Battery questions with scooters and power chairs

We recently bought a used Shoprider 889SEL scooter and it uses two 12V 35Ah agm batteries. Of course the original 32Ah batteries were about used up as we expected. I asked our nearest provider (Medichair) for a quote on them and they quoted $206. each for a total of $412. I decided to buy them on-line and found a new set of 35Ah agm batteries on E-Bay for $224 delivered from a battery dealer in the Vancouver area. So far they seem good and it was a substantial savings. I bought them on-line because we have limited resources here as we live in a small town in the North.

Now I'm plagued with range anxiety because I'm unsure of the quality of the batteries. I understand that new batteries have limited capacity until they have been discharged and recharged a number of times before being charged up fully. What concerns me is that on our ventures out, the charge indicator drops pretty far down on hills but returns to full as soon as we stop and still shows full on our return home. We have only been out three times so far. Can anyone shed more light on this? Thanks!

I don't use a scooter and live in U.K but I'm a moderator on this site and looked into your concern and found this forum on the net for you that maybe of help. BUBBADOG14. (Site Moderator).



www.scootamart.com/help/mobility-scooter-components.html

The battery indicator does drop when you are going up hills as you are using more power so the battery indicator calculates the up hill power so dont take any notice of the indicator when you are going up hills.

Thank you Karl! Your assurance relieves my mind considerably. I didn't quite understand how the battery indicator works.

Also, thank you BUBBADOG14 for the link to a technical help site. I'll add it to my favorites.

We are both in our late 70's and seem to be becoming more enfeebled which is par for the course at our age, so we decided to start buying used equipment when it becomes available at exceptional prices. It works for us because this seems to have become a retirement town so there are a lot of estate sales. We bought a large Pride Jazzy power chair and found it unwieldy, powerful and scary so we sold it at profit enough to buy the Shoprider 889SLE scooter. At another estate sale, we found a Shoprider 889SE and a Pride Go-Chair, both barely used, for an exceptionally good price. I did have to buy new batteries for the Go-Chair but they are small and relatively inexpensive.

It's true that buying used always entails risk and usually means buying new batteries. It's my experience that it is usually worth it for the huge savings involved.

Scooters and wheelchairs can last over 10years, as the motors never break down and the frames are solid.

Controllors can break if you are rough with them.

Footrests can also break if you put too much weight on them.

Right you are! My neighbour has had a scooter for 16 years and uses it a lot. He has had some maintenance done on it occasionally, mostly flat tires and batteries but it has stood up pretty well and is still going strong. He even takes it out in the snow and muck which I would never do.