BLOG POST 

Today we are going to talk about lithium batteries.

As you know our wheelchair brand is Lith-Tech Mobility, this is short for Lithium Technology as we only use lithium batteries in all of our products. The batteries we do use are very high quality, incredibly lightweight and will last 3 or more years or around 1000 uses.

Advantages

The advantages of lithium batteries are that they are much more efficient than lead acid batteries. In lithium batteries the power usage is 80-100% rather than lead acid batteries which can only use 50-70% of its maximum output at any one time.

Lithium batteries don’t have to be constantly charged or trickle charged, instead one solid charge is all that needed and this will also prolong the life of your battery so you get more out of it. 

High energy density – potential for yet higher capacities.

Low Maintenance – no periodic discharge is needed; there is no memory.

Lithium batteries are very lightweight compared to the old-fashioned wheelchair batteries, with our batteries only weighing on average 1.5KG.

Lithium batteries can take lots of different charging cycles and discharge cycles 

A good quality lithium battery which Lith-tech supply will last for an average three years or one thousand uses. 

Lithium batteries are also very easy to charge either on the chair or off the chair directly into the battery itself. All of Lith-Techs chairs are capable of this feature. Also all our chairs can also just be used off one battery and not just two. Meaning you can have one on charge while still using the other on the chair meaning you are never without use of a wheelchair.

Airline Regulations and rules

Lithium batteries maybe taken on a plane, but the airline must be told before the day you fly normally forty-eight hours before flying. 

6AH batteries can be taken on every airline in the world, however 10AH batteries can only be taken on some long haul flights and must be checked before flying. 

When flying the chair normally goes in the hold and the batteries are taken out the chair and with you with your carry on luggage. A maximum of two batteries per person is the standard when flying but regulations do also vary between airlines.

Under the new rules which were bought into effect around early 2018, each battery must not exceed 160 watts which is 6.6ah (as said before pretty much all our batteries are 6ah to comply with these rules)

So many companies still advertise their chairs as plane safe when in actual fact they are not. I’ve even had a customer buy a freedom chair from a competitor online and not be allowed to take it on the airline with her. She called us up in a right state and asked if we could help so she paid for one over the phone and we sent her a LITH-TECH SMART CHAIR 1 to where she was staying in Spain just 2 days later so she had a chair for her holiday and going forward.

All Lith-Tech’s lithium batteries are very easy to protect from a short circuiting as none of them have any open ends and they are protected and won’t cause any problems whilst flying. Our batteries have also been independently tested and are of the highest quality and incredibly safe. We also put a sticker on all our 6ah batteries so you can just take a picture of it and give that to the airlines when they ask about your battery.

Our models and what batteries they use

SMART CHAIR X = 1 X 6AH and 1 X 10AH Battery, we give it the 10ah so it has more range for everyday use when not on holiday and we provide a 6ah battery so you can take your chair on every airline in the world.

SMART CHAIR 1 and 1 XL = Both use 2 X 6AH Batteries

SMART CHAIR 2 = This uses a 20AH Battery which is only plane safe on British Airways and a couple of others as the battery is so powerful

MULTI CHAIR 1 = 2 X 6AH Batteries

COMPACT = 2 X 6AH Batteries