It’s a veritable fact of life that wet weather and electric scooters simply don’t mix. If you’ve ever dealt with a rusty or corroded motor, then these statements will sound awfully familiar to you. Contact online >>
It’s a veritable fact of life that wet weather and electric scooters simply don’t mix. If you’ve ever dealt with a rusty or corroded motor, then these statements will sound awfully familiar to you.
With winter upon us, you may want to store your e-scooter. While winter riding is still possible, it’s a bad idea to ride your scooter in the cold weather, especially if you live in areas with heavy snowfall.
Electric scooters are especially sensitive to the cold, slush, and snow, which inhibits the chemical reactions in the lithium battery, leading to a decreased battery’s capacity and performance.
Riding an e-scooter on snow is also certainly not safe owing to the reduced ability to brake (increased braking distances) and steer with an increased probability of slipping. With such grave effects, you’ll undoubtedly want to store your e-scooter throughout the winter months.
After all, it’s just a few months of storage; then you’ll get back to your riding ways. Storing your e-scooter is not as simple as it sounds. It calls for systematic preparation with proper storage in the right places. How you properly preserve your e-scooter will ultimately determine its performance the following season.
Since electric scooters are pretty compact, they can be seamlessly stored indoors. Thanks to its compact folding design, some such as the Glion Dolly – it can even fit in a wardrobe. When storing your e-scooter, you’ll need to keep it in areas around 10 degrees, dry areas with no moisture whatsoever, and clean well-ventilated areas without clouds of dust and dirt. Never store your e-scooter in places such as a basement with moisture, extremely cold places, areas prone to flooding, places next to a heat source, and a room without heating.
You could also decide to hang the scooter on the wall in your room, basement, or even garage, provided it’s heated. Several electric scooter wall holders are readily available in stores or online shopping websites such as Amazon. Xiaomi scooter wall mount is often recommended thanks to its non-slip stripe design, easy installation, and compatibility with all sizes of electric scooters.
Some of the best places to store an e-scooter in the house include a warm garage or shed an attic without direct sunlight, moisture, or dust, and the heated workshop. It’s best to have a humidifier in these rooms to prevent condensation, which forms on the metal parts leading to corrosion.
You could also pack your e-scooter in a breathable storage bag after you’ve inspected and cleaned it. The storage bag will come in handy to protect it from weather elements such as extreme cold, dust, and moisture which can cause corrosion even in cold weather. However, always ensure that the storage bag is breathable. Plastic, non-breathable bags can trap moisture, causing corrosion and mould growth issues.
And if you’re hands-on with DIY builds, you can build an electric scooter storage box to protect your scooter. The storage box should preferably be enclosed to protect the scooter from weather elements and safeguard it from theft or unauthorised access.
If you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford e-scooter storage bags, you can go for dry storage kits, i.e., large plastic bags with water-absorbing packets. These bags are cheap yet very effective in keeping preserved scooters dry and dust-free. They typically wrap the scooter and enclose them in a hermetically sealed state.
The first thing you’ll want to do is to inspect the e-scooter to establish anything that may cause a problem in the future. Take a look around the scooter, looking at the issues such as scratches, dents, corrosion, and cracks. Take a look at the e-scooter keenly and search for any potential problems.
Next, clean the e-scooter to get rid of any water or dirt which may cause corrosion during storage. If water or any other corrosive agent gets inside the e-scooter, it could cause rust and, even worse, damage the electronics when the scooter is under storage.
Therefore, it’s crucial to have your e-scooter spotless before storing it. Depending on the water-resistance rating of your e-scooter, you can either clean it by hosing it down or just wipe it using a damp cloth to remove dust and dirt from the scooter.
Once your e-scooter is spotless, the next step is to dry it thoroughly. As mentioned earlier, water causes corrosion and can damage electronic components. You can use a hairdryer to dry off your electric scooter or simply leave it in the open for a day to dry off completely.
After drying, you’ll want to wax the scooter. Waxing is essentially treating the paints and finishing to safeguard them from corrosion and keep them fresh for the next season. While it’s not mandatory, waxing using anti-corrosion products such as the XCP Rust Blocker, 100 Corrosion Protectant, and ACS TC200 is highly recommended for protecting your e-scooter during winter.
Once your e-scooter is all cleaned up, dried, and waxed, the next step is to lubricate the mechanical parts. You can use a silicone bicycle spray to lubricate the movable mechanical components, including the wheel axle, brake discs, footrest mechanism, folding mechanism, and rubber connects, including plugs and seals. Lubricating these parts will prevent corrosion and prevent microcrack formation, damaging the moving parts.
When lubricating, never use grease, thick lithol, or similar lubricants. This is because these lubricants don’t get into hard-to-reach places and collect sand, dust, and dirt. The hugely popular WD-40 is also not recommended since it contains solvents that can react with the paint and accelerate the wear and tear of the scooter’s metallic parts. Always use silicone grease such as the bicycle spray lubricant to be on the safe side.
To prevent the formation of microcracks on the tyre and maintain the quality of the rubber, you need to coat the tyres with bicycle silicone grease and automobile blackener rubber. The wheels also need to be inflated or deflated based on how the electric scooter will be stored. If you’re going to hang the scooter or fold it and place it in your wardrobe, the wheels should be deflated to a pressure half the manufacturer’s recommended values.
On the other hand, if the scooter is stored standing on the floor, the wheels should be left inflated to the maximum recommended pressure. Of course, this only applies to pneumatic tyres and not solid tyres where the pressure can’t be adjusted.
Most electric scooters are fitted with Lithium rechargeable batteries which require extra care when storing in winter. It’s crucial to preserve the battery correctly during winter since improper storage could damage it leading to a reduced range the following season.
Before storage, the battery should be charged to 50-70% and recharged to that level at least once per month to prevent an irreparable depth discharge. This means that you’ll need to be monitoring the battery level when your scooter is under storage. The ideal temperature for storing the battery should be between 15 – 25 °C. If your e-scooter has a non-removable battery, it should be stored at room temperature.
Once you’ve done all the steps discussed above, it’s now time to set up your e-scooter for storage. You need to turn off the scooter, fold it and lock it with its own mechanism as well as external safety measures.
When your e-scooter is under winter storage, the Lithium-ion battery is one of the most essential components that should be keenly taken care of. Scooter batteries are designed to last for a particular number of charging cycles. For instance, if your e-scooter is rated 1000 cycles, it means that the battery performance would drop to around 80% of its original capacity after about 1000 charge/discharge cycles.
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