Electric Scooter Maintenance Guide

Those of you who are driving or cycling must know that regular maintenance is required for cars and motorcycles to extend their service life and ensure the safety of users. For electric scooters, daily maintenance is necessary!

This article will discuss it on 4 factors, namely battery, cleaning, storage environment, and the accessories maintenance.

Whether you are a beginner of electric scooters, an experienced rider, or an enthusiast of scooters, you should read this article carefully!

Battery Maintenance

Actually, the most important thing in maintenance is the battery!

Generally speaking, the repair cost for the battery is very expensive. For Varla Eagle One, the cost of battery replacement is about $600-650. But in fact, as long as it is well maintained, the battery is not easily damaged by external damage. Under normal use, the life of a battery can reach 3 years.

• Ideal charging method

As for the daily use, how should the charging be better?

When the electric scooter has about 25% power left, you can charge it to about 80%-90% full, which is the most ideal charging method for lithium-ion batteries. But, the user's own life rhythm, usage habits, frequency of use, etc. must also be considered. To avoid too long charging time and affect battery life, it is best to buy a charging socket that can set the time. Remember, try not to charge until the battery is completely drained or recharge it when it has not been charged for a long time. These will cause damage to the battery.

Even if the electric scooter is not ridden at all, the lithium-ion battery power will gradually be released and lost after a period of time. The lithium-ion battery has a very special feature, that is, when the power is slowly drained, the lithium battery will enter a state of deep discharge. When the voltage in the battery is too low, the lithium battery will enter the stage of self-protection. If the scooter is not used for a long time, the power will be excessively exhausted. In the most serious case, the battery will not be able to charge.

In short, if you have not used the electric scooter for 2 to 3 months and have not been charged, it may cause the battery to no longer to be charged! So please note, even if you don’t use it, please charge the electric scooter for about 1~2 weeks!

• Do not overcharge

In addition to being left uncharged for a long time, overcharging is also a very harmful behavior to the battery! Overcharging the battery will cause the battery to heat up and expand due to overcharging, which will reduce the battery life and is relatively dangerous for the user.

In fact, electric scooters are like general electrical products. They have a protection mechanism. After reaching 95% of the charge, the charging speed will gradually slow down. However, as the electricity environment and battery aging, etc., it is impossible to guarantee such protection mechanisms will always be useful. Therefore, the best charging method is to stop charging after charging to about 80%-90% of the power each time, so as to avoid the situation that the charging is continued when the battery is fully charged.

Generally, the charge and discharge cycle of a lithium-ion battery will officially end when it can reach 500 times. In terms of the most common use of electric scooters, we may charge once every 3 days on average, about 120 to 125 times a year, based on this frequency, if the user has good maintenance, the battery of the electric scooter The life span is really long! (Know more ways to extend your battery life here)

Cleaning

As long as you ride an electric scooter, it will be dirty, the deck and tires will have mud and sand. If you want to clean it, you will inevitably be afraid of the danger of water in some parts. It is really worrying to make the whole scooter malfunction in order to clean the scooter! If you have not cleaned it, please learn how to clean your scooter first.

Here, please pay special attention to a few parts that may stop working due to flushing.

1. Driving wheels: wheels that rotate when accelerating, which may be the front wheels or the rear wheels.
2. Display screen: whether it is built-in or external, you need to pay attention to waterproofing.
3. Waterproof pad: If you use a high-pressure water gun and cause water to enter, the battery will definitely fail.

(Let me explain a prerequisite first. The so-called "water ingress" refers to the degree of complete soaking in the water. Basically, it is almost no problem if it is exposed to rain or splashed.)

In the case of Varla Eagle One, it is a dual-motor design, and the motor part will add a film of metal waterproof protection, the deck is equipped with a waterproof pad, and the battery itself has an additional protective film. The display screen is an external type, because the external type is exposed, it must not be washed directly.

Of course, we suggest that if possible, do not wash with water as much as possible. You can use a cloth or a damp sponge to wipe and clean.

We have also met users who cherish electric scooters very much, especially buying tire oil and car cleaning fiber cloth to make the electric scooters look like brand new every day, but when we clean ourselves, we use damp sponges to make the whole scooter wipe, so it looks very clean.

In order to prevent slippage, Varla deck is additionally made of frosted stickers. Deck like this can also be scrubbed with a brush and damp cloth, so they can become very new! (Know more about how to clean you electric scooter here)

Storage Environment

The storage environment is a very important part of maintenance. Even if it is used correctly, it may cause permanent damage to the scooter due to the poor storage environment.

The most damage to the car body is to expose it to the sun for a long time or stay in a high-temperature environment. Especially for battery packs, high temperature is likely to cause chemical changes in lithium-ion batteries, which will reduce battery life, or even cause a fire hazard. That's why it is not recommended for users of electric scooters on the market to leave their electric scooters in the car trunk for a long day. If a scooter exposed to hot weather in summer, the interior can easily reach above 60 degrees. Even if they pass more tests, we still recommend users not to leave the scooters in a high-temperature environment.

At the same time, it should be noted that never store it in an excessively humid place. Electrical products placed in a humid place can cause many problems.

In addition, a major advantage of electric scooters is that they are foldable. The space occupied by the entire vehicle is relatively small compared to ordinary bicycles, so the storage problem is easier to solve.

OTHER PARTS OF ELECTRIC SCOOTER

The appearance of the electric scooter looks quite simple, but some accessories are easy to be damaged due to some bad habits of users. Varla directly lists which small accessories are easy to damage below, and how to avoid it.

1.Lock clamp

When unfolding, you need to pay attention to whether the lock ring is dropped to the bottom and the lock clamp is buckled to a proper position. If you unfold or ride without the full operation, it may damage the lock clip and cause danger. When you purchase an electric scooter, please practice the folding operation yourself.

2.Kickstand

For the convenience of parking, electric scooters are almost always equipped with a kickstand, but unlike bicycles, the length is much shorter. If the scooter is supported by a kickstand, the rider is still standing on the electric scooter and exerting force, it will easily cause the kickstand to deform, and even the joints are broken. In fact, this kind of damage can be avoided as long as it is not artificially applied downward while the kickstand is supported.

3.Brakes

Brakes is a part that requires more attention. Occasionally, obstacles such as tree branches or small gravel may be found between the brakes and the wheels. Don't underestimate these debris. They will damage the wheels and reduce the effect of the brake pads, making it difficult for the scooter to stop. Before setting off or at the end of the ride, check whether there are any gravel or stone between the wheels and the brakes. This will reduce a lot of trouble for you in the future.

4.Tires

The most common consumable for electric scooters is of course the tires. No matter whether the tire is a pneumatic tire or a solid tire, there will be wear. As long as the wear reaches a certain level, the grip of the electric scooter will be greatly reduced, which will affect the safety of riding. In addition to checking whether the tire is broken, the user should also observe the tread pattern before riding to avoid excessive tire wear.

The actual tire life will have different effects depending on the user's weight, braking frequency, riding road conditions, etc. But according to the tire size commonly used in electric scooters, we can have several recommended evaluation kilometers. If the number of kilometers exceeds this number, users will be advised to replace the corresponding tires in time to avoid danger during riding!

Check out our previous post to learn more about some signals to replace scooter accessories.

Final words

Based on the above, the maintenance of electric scooters is actually quite simple, almost only need to pay attention to in our lives, and there is no need to purchase additional accessories or spend additional money for regular maintenance.

If your scooter encounters a malfunction, please repair it in time, but don’t try by yourself. There are 3 points you need to note.

1. If a malfunction occurs, for safety reasons, please do not disassemble the scooter privately, and contact the brand's after-sales department for a solution. They know more about scooters.
2. If you need to replace parts, please use suitable accessories or parts to avoid mixed use from multiple brands.
3. If you are not good at repairing, please find a local electric scooter repair store, and ask a professional for help!

The purpose of owning an electric scooter is nothing more than convenience and ease of transportation. For simple principles like this, please take good care of it, so that the electric scooter will accompany you longer and longer!  

Check out more helpful tips from Varla Scooter:

• Electric scooter night riding guides
• Varla Eagle One unboxing and assembly introduction