The Scooter Store

I think The Scooter Store might have been one of those outfits that was always advertising "free" scooters on TV -- not free to Medicare, of course -- and the Feds finally caught up with them for over-billing and for providing scooters to people who didn't really need them; perhaps they had some less-than-ethical physicians on the payroll too.

Try here for replacement batteries:

I've bought replacement batteries for uninterruptible power supplies from them. No problems so far.

Perce

Reply to
Percival P. Cassidy
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I removed the two batteries and put them on charge individually with my 12V 10A car charger. The max charge I can get on each was something like 6.7V and 7.8V. I put them back into the chair and connected the wiring and tested the voltage across both batteries, and got 14.6V. Sounds like what I should expect.

I connected the charger that came with the chair and connected it to the chair, and found the voltage across both batteries is 27.2V Sounds reasonable. Since before I could get no reading in this mode, I think I can now assume that was because the batteries were completely dead, and that probably my charger is really okay. Another thing, the chair now at least responds to the controller, if only to flash red and yellow. Nothing more. No chair movement of course.

I am leaving the charger connected to the chair for a while to see if the battery voltage increases. I'm betting it won't, and that I should probably just get two new batteries. That 14.6V is simply not enuff to do anything.

Agree?

Thanks

Wei

Reply to
WeiLienShih

Hi, Is it 6.7V and 7.8V? or 6.7A and 7.8A? if it was really voltage reading that means battery some battery cell(s) are shot. That's why voltage reading is lot less than 12V. If it were Ampere reading when charging is complete it'll drop to near zero. Read the voltage when you tried operate the scooter?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Yes. I've worked with a number of scooters and powerchairs and the symptoms you describe literally scream "dying batteries." Many scooters have a voltage circuit that cuts power to the electric motor if the combined voltage of the two batteries drops below 22V or so. You'll hear a clicking sound, not unlike a car with a dead battery, if there's not enough juice to power the scooter. I've found that even without being used, the gel batteries used in scooters often don't last more that five years.

Is there a date stamp on either battery? If they're over 5 years old don't expect them to ever charge to a higher voltage than what you are seeing now. In fact, expect the opposite. Each time you discharge and recharge them. they'll come back with an incrementally lower voltage. I keep the dying batteries around because even at 7 or 8 volts, they'll still power a small LED light for days. And as you've noticed, two of them in series will even power a 12VDC when they're displaying the symptoms yours are.

Hope that helps.

Reply to
Robert Green

V. The amperage reading did drop to zero during the charge yesterday.

I left the chair off overnight, unplugged from the charger. At that time, the voltage across the two batteries read 14.6V. This morning, the voltage reads only 5.7V, and each battery reads only 2.6V and

3.1V. The chair no longer shows any life. No surprise there. Seemingly, the batteries discharged 50% or so overnight, and now will not even start the chair hand-controller, whereas last night it at least tried to (with the higher voltage I had at that time).

BTW, I never said, but the batteries (and the chair) are about 3 years old. The chair has sat unused for 2 of those 3 years. Big mistake I think.

The batteries seem quite expensive, but I guess I will have to spring for two.

Thanks for helps

Wei

Reply to
WeiLienShih

Yes, it's pretty hard on this type of battery to leave it uncharged. The p lates sulfate. Given their age and condition they are shot. Anything that fits and is deep cycle would be ok. You could use a dual purpose marine b attery but it won't last quite as long as the deep cycle. But maybe 4 year s instead of 5 is ok in your circumstances. Or maybe you only need the thi ng for a few more years and can just put car batteries in it. Consider the battery cost plus there are various adapters out that that convert clamp o n to stud terminal.

Reply to
jamesgang

I've had good results using a BatteryMinder

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Desulfator/dp/B00D7HZ6FC

on the battery that sat in a seldom used pickup and was dead. I also use it on the motorcycle batteries over the winter. It might take a couple of weeks on a badly sulphated battery but I wasn't in a hurry.

If you try it, remember it's a 12 volt unit. I saw one report by someone who tried to use it on the 24 volt battery pack for a bicycle instead of the individual 12 volt cells and destroyed everything.

Reply to
rbowman

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Desulfator/dp/B00D7HZ6FC

I don't know if I should fool around with this or not. As expensive as it is, I probably should just go ahead and buy two new batteries I am searching for the cheapest pair with free shipping. Haven't found best deal yet tho.

Thanks

Wei

Reply to
WeiLienShih

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