The wheelchair does not come on or light up at all. When I put t
Nothing on my Invacare Torou SP electric wheelchair seems to turn on whatsoever when I put the battery charger on the green light to the charger goes out. The batteries seem to have only 2.2 V charge on them instead of the 24 V charge, when in series. Everything seems to be plugged in and connected correctly. I found two fuses and those seem to be OK. The wheelchair was in storage at below freezing temperatures in a garage. The wheelchair was plugged into a charger all this time. In fact I had two chairs in the parking garage one was OK and one wasn't. It definitely seems like the battery voltage is low but every time I plug the charger in the green light goes out which indicates a fault on the system. Do you have any suggestions on how to troubleshoot the system. Is there a way I can bring gel cells down to a local garage and have them check the batteries. Is there any way that I may have left the chair on with the charger on too and cause damage? The chair is dead as a door nail but in perfect condition otherwise. The chair is also about seven years old but the batteries are less than a year old. This is my second electric wheelchair and I'm having trouble having the insurance company cover service charges on this chair. The chair works great when it did and I could go about anyplace with it. It was such a good backup if I can get it going please help me.
Health & Beauty - Invacare
Answers & Comments
A note of caution when using a standard battery charger for a car on powerchair or scooter batteries, or ANY sealed batteries. The chargers for this mobility equipment are designed to slowly charge the batteries in spurts so that there isn't a dangerous buildup of hydrogen-sulfide gas which is produced when charging any battery. Because the batt's are sealed, the casing could expand and blow apart when not allowed to slowly, and in spurts, charge.
Car batteries are unsealed, so the gas escapes. In any case, apply no more than 4 amps to any mobility battery, and do so for only an hour or so before letting the battery settle down and the gas recombine with the gel inside.
Gel batteries should be stored with a full charge, disconnected from the equipment in a cool, dry space, and shouldn't be stored for more than a few months without periodic recharging. At the price of them, it pays to take good care.
Your batteries have shorted out internally. If you have a 2/10 Amp car battery charger, you may be able to bring them back to life like so...
- Switch the charger to 2 Amps
- if your chair uses two 12V batteries, connect the car charger across only one of them. If it uses four 6V batteries, connect across two. Be sure to match red to plus and black to minus!
- plug in the charger and watch the Ammeter meter. If it "pegs" and won't come down, the battery is toast. If it goes down to aboult half, you are on your way.
- When the meter gets down to about 1/4, switch to 10 Amps. The meter will again go up.
- When the meter drops to about 1/4 again, the battery is charged,
- Repeat above for the next battery.
This process will take several hours per battery. You don't have to remove the batties from the chair. However, it would be a good idea to do so in case a battery fails.
Good Luck !