Worn out batteries is the most common fault with mobility scooters and powerchairs, but don't rush into buying new batteries before properly checking that they are definitely at fault.

If your scooter will not power up/light up then it could be the batteries or you could have a problem with the charger or the charger lead, check that your charger is plugged in firmly and lighting up properly. If your charger seems to be charging ok, but the scooter will not move, then the batteries might still be good, and the fault could be elsewhere.

If your scooter has been left without use for a long time, and the batteries have long been flat, then they are certain to be badly damaged. But if the batteries have been kept charged from time to time over this period of none use, or the scooter works ok short distances, then the batteries may still be re-storable through charge/discharge battery cycling.

Many people waste hundreds of pounds on new batteries only to find out that the fault is elsewhere. Before you buy new batteries, firstly go to a repair shop that will quickly hook up a spare set of batteries to the scooter, to find out definitively if you need them or not.

If you use your scooter only on rare occasions, or if you use it often but only travel very short distances; Because you have not been using the full capacity of the batteries, when you do need to use your scooter to go a long distance the batteries might not perform as well as they should do, even if you keep your batteries charged regularly. This is because scooter batteries need to be cycled periodically to prime them up to full capacity.

To cycle the batteries up to full capacity, charge the batteries up, run them down into the red and immediately recharge them back up again. Repeat this cycle three times. To run the batteries down you could drive around in circles all day or another way of doing this is by removing the scooter drive wheels and tying the motion lever forward with elastic bands.

Always wear rubber gloves when handling scooter batteries, if the battery case is damaged there is a possibility of some harmful acid leakage. But primarily, although low voltages normally do not cause electric shocks, and the reason for this is that human skin has a high electrical resistance of around 20 thousand ohms, if you have cuts on your hands exposing flesh, then the amount of current that could flow though your body from one of these batteries could kill!