2 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your New Electric Wheelchair Battery
If you just purchased a new battery for your electric wheelchair, there are specific things that you need to do in order to ensure that you take proper care of your new electrical battery. Here are three tips that will help ensure that you get the most out of your new electric wheelchair battery.
#1 Fully Charge It Before Use
Don't assume that your battery is charged all of the way when you take it out of the package. Most batteries are sent only partially charged; even if the battery was fully charged when it was packed, it may have discharged a bit during the shipping, packing, and selling process.
When you purchase a new battery, make sure that you budget time to fully charge the battery before you use it. Wheelchair batteries are deep cycle batteries, which means that you need to fully charge the battery from the beginning in order to take full advantage of the hours of usage that the battery should provide you with. If you only partially charge the new battery, you will not be able to take advantage of all of its usage time for the life of the battery.
#2 Only Drain The Batteries A Quarter Of The Way
As you use the battery for the first week or two, you are going to want to use the battery about a quarter or half way, and then recharge it. Recharging it after the battery has only been used about a quarter or half of the way and then letting it fully recharge again will help extend the charging cycle since electric wheelchair batteries are deep-charge batteries. This may feel a little like a hassle, but is a great way to make sure that you get as many hours out of your battery in the future and are able to use it for a long time.
If you take proper care of your new deep-charge batteries, especially in the beginning, you'll be able to get more usage out of your batteries. Make sure that your batteries are fully charged before you use them. Then, pay carefully attention to how much you use the batteries for the first week and a half; this carefully monitoring will allow you to get deeper and longer charges out of the batteries in the long run. In addition to buying batteries for your own wheelchair, you can also look at wheelchair rentals for easier access to motorized wheelchairs in the future.
