If you use a power wheelchair, insight how the batteries work is important. Since power wheelchair batteries need to be supplanted periodically, insight the battery will help you greatly in selecting the precise battery for your chair when it needs to be replaced. Your wheelchair battery plays a huge role in how your power wheelchair performs.
There are 3 main characteristics of power wheelchair batteries: capacity, current rating, and type of cell.
Gel Battery Chargers
Capacity is expressed in ampere-hours (Ah) and determines how long a battery can function. The capacity of a typical deep-cycle lead-acid battery ranges from 30 to 90 ampere-hours corresponding to 3 to 9 hours of continuous use of an galvanic wheelchair that runs on 10 amperes. Few citizen use their wheelchair continuously.
Current is expressed in amperes (A) and refers to the rate of electron flow. The larger the current rating, the greater the quality of the power chair to tour over rough terrain and obstacles.
Type of cell refers to either the power wheelchair battery is a wet-cell lead-acid battery or a gel-cell lead-acid battery, which are the main types of wheelchair batteries available. While both may be used in a power wheelchair, manufacturers usually propose gel-cell batteries because of maintenance and environmental concerns with wet-cell batteries.
Despite these concerns, wet-cell batteries usually have a larger capacity, can furnish more power, and usually cost less than gel-cell. For these reasons, they are still the battery of selection for many users. Wet-cell batteries are available in vented and sealed versions:
- Vented wet-cell batteries must be usually maintained by adding water to the battery on a quarterly basis, since the water tends to evaporate over time. This can be challenging, as the man doing the maintenance is exposed to acidic materials every time the battery case is opened to add the water: chemical burns can in fact occur, and chemical spills can also corrode the wheelchair.
- Sealed wet-cell batteries are a fulfilled, system, so one does not have to mouth the water level. Still, the inherent exists for a chemical spill, due to boiling, or a damaged battery case.
Because both of types of wet-cell batteries have chemicals, neither are allowed on aircraft.
Gel-cell lead-acid batteries were advanced to be maintenance free with no opening of chemical spills, and so are able to be in fact transported on airplanes. The main disadvantage of gel-cell batteries is that they typically have about 10-20% less capacity than wet batteries, and are more expensive. Still, unless the user usually travels long distances, they are likely to be the first selection for most power wheelchair users.
When purchasing new power wheelchair batteries, consideration must also be given to the battery charger, to make definite that you have the precise charger for the type of battery. Using the wrong battery charger can cause permanent damage to the battery. Since a wheelchair battery is a "deep cycle" battery, it is meant to drain nearly completely, and then be recharged. Most batteries can be recharged up to 300 times before losing the capacity to hold power.
Basic insight of your power wheelchair batteries will help you in purchasing your next transfer battery, thereby insuring that your wheelchair is all the time operating at it's best.
Power Wheelchair Batteries - insight How the Battery Works