hard knock against a trolley frame. It does nothing whatsoever about temperature. Buy the case for the season and bring the laser indoors for the winter. Two different jobs.

@photo bushnell-rangefinder-case

## Shoes die on the radiator, not on the course

FootJoy's own shoe-care advice is blunt: never dry golf shoes with a hairdryer or on any external heat source, and keep them out of direct sunlight. The process it recommends is crumpled newspaper inside for several hours to pull the water out, then cedar shoe trees, which bring the upper back to shape and take the remaining damp and smell with them. FootJoy suggests leaving the trees in whenever the shoes are off.

The reason is mechanical rather than fussy. An outsole is bonded to an upper with adhesive, and a radiator delivers exactly the concentrated heat adhesive is not specified for. Uppers dried too fast shrink, stiffen and crease where they were folded, and a shoe that has taken a new shape keeps it. A waterproof shoe that has lost its shape has usually lost its waterproofing with it, because the membrane is bonded to the material that just moved.

The drive home sets the damage up. A sealed plastic bag keeps a wet shoe wet for two hours; a [ventilated shoe bag](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/stinky-shoe-bag) with mesh panels lets it start drying before it reaches the house. A [boot organiser](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/athletico-trunk-organiser) with vented shoe compartments does the same job all season for the golfer who changes at the car — just be clear it is a tidiness fix rather than a winter one. In January, the shoes come out of the car.

@photo stinky-shoe-bag

## What is fussing

Plenty of off-season advice exists to fill a page in November, so it is worth naming what to skip. Polishing heads is cosmetic. Dehumidifier sachets in a bag you have already emptied and opened solve a problem you just removed. A winter loft and lie check is only worth booking if something actually changed, like a thinned shot off a path or a shaft swap. And a new bag in the January sales, to replace one whose only fault is that it smells, is exactly what the January sales are counting on.

The real list is short: battery indoors and fully charged, grips washed, bag emptied and open, shoes and laser out of the car. Under an hour, most of it spent carrying things into the house. (Reading this in Australia or New Zealand? Your season runs roughly October to April and you are walking into it — the mechanisms simply invert, and a car boot in a Queensland summer is a worse place for a battery and a laser than a British garage in January.)

## The takeaway

Four jobs, under an hour. Take the trolley battery into the house fully charged and check or top it up inside two months — PowaKaddy and Motocaddy both publish that advice and both say never below about ten degrees Celsius, which rules out the garage, the shed and the boot. Wash the grips with a soft brush, warm water and soap and dry them without dunking the club, because glazed grips are the only part of a set that a winter genuinely degrades. Empty the bag and leave it open. Bring the laser and the shoes indoors, and dry wet shoes with newspaper and cedar trees rather than on a radiator. Skip the head-polishing and the off-season loft check; neither survives contact with April.

## FAQ

### Should a golf trolley battery be stored fully charged or half charged over winter?

Fully charged, according to both PowaKaddy and Motocaddy. Their published guidance is to charge the battery completely, disconnect the charger once charging finishes, store it at room temperature and never below about ten degrees Celsius, and then recharge or check it at least every two months. This differs from the general advice for phone and laptop batteries because the risk over a long golf off-season is the pack slowly self-discharging to a voltage it cannot recover from, rather than calendar ageing at a high state of charge.

### Why do golf grips go hard and slippery over the winter?

They glaze rather than wear out. Skin oils, sun cream, hand cream and fine grit build up as a film on the rubber, and if that film is left in place for months it hardens into a smooth, slick surface. Washing with a soft brush, warm water and soap removes it and restores most of the tack. Avoid submerging the club, because water that gets in past the butt end can run down the inside of the shaft and cause corrosion there.

### Is it bad to leave a rangefinder in the car over winter?

Yes, and the problem is temperature cycling rather than cold itself. A car boot swings from below freezing overnight to warm in daytime sun, and each swing drives condensation onto cold glass. Sealed optics are purged with dry gas at the factory to prevent internal fogging, but that depends on the seal staying intact, and moisture that forms on an inner lens surface cannot be wiped away. Cold also makes the battery read low. Store a laser indoors at room temperature.

### What is the right way to dry wet golf shoes?

Slowly and away from any heat source. FootJoy advises against hairdryers, radiators and direct sunlight, because concentrated heat damages the adhesive bonding the outsole to the upper and makes the upper shrink and crease. Its recommended method is to pack the shoes with crumpled newspaper for several hours to draw out the water, then swap the newspaper for cedar shoe trees, which restore the shape and absorb the remaining moisture and odour.

## Products mentioned

- [Motocaddy SE Electric Trolley](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/motocaddy-se-electric) · $650 approx — Entry lithium trolley, same cell chemistry as the four-figure ones and the same storage rules.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Motocaddy](https://www.motocaddy.com/)

- [Callaway 4-in-1 Divot Repair Tool](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/callaway-divot-tool) · $15 approx — The nylon brush and groove cleaner that does the one October job worth doing.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0746WQMLP?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_callaway-divot-tool) (affiliate link) · also stocked by Callaway Golf

- [Big Max Waterproof Golf Valuables Pouch](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/valuables-pouch) · $25 approx — The reason the rangefinder and the spare glove leave the bag in one lift rather than in April.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SR875R5?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_valuables-pouch) (affiliate link) · also stocked by Big Max Golf

- [Bushnell Magnetic Rangefinder Case](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/bushnell-rangefinder-case) · $30 approx — Protects the optics from knocks. Does nothing about temperature, which is the winter problem.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJ67BCB7?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_bushnell-rangefinder-case) (affiliate link)

- [Athletico Ventilated Golf Shoe Bag](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/stinky-shoe-bag) · $35 approx — Mesh panels, so damp shoes breathe on the drive home instead of sealing themselves in.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07215XFYF?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_stinky-shoe-bag) (affiliate link)

- [Athletico Golf Trunk Organiser](https://ifrothgolf.com/product/athletico-trunk-organiser) · $45 approx — Fixes boot chaos all season. The winter move is still taking the shoes out of the car.
  **Where to buy:** [Check price at Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C3BKX2Q?tag=ifrothgolf-20&ascsubtag=md_athletico-trunk-organiser) (affiliate link) · also stocked by Athletico

---

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