Chair Car

Chair Car
Would a car battery work for a mobility chair?

I am working on a project involving the back axle of a mobility chair. the chair needs 24V and uses 11.3 W. if i use two car batteries to equal 24V, then it would be around 45A. would that work? how long would it last? Any comment is appreciated! Thanks in advance, Tim.

It’s true that car batteries will work, but they will not work very long. They do not withstand repeated deep discharges, and after a couple of dozen charge/discharge cycles they will stop taking a charge at all. You might break them even sooner than that- deep discharge is really not what they are designed for.

A gel, SLA, or AGM deep discharge battery is a much better choice, and although they will cost more at first, they will cost a lot less in the long run. With a 50% depth of discharge, a decent set of deep discharge batteries will last well over 500 cycles, and you can get even more if the rate and depth of discharge is not too great.

Just an example of range, which would depend greatly on rider weight, terrain, on the specific chair, but you’d probably see about 5 miles of range with car batteries, and about 15 with deep discharge batteries. Using this every day, you’d have to replace the car batteries every month, and the deep discharge batteries would last a year or more.

For higher power, it’s possible to use “dual purpose” starting/deep cycle batteries like Optima yellow tops. They don’t last as many cycles, but will be better able to cope with high rates of discharge.

I’ve worked in a battery testing company, I fix my wife’s wheelchair, I designed and installed some very powerful upgrades to a powerchair, and I worked as a mechanical engineer designing part of an ultralight power wheelchair.

I’ve personally seen how a chair handles being driven by started batteries, and the performance is extremely disappointing. Furthermore, the starter batteries tend to have liquid acid that can leak out and harm anything nearby.

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