Charging batteries in the garage?

[Anonymous]

I’m curious as to whether it is ok to charge the scooter batteries in the garage (in this case, my scooter is a Pride Go Go Sport). Do extremes of cold or heat damage the batteries or reduce battery life?

I have heard from scooter dealers both that it is fine to do in the garage, and that it is not fine. I had a set of scooter batteries that got swollen after a few months use, and the dealer told me it was from being charged in the cold. However, the problems with the batteries dying quickly started before the weather turned cold (I only was able to get to his shop after it turned cold, so he assumed it had been charged in the cold). In fact, the batteries were installed in May and were acting up by late September, so they had been charged in the heat.

I followed the manual’s guide for charging, which was that if the scooter wasn’t used all week to charge it for 24 hours. The service person said that perhaps it was being over-charged, and perhaps it was a bad charger. He told me to start charging it just 8 hours if not use all week, and rather than charging for 8 hours after each use as the manual says, to charge just 8 hours after ever few uses. I also bought a new charger and had my husband bring in the batteries to charge. HOWEVER, I might want to get a Pride Revo 2.0 in the future, but only if it is safe to charge in the the garage as moving those batteries would be too much.

Any ideas on charging in temperature extremes of the garage? And on how long to charge a battery if it has not been used all week (24 hours or 8 hours)?

[Andrew Fatalo]

Hi Scooterjam ,
I think it depends how cold it gets , in your garage. I always charge in my garage but it does not get more than a few times a year below freezing . I live mostly in Holland .
When I am in Spain in the wintertime , my scooter stands outside on a sheltered spot , it hardly ever freezes there , but a few degrees below is no problem . As long it is a dry place it is allright for the batteries . But how much cold they can handle I don’t know .
Good luck
Willemijn

[Author]

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