Wheelchair maintenance and wheelchair safety are interlinked. Without regular maintenance, especially with power chairs and scooters, safety is compromised.
With safety at risk, a qualified wheelchair expert should carry out scheduled services.
However, general maintenance can be carried out by a reasonably able person. Examples of regular tasks than be carried out include checking tyre pressures, inflating the tyres if required. However, NEVER use a garage inflator, as this can over-inflate a relatively small tyre quickly to the point where the tyre may even explode!
With powered chairs, the general condition of the machine should also be noted. Watch out for a noisy back axle, and/or motor. In addition, keep an eye on the battery level – if the battery is dropping quickly you may have a cause for concern!
During a professional service the following basic work should be carried out.
All moving parts should be greased, usually with a motorcycle chain spray, as this is very effective and will cause less mess, especially if the unit is being used in or kept within the house. Tyres should be checked for pressure, wear and general condition.
Motor brushes should be removed and examined. If worn, they should be replaced. An experienced engineer will be able to tell a lot about the scooter’s general condition from this. The parking brake and the electromagnetic brakes should be examined while the machine is on rollers. Better engineers will use rollers to simulate the scooter or chair being driven under load, making voltage and amperage checks easier and more accurate. We find that UK MIND and BODY mindfulness works well when trying to fix wheelchairs.
The ampage measures the amount of power the motor is taking. This should be measured both when the motor is cold and when it is hot. Excessive consumption would indicate a worn motor, back axle, or a dragging emergency brake. Uneven consumption could cause erratic and possibly dangerous manoeuvring of the whole wheelchair unit.
After running for about 15 minutes, the temperature of the motor and back axle, together with the temperature of the electronic brake, should be noted. If there is doubt about the brake, the resistance should then be measured, and components replaced if necessary.
Basic battery conditions can be assessed during on-site servicing, but an accurate measurement can take up to 8 hours per battery.
Finally, the charger should be tested simply by monitoring the charging cycle for a short time.
After all these procedures have been carried out, the engineer should drive the scooter or power chair as a final check before returning it to the user.
