Been listening, Dan. My f5 arrived the first week of July and as of today I have 360 Miles. The new programming shortcuts on this chair and loaded less the VS, it has been top speed up long fairly steep hills and holds top speed (7.4mph). After the batteries were broke-in, my indicator dropped to eighty percent just once on a ten mile ride. My dm guy knows the hills and says have at it and the manual suggests occasional 12 hr charges are recommended. Like Ten Bears said, 'I find iron in your words' and look forward to your conclusion. Appreciate you!
Hi Dan, great video with lots of information. I received my F5 VS in March and use the charger in stock configuration. I haven’t had any battery issues yet. Also had a good conversation about it with my DME provider and they have seen less troubles with new deliveries. I say that because after the first set of Permobil batteries, they switch the clients back to MK batteries.
I have a new style charger I keep in my van as a backup if I get stuck while traveling I can send you. I instantly went on eBay and bought another gray upright style one. Thanks for this video and information. I personally appreciate it.
This may or may not be interesting to you, Dan. I have a 2021 permobil F3 with the volt pro charger that came with it. After about three months, I noticed while charging, the charger connector was very hot, and the charger port was melted. You mentioned in a video about the service bulletin about this, so I had both the joystick and the Volt pro charger replaced with the newly updated Voltpro charger, and the batteries, MK Permobil brand as well at the same time. Ever since that time, the charger connector and port never gets hot or even barely warm at all. I checked after ten minutes connected, 30 minutes connected, and six hours charging until the fully charged green light turns on, the connector never even got warm. The batteries are now two years old, and my range is still just over ten miles. Anyway, everything still works perfectly ever since I got the newer Voltpro charger. I hope this helps, because everything works perfectly now.
I have an invacare chair, amongst other's lol 😆 which came with one of those permobil look alike chargers, but I don't use the charger. Instead I bought a power first charger which is is constructed from aluminium and has metal fins on the top which forms part of the case and in my opinion is a much better quality charger than the one supplied, as I invested in two new 75 Ah MK batteries I didn't want to run the risk of damage to them. My chair was second hand and did have MK batteries fitted and the seller told me that the batteries were practically new, however when I used the supplied charger (resembled the permobil one) the batteries soon died, draw your own conclusions! As always, thanks Dan 👍
I have a 2021 f3, I've never touched the setting on my voltpro charger. My original batteries lasted just over a year but there was a six month delay between my chair being sent to my DME and me taking delivery. In the first 8 months it saw very limited use, taking a couple 1+ mile trips led to a rapid decline in capacity. My current batteries see usage about 4-5 days a week, some days only see about 0.2 miles, my daily record is 4.8; most days of usage get about 1.5. The current batteries were installed July of 2023 and still perform like new, they are the group 34 variant.
I have an old (over 13 years old) Invacare Pronto M91 HD power wheelchair I’ve started using. I pulled the old Interstate AGM batteries the last DME installed (incorrectly per the owners manual) and put in a new set of MK Gell batteries, and am using an external 8 amp MK battery charger (the owners manual states I can use up to an 8 amp external charger). I’ve noticed I have a lot longer range and the motors seem to have more torque. I’m a former manual wheelchair user moving to the power wheelchair. My shoulders can’t take pushing all day anymore and I want to save my shoulders for doing transfers. Anyway, I use the power wheelchair all day, then switch back to my manual wheelchair while charging the power wheelchair overnight. When I initially get up and while getting ready I stay in my manual wheelchair. Doing it this way my power wheelchair usually gets 8 or more hours of charging overnight, and isn’t interrupted if I have to get up in the middle of the night. I’m hoping to get a new power wheelchair next year, but not sure which one I want to go with. I may try to go to the Dallas Abilities Expo to see more of what’s available.
I just got a F5 vertical standing power chair probably about almost 3 weeks now and I'm using the the Voltron charger that they sent with it and so far I've had no issues
Permobil M5 New March 22/23 - New Motors/Batteries Jan 17/24 - been using charger as shipped - I do about 4.3 miles per day during the week - current batteries have 668 miles on them - Batteries are very mildly losing range but only slightly - more when I use the seating functions
Completed lithium swap on my 2016 f3 this weekend and the year old volt pro batteries were so swollen that we broke the ribs on the side of battery. They were swollen on 5 of 6 sides and they were charged with the volt pro charger since new. I have pics of the batteries if you want them and the new lifepo4 batteries are awesome way more power
Oh, to add to my previous comment, I tried to switch my original Voltpro charger as you suggested, but the switch on the bottom is there, but will not move, as if it is intentionally jammed from moving at the factory.
Permobil has updated the firmware update if you have the connect module u should have gotten it I left my VP pro charger on 10 amp mode and got 4000 miles out of it with no problems after that update
I've been using the Invacare Opticharge 8amp - I don't believe it has a 10a mode on my model. For the past 4 years either the charger is unkind or the battery quality is poorer for sure I've never had batteries degrade as quickly. Something is not good but... free batteries so never actually got to the bottom of it.
When I got my chair in February the batteries that it had were completely dead play had to bring me a new set haven't had no issues with these batteries or the charger.
Any idea why power wheelchairs are still on SLA/Gel batteries? Everything else seems to have moved onto LiFePo4 batteries, from scooters, to ebikes, to solar farms.
My chair guy came by last week to order my new parts and batteries. The company claims my batteries are less than a year old and yes they told me I must use that charger. I told him if I pull my driveway hill a few times a day which is normal to go upstairs, my batteries are half dead. He put in the order but now the wait.
new permobil volt pro batteries and charger,......batteries f were likely bad from new but by 6 months were only getting my chair about 2 miles on a full charge. Still fighting with permobil canada and motion specialties about the replacements.
Hey Dan, I got a problem Bill F5 with the exact same charger that you’ve been showing us today. I plug mine in at possibly 12 o’clock at night till six in the morning and I don’t have problems with it with my chair during the day with Battery situation mine is running OK I have the exact same batteries that you showed us today in my chair now I haven’t had it. I haven’t had any problems with them I haven’t had. I haven’t had batteries changed I’ve only had this chair baby I would say in a year and I haven’t had any problems but and I haven’t heard of any of my friends that have perm wheelchairs have any problems, so I just wanted to leave you a comment on what you said today I hope that this gives you some information that you need. If I come, I come out with some issues down the line I will tell you. anyhow, I hope you have a wonderful day and I’ll talk to you soon and I will let you know in the future. If when these batteries do you get old enough to where the chair runs down faster and if I have any problems with the charger because I do have the exact same charger that you showed us today but I’ll run it in the normal mode that I came with in the box so but anyhow I hope you have a wonderful day and I’ll talk to you soon. Can’t wait to see your next video. See you man.
Hi Dan I have a tdxp2 ya have one just like it I don’t have that type of charger I have the one with the 3 lights on it that came with the chair I’ve used that charger on 2 other chairs and had no problem don’t know if this will help ya at all but that charger is good for just about anything I’ve used it on
My Amy turned 3 today with 4,809 miles on the clock . I have regular AGM over the summer every wheelchair charger I owned melted down and stopped working . I change my batts every year with my high mileage ,range starts falling off till the chair starts shutting down and throwing errors and leaving me stranded .i do reprogram the chairs settings I am not a marginal driver .
