Hello from North Yorkshire

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Hello from North Yorkshire

Postby twright » 15 Jan 2022, 13:55

Hello all, I should be grateful if anyone could point me in a good direction for advice as I realise that Go chairs are not a main subject for the group..
If I have chosen the wrong place to post please accept my apologies.

I am in my mid 80's with joint and osteoarthritis difficulties.
I (increasingly) use a Pride Go chair to overcome mobility problems within my house.
I bought the chair online about 8 months ago and it has never held a charge properly (it only travels about 100 yards a day and needs charging every other night).

The batteries and charger have been changed without improvement.
The charger (after 24 hrs plus) still shows a flashing green led that, when charge is complete, should be a solid green. Pride have told my supplier that this is normal and the charger manual is wrong.

My reason for posting is for views on the charging cycle and to say that the Go chair is not easy (ie it is painful to my hip joint ) for me to get out off.

Is a change to a chair with elevation likely to improve matters?
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Re: Hello from North Yorkshire

Postby Burgerman » 15 Jan 2022, 16:48

I am in my mid 80's with joint and osteoarthritis difficulties.
I (increasingly) use a Pride Go chair to overcome mobility problems within my house.
I bought the chair online about 8 months ago and it has never held a charge properly (it only travels about 100 yards a day and needs charging every other night).

The battery in that chair is a minute 18Ah. It will need to be charged EVERY NIGHT. No matter what the size of the battery though it still needs to be charged every single night if you us the chair at all. And weekly even if you never use it.

The batteries and charger have been changed without improvement.
The charger (after 24 hrs plus) still shows a flashing green led that, when charge is complete, should be a solid green. Pride have told my supplier that this is normal and the charger manual is wrong.

Unless the charger is defective it should take around 8 to 12 hours before the charger says DONE. At this point it is NOT actually done and will drop the voltage to lower level (float) and continue indefinitely. But with solid green. An ACTUAL complete charge happens after around 16 to 20 hours. Do you EVER get a solid green?

My reason for posting is for views on the charging cycle and to say that the Go chair is not easy (ie it is painful to my hip joint ) for me to get out off.
Is a change to a chair with elevation likely to improve matters?

Only you can know that. And by testing. But a change to a proper rehab style chair would likely give you more options. And better battery life with the typical 70 to 80Ah battery.
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Re: Hello from North Yorkshire

Postby twright » 16 Jan 2022, 13:48

Thank you for your advice about comfort (it being up-to-me) - but getting a trial of an elevating chair over a meaningful time is difficult.

Concerning the batteries, I have never had a solid green led...
The manual for the Go Chair says:-
The LED lights on the charger indicate different charger
conditions at various times: charger power on, charging in progress, and charging complete.
If the LED does not indicate that charging is completed within 24 hours, unplug the charger from the outlet and contact your authorized Pride Provider.


I did this.
The provider (Sept 2021) replied saying that the following info from Pride concerning the charger had been sent to them:-
We have started using a new type of charger in the last few months and the green light flashes when the charger is in trickle charge mode.
This is perfectly normal but does contradict the information in the charger manual.
Sorry for the inconvenience
So if the charger is still flashing green then this is completely normal.


What I found difficult to accept is that when the chair is used as I described and switched off when not in use why would the charge dissipate without a module fault?
(I also have a 3 year old Apex Rapid Scooter used intermittently where the batteries retain their charge for months at a time)

In line with your advice I will explore getting a trial of a more flexible chair,
Thank you
twright
 
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Re: Hello from North Yorkshire

Postby Burgerman » 16 Jan 2022, 14:20

What I found difficult to accept is that when the chair is used as I described and switched off when not in use why would the charge dissipate without a module fault?


Because the module is always powered up to a degree. Like your TV on standby.
AND
Even if you were to disconnect a battery completely they have an internal self discharge that varies from a little, to a lot depending on brand, condition etc.

BOTH these things mean that your battery slowly discharges. All scooters and powerchairs should be either kept on a constant float charge when not in use or charged weekly in order to keep the battery from deteriorating over time. 2 weeks max.

NEVER skip charging after use. Charge EVERY time at least overnight.
Charge every week overnight even if not moved at all.

Even a 1% discharged, (99% full) battery means that 1 percent of the battery capacity is now coating the lead plates as lead sulfate. As you top its charge up, even this 1% may take 16 hours because the current is super low, this small quantity of lead sulfate is returned back to the acid. If it is left for any period of time then it turns into larger non conductive lead sulfate crystals. And this cant ever be reversed. So you lose some capacity. Every time you do it. So a complete full 101% charge as soon as possble is essential to keep the battery healthy.

As for your charger or flashing lights I cant tell you. MEASURE the voltage. It should climb to 14.1 (28.2) volts for gel, and stay there for 4 to 8 hours. Then fall to a lower float voltage indefinitely. I dont care what the lights do! If its an AGM charger this will be 14.6V and 13.6 approx volts. Thats the only way to know.
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