Help me find a good electric scooter

April 26, 2012 8:02 PM

What kind of electric scooter should I get?

I'm looking to buy an electric scooter to use this summer and beyond. The scooter will mainly be for getting to work and maybe running some occasional errands. I weight about 150 pounds.

My workplace is about 2 miles from my house, so that makes 4 miles round trip. My budget is about $300, but I would be willing to spend $400 if it meant getting a quality scooter.

So far I've found the eZip 500, eZip 750, and the Razor E300

Any advice in what to look for in a scooter is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

posted by mtphoto to Shopping (4 answers total)

Best answer: I have an eZip 500. It simply is not powerful enough for me at 200ish pounds. It's fine on flat, but I have to plan my route to take the most gradual climb. Pretty much no good on any sort of hill. The range is about "one task" in my little town. Otherwise you're pushin' it (literally). The 750 might do the trick.

The throttle handle did fail somehow. I haven't looked into it. But otherwise the build seems good.

If I bought another scooter, for me, I'd buy something more substantial than your examples. I got this one from points on a credit card I was canceling.
posted by humboldt32 at 8:17 PM on April 26, 2012

My 9yo has an e100 and adores it (previously)

The stated weight limit on that one is 120 lbs. My son and the neighborhood kids (who all weigh about 60 lbs) fly around on it. But even a medium sized adult can get on it and it will move. Not super fast, but it will move. So I suspect that at 150 lbs the scooters you are looking at will be ok, since their weight limits are more like 220 lbs.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the battery runs for 45 minutes or so continuously, but you don't use it 100% of the time you're on the scooter. When you're coasting down hill, it's off. So you get more than 45 minutes of use out of one charge. If you have an extra charging cable at work and one at home, you can charge it when you reach your destination.

Let us know how it works out, because I'm thinking of getting one for myself too!
posted by selfmedicating at 9:32 PM on April 26, 2012

Best answer: My recommendation would be to get the most powerful one you can afford. The eZip ones are numbered by how many watts their motors put out (not sure with the Razor, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were true for it too). 500 watts is pretty weedy. 750 watts is basically one horsepower. I would expect you would notice and be able to use the extra 50% power boost, and it's not like any of the scooters are going to be too powerful for your needs.

Just get the beefiest one you can afford. I doubt you'll find yourself wishing that you'd gotten a less powerful one.
posted by Scientist at 11:32 PM on April 26, 2012

ZBoard looks pretty awesome.
posted by thatone at 5:02 PM on April 30, 2012