Weird Battery(?) Issue on Powerchair. Any ideas on the cause?

Ve3
Ve3 Online Community Member Posts: 3 Listener
edited March 3 in Housing and independent living

Hi all, I have a powerchair from CareCo, one of their Easi Go models. It's about 4 years old and lightly used. Over the past while I've noticed the battery behaviour being odd. When I power it on (after a full charge) everything would light up normal, all red, orange and green LEDs but it would quickly fall. Often to half way within 0.5km of leaving the house and then would get down to flashing within 1.5km or so. Fortunately it never ran out (I don't go far and am always with someone just in case).

Anyway, it seemed like maybe the batteries had reached the end of their life. That made sense. So I bought two new batteries, of the correct/same type and installed them. The first charge worked and on a short test run everything seemed fine (stayed full green, left it a few days and it held charge) but then I tried my normal trip and it began showing the same behaviour as the old batteries with one difference. This time, when I stopped to have lunch and turned off the chair it then turned back on with more LEDs lit up, then slowly they went down quickly as I journeyed towards home. I turned it off, then on and they went back up again.

So, it seems like maybe (my guess) that there is some sort of problem with the sensor that decides what the power/charge of the battery is. Does this sound reasonable? Do any of you know where this type of chair has that sensor? E.g. is it in the joystick/control pod thing and would be a simple thing to replace?

Any advice/theories appreciated!

(I contacted the manufacturer and they can send out an engineer which would take a week or two and then they need to order parts if needed, etc so trying to shortcut this as much as possible.)

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