Measuring the range of powerchairs and scooters…

If you have a powerchair, or scooter, and wonder why the claimed range is apparently a work of fiction (see I’ve bought a lemon and I want my money back… for the full story of my current problem), or are thinking of buying such a machine, this will be of interest to you. The following, abstracted from an Advertising Standards Authority judgement of Pride Mobility, in a complaint about the pitiful range of their Quantum 6000 powerchair, the one I have and wish I didn’t (they walked, natch), this is how Pride measure the range of their mobility products, specifically, the Quantum 6000. Any relationship to the real world is purely imaginary:-

The test showed the simulated driving range of the scooter being operated by a person who weighed between 125 and 150 pounds (57 – 68 kg) while driving in a fixed forward direction, at full speed, until the fully charged batteries were depleted.

The report said the Quantum 6000 chair was set up on rollers for the testing and was powered by two MK 70 amp/hour batteries. It said a counter was set up to count the drive wheel revolutions and an amperage reading was taken, with the test sample being operated on a flat surface before being set up on the rollers, to ensure equivalent energy consumption was obtained during the test.

The report stated that the test sample was allowed to run continuously until the batteries reached a low operating threshold voltage and turned off the controller. The report concluded that during the test, the sample unit travelled 47,780 revolutions, which equated to 54.33 km or 33.76 miles. It stated that taking into account the influence from turning, stopping and starting, or hill climbing a realistic distance would be 25% less than the figure obtained which was approximately 40 km or 25 miles.

WTF? That this test is actually perfectly legal beggars belief – it bears no relationship whatsoever to normal usage. Even so, according to Pride, with due allowance for my weight – a lot more than their small test person – I should be getting maybe 15-18 miles**. That’s a crock. I’ll go further – it’s a flat-out lie. The ASA, toothless gits that they are, where happy with this garbage, and found against the complainant who, like me, could only squeeze 8 miles from his Q6000

**I have had many powerchairs and scooters since my first in 1992 – most promptly returned as they were defective, some quite seriously; quality control seems to be virtually non-existent – and I’ve always worked on the premise that whatever the claimed mileage, I would get no more than 50 to 75% of it in normal use. My last powerchair, which got very hard use, often towing a trailer, was a Pride Jazzy 1120 XL. It had the same size batteries as my current Quantum 6000, and the same claimed 25-mile range. It’s worth mentioning, too, that I was much heavier then, than now, yet, towing a trailer containing all my archery gear (not as light as you might think, as I shot a heavy, unlimited compound bow, and also carried a small tent, plus clothing, waterproofs and food and drink for the day), it would take a 14-mile round trip it its stride. So why is my sack-of-shit Q6000 only giving me 8 miles range?

As I said in my original post, linked to above, its design prevents my using it for anything other than popping to the shops as, if I run out of power its design means I can’t load it into a taxi as it won’t climb the ramp (the front wheels, once on the ramp, lift the drive wheels off the ground – how goddamn stupid is that?).

Among much else, I wanted to use it for birdwatching. This meant a 9-miles trip to a suitable venue, putting it in a taxi on the way back when it ran out of go – can’t do that, of course. So all I can do is go to the shops – £140 a month is a hell of a price to pay just for that.

By the way, I posted a review of my Q6000 on the Wheelchair Review website, complying with their conditions totally. It was polite, well-written, contained no expletives and no libels. I did, though, review the chair extremely unfavourably, explaining what was wrong with it. It was, by any standards – and particularly my own – well presented, well argued, detailed, and presenting facts, not opinion. It wasn’t published.

They claim that they publish “Unbiased wheelchair reviews from the user for the user” – shame it doesn’t extend to profoundly negative reviews. So, what’s the problem, guys? Yes, I know that, like me with this blog, you’re the sole arbiters of what gets published, but given that I didn’t break any of your rules, I’d love to know why you spiked my review. Perhaps you’d care to post a comment and tell me, and my readers?

I’m getting precisely nowhere, with Route2Mobility and my attempts to get out of my contract – I sent them a long letter of complaint but, instead of considering it and talking to me about it, they simply fired it off to the dealer.

The dealer can’t fix this*** – the design of the chair is crap, about which they can do nothing, likewise the poxy range. What I want is the termination of my contract and, by god, I’ll have it. I’ll see them in hell before I hand over £140 a month for another 2.5 years for a machine which is no earthly use to me.

***Though they do have a case to answer on why the refused to sell me the powerchair I actually wanted, the Handicare Puma 6, with a claimed 30-mile range, which is how I came to be saddled with the Q6000. They said Handicare were crap if anything went wrong, which rather poses the question of why they sell their products at all.

If you want an indoor chair, it’s great, it really is. If, however, you’re anything approaching a power user, like me, and the chair will be your primary means of transport, forget it – your disappointment will be profound. It is NOT the go-anywhere machine it’s sold as.