How to charge the electric scooter without a charger? The electric scooter is an efficient way to reach nearby places where it’s unnecessary to take your car. While they are smaller vehicles to ride on, they work on battery power to juice up the wheels.
Charging the scooter is not difficult as it comes with its charger. But what if it’s broken or lost somewhere? Then you have to look for effective alternatives that can compensate for the absence of its original charger.
This blog will talk about the exact methods you need for charging an electric scooter in the absence of a charger and some guidelines to follow.
Can You Charge An Electric Scooter Without A Charger?
The answer is simply yes. Charging an electric scooter when you don’t have a charger is possible, but with a few precautions, you should take. Lithium Batteries used may be charged with any power source in hand. However, they should have a constant current or voltage system (stabilizers).
It means plugging the scooter into any power outlet is not possible as they might not have stabilized voltage coming from it. This might damage your scooter battery, leaving you with a damaged system.
Thus, it is important to find a good power source that can give you the correct current and voltage levels for the battery. You can get such charging items in your home as a car jumper, solar panel, power adapter, etc.
Understand The Charging In Electric Scooters
Before getting into different ways to charge the scooter battery without a charger, you should understand how the electric scooter battery works.
The battery in the electric scooter is responsible for powering the motors and turning the wheels. As it does not have enough juice to power the system, you will not be able to run the scooter anywhere.
Hence, it is necessary to charge the scooter battery completely so that you can take it for a 20 to 25 Km run. It might take 8 to 12 hours, depending on the charger you are using.
Additionally, if the battery is not charged properly, it might get damaged. So, it is important that you read the instruction manual first and then choose the alternative method of charging.
6 Ways To Charge The Electric Scooter Battery Without A Charger
Caption: Charging an electric scooter
Charging a scooter battery without a charger is possible in several ways. Below are some of the effective methods you can opt for.
Use A Portable Car Jumper
A car jumper can be an excellent source of recharging the electric scooter as its voltage level is the same. You only need to follow the precautions to make this solution safer to apply.
Here are the few steps through which you can connect the car jumper to the electric scooter and charge it.
- First, take the battery out of the scooter’s body. You can do it by unscrewing a few bolts and holding the battery with the scooter.
- Now, use the jumper cable to connect the jumper to the battery. Make sure that you have connected the terminals of the same polarity.
- As you have connected the jumper to the battery, turn it on. The charging of the battery has begun.
- Disconnect the battery and the jumper after a few hours or until fully charged. Then reset the battery into the electric scooter by making the right connections.
Charge Using Solar Panels
The solar panel is an undisrupted power-supplying system that you can get to charge your scooter’s battery. It is an eco-friendly method that helps you charge the battery anywhere in sunlight.
Moreover, it can provide up to 20V of power, sufficient for charging most electric scooter batteries. Using the Solar panel is also very simple.
- Take the battery out of the electric scooter and attach it to the solar charge controller. A solar charge controller is a device that takes energy from the solar panel and converts it into power to charge the battery. However, you should place the controller in direct sunlight.
- Next, connect the solar panel to the controller using a connecting cable. You should hear the sound of clicking when you insert the cable into the socket on the solar panel.
- As you have put everything in place, leave it so that battery can charge. It may take a few minutes to several hours, depending on the power level of your solar panel supplies.
- After you have charged the battery, disconnect the solar panel from it and refix it into the scooter.
Use A Universal Power Adapter
A universal adapter has different levels of voltage at which it can operate. Thus, it is a good alternative when you have lost your charger and are looking for ways to charge the scooter battery.
Using a power adapter means that you can control the power to safe levels so that there is no power surge. Following are the steps to charge a battery with an adapter.
- Get an appropriate power cable and attach it to the adapter. Then plug the other side into the nearby power supply or an electric outlet. Afterward, plug the adapter cable into the charging socket of the scooter.
- See the user manual for the required levels on which the electric scooter will work. The voltage is usually 4V for each cell, and the current is 20% of the real current capacity of the battery.
- Set the adapter to the required value so the battery doesn’t overcharge and damage.
- After that, leave the battery for the required time until it is 100% charged. The LED indicator might be present that turns green after full charging.
- As the battery is fully charged, disconnect the charging cable from the scooter and the electric source through which you are charging. Check the battery voltage as well for safety.
Charge With A Variable Power Supply
Charging the battery with a variable power supply is the same as charging it with a power adapter.
- To initiate the process, you must remove the battery from the scooter’s body. Place it in a safe workspace to avoid any mishap.
- Then connect the battery to the power adapter using two prongs present on the adapter.
- Set the voltage between 4 to 4.5 volts using the dial on the adapter. Next, set the current to 20% of the battery’s capacity.
- Leave the battery for 4-6 hours or until fully charged. After that, refix the battery into the scooter and fix the bolts to ensure it holds the batteries correctly.
Charge With A Car Battery
If the lead battery of your car can supply higher current levels than the li-ion battery of your scooter, then you can opt for it for charging the electric scooter.
However, you cannot connect both directly using the cables. Rather, you will need an extra device to convert the car battery output to the compatible input for the lithium battery.
For that, your best bet is to buy a car cigarette charger that you can connect while traveling as well. These chargers have XLR Battery Connectors, which your electric scooter may use.
Moreover, you can buy a red cable for the positive terminal and a black cable for the negative terminals, but you have to be vigilant for any leaks or breaks.
Any lithium-ion battery will need 4.2V for charging at max. Thus, the voltage must not exceed this level, or the battery will damage.
Charge With Standard AA Batteries
Using AA cells might seem to work in theory. But in reality, it may be a difficult task.
For instance, if your scooter needs 36V for charging, it may take up to 24 AA batteries to provide the required voltage. Moreover, you have to connect these batteries in series, making a long chain that is difficult to handle.
Even if you have got the 24 batteries and made a long chain out of it, still connecting it with the scooter battery is another difficult task to achieve.
It is because you have to link the positive terminal to the positive of this long chain and the negative terminal to the negative using a large cable.
Thus it is a very complicated process and so the experts do not recommend going for it as it is not a practical way.
Guidelines To Charge Electric Scooters Without A Charger
Caption: Electric scooter parked on a side road
Maintaining the battery’s health is important whilst charging it. Hence, you should keep in mind the following precautions to prevent any mishappening from occurring.
- Always use the original charger of the battery, as it will help you maintain the battery’s health in the longer run. But if you lose one, always consult the manufacturer’s manual first to choose the proper alternative.
- Before storing the battery for a long time, make sure that it has 30 to 40% charging left in it. This will help in increasing the life span of the battery.
- As you are charging the battery, it may heat up and the temperature rises. Hence, first, leave it for some time to cool down then reinstall it into the scooter.
- Do not charge the battery just after coming back from a ride. It is because the system might be heated and the battery gets damaged if you plug it in right now.
- Different batteries have different charge times. So, know your battery charging time first from the manual and then plug it in for the specified time to avoid overcharging.
- While some batteries have an LED light to indicate the battery status, still you can take a voltmeter to check the level of voltage. If the charging reads 12-13V, it indicates that the battery is full. Otherwise, charge it for a few more hours.
Conclusion
You can charge the scooter without its original charger using the methods we told you above. They are easy to adapt since most of their elements may already be in your home.
However, it may affect its lifetime in the longer run, so keep the precautions in your mind as well.
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