Medical Mobility

Getting Started

As an owner of a powerchair, scooter or other battery powered mobility applications, it is critical to choose the right quality battery for your equipment to maximize its performance. This guide will asist you in making that selection and provide helpful tips on how to charge, maintain and prolong the life of your battery. To learn more about the correct 24V mobility charger click here.

Not Every Battery is the Same

Did you know there are many different configurations of chemical and mechanical compositions for lead acid batteries, depending on the application? 

Powerchairs and personal mobility devices from most manufacturers come with Deep-Cycle Sealed Lead-Acid batteries of either Gel or AGM design. AGM batteries are known as Sealed Lead Acid AGM or Absorbent Glass Mat batteries, meaning the electrolyte is absorbed in highly porous microfiber glass separators between the positive and negative plates. This creates a non-spillable battery or a battery with no excess liquid. In a flooded or wet cell battery, you can hear the liquid or electrolyte moving around. In an AGM battery you can't. Because of this, non-spillable AGM batteries are advantageous because you can set them in any position except upside down.  On the other hand, flooded batteries require maintenance. You must add water to them occasionally. With AGM batteries they are maintenance free. 

 AGM or Gel Batteries - Which one is right for you?

These two battery constructions are very similar, but they have distinct differences. As a result, one could be a better choice than the other in various applications or uses. Following are the features that make them alike; or different.

Common Features

As an owner of a powerchair, scooter or other battery powered mobility applications, it is critical to ensure you choose the right quality battery for your equipment to maximize its performance. This guide will assist you in making that selection and provide helpful tips on how to charge, maintain and prolong the life of your battery.   

• Both Gel and AGM are valve regulated lead acid batteries, therefore,non-spillable.
• Gel and AGM are both maintenance-free designs.
• Gel and AGM are both optimized for deep-cycle operation.
• Both battery constructions are sealed valve regulated lead acid, so unless abused, they will not gas.
• These battery designs are both DOT approved for air travel. This means there is no difficulty to bring aboard an aircraft. 

Differences

• AGM batteries have higher capacity than Gel batteries in equal case sizes.
• AGM has higher discharge rates than Gel.
• AGM has higher capacity (more daily range).

• Gel construction is more temperature stable; therefore, it can operate on a wider temperature range.
• Because Gel is more temperature stable, in some instances it can deliver a longer cycle-life than AGM (more cycles equal more daily uses)
• Gel construction allows the lead-acid chemistry to charge more readily then AGM.
• Gel requires a longer initial use period to reach optimal performance than AGM.