How to extend the life of electric bicycle batteries?
 

For longer battery life, you need to have the following notes:

- When you first buy it, you should charge it immediately and then use it all and then charge it again. If you buy it in a hurry, immediately use it, charging it for a few hours 1 time, the battery will be immature, less traveled and not durable.

- When charging, attention should be paid: charging immediately when the vehicle is running out of electricity is also the key to the battery being more durable. source for some devices running maintenance (even if the ignition key is turned off) for example: the alarm is too easy to be over the threshold and broken (voltage threshold below 10.6 Volt). We always recommend that you charge immediately after using a battery that is close to the battery, which can be plugged in overnight, when the charger is full of power.

- According to the manufacturer's recommendations, about 3-4 months must be turned on the idling station for batteries to run out of electricity and recharge. Repeated cycle of 2-3 times will make electric bike battery life more durable.

- It is recommended to avoid charging too many times a day, and the car still has a lot of electricity still plugged in. Easily lead to battery damage.


Electric Bicycle Repair Center in Hanoi - Trinh Tuyen
Address of Office: 64 Trung Van - Nam Tu Liem - Hanoi
Hotline: 0915257363 - 0904676145

In my case, I use a charger that is capable of detecting when the battery has an 80% charge. The other thing I do is to keep my bike indoors so that the battery doesn't get too cold.

That being said, the battery was stolen at one point and was discovered about two years later. During that time it received essentially no maintenance. It still works fine. I use it for daily commuting and charge every couple of days.

You know, this seems to be written more for lead acid batteries used in cars and a few ebikes, but people who use lithium batteries should follow other instructions.

The "experts" say for all Lithium chemistry systems (except LiFePO4 which doesn't follow this "rule"), charge to 80% and don't allow to go below 20%. Accordingly, my batteries are maintained at 20% - 50% and charged to 100% just before use. A 52V, 10 ah Luna battery, used at least twice a week for four years, still provides enough power for 15 - 20 miles on a BBS02-equipped off road hardtail and registers 40% - 50% charge remaining.

I knew the article was from Viet Nam, but In the USA/Europe, it's mainly scooters that run SLA batteries, and some folks on trikes, They are too heavy for bikes if you want decent range, and do't last very long.

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Was that passage written by someone whose first language is not English? Second, nobody does all that. Just use a microprocessor. That's the main reason we switched from "memory" dependent batteries in the first place.

It's good advice for lead/acid, gel, ni-cad.

It's horrifying advice for li-ion or li-po.

Your computer should ideally cut out at a voltage higher than your battery's own built-in management, for the latter is a last action.
A 48v battery typically charges to 54v and is cut out at 40v to prevent damage. But your computer should be set to 42v or even higher, as bringing it to 40v regularly will shorten it's life cycle.

Lithium doesn't memory, so there's no need to do full/empty charge cycles.

This is the same for mobile phones and other modern equipment - an old Nokia 3210 needs full/empty charging but a modern android/iPhone is better with regular top ups.

Batteries don't like being cold.. it lowers their performance, I'm told..

Good point; I've heard it's considerable, and don't charge below 50F. Have difficulty relating since I reside in CA, although I've been in the snow at 4,000' - 5,000' a couple of times on my e-MTB.

lithium batteries last longer if they are charged more often, long before full discharge. It can be easily a factor of 10 in lifetime.

That should be more of a list NOT to do with Li-Ion

Exactly, the post should be removed. First timers reading that and not reading further will start of with some real bad advice!

They don't like being hot 10x more!

If you want some REAL advice, go to a trusted source, the bible on all types of dry cells & battery types; BatteryUniversity operated by Cadex Electronics;

And no, I'm not connected to them in any way. There is a world of information at your finger tips.

batteries in general ..
 

A battery under your parka, to have light, for a pre dawn mountaineering summit attempt start,,

is probably not going to be too hot.








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When I read the opening post I was like, "What the hell"!?

When I read that I was thinking this person didn't know squat about ebike batteries. I had no idea the guy was talking about Lead acid batteries. That was kind of like if you were to start a conversation about "Home Lighting" and then start telling people how to make your wicks last longer for your oil lamps or make better wax for your candles...:rolleyes:

While I haven't owned an e-bike for very long I know a lot about batteries because of my love of night riding. I've been using Li-ion batteries for more than a decade to power my bike lights. I have a feeling that most modern e-bikes are using Li-ion or Li-po because that would make the most sense. That said the best way to prolong the over-all life span of a Li-ion battery pack is to just follow some simple rules. First, try not to recharge the battery until you know for sure that you will be using it either that day or the next day. That's because storing the battery with a full charge for a prolonged period is not good for the battery. Secondly try not to deep discharge the battery as much as possible. Okay to run it down real low on occasion but if you're doing that on a regular or daily basis more than likely the battery pack will start to lose capacity much faster than if you don't. Don't store the battery in place that is really hot. Don't store in a place that is really cold unless for prolong storage purposes. Never try to immediately recharge a battery pack after a ride in freezing cold temperatures. Wait till the battery pack has reached room temperature ( with e-bike batteries that might take hours ) and then recharge ( or wait like I said before and charge just before riding ) Charging a really cold battery pack can damage the battery.

All Li-ion type batteries will lose capacity over time even if you baby them. I used to joke to my friends that I treat my Li-ion cells like they are my red-headed step children. I no longer do that. Just the other day I found one of my older 18650 type torches and I was using it late at night as a night light while listening to music. The torch was set on low and I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up about 6 hours later I realized I had left the torch on but the damn thing was still working! Amazed at this I opened up the back to see what was in it that I was using as a battery. Turned out it was one of my old original Ultrafire cells ( silver ). That just blew me away. That battery had to be over ten years old and it was still kicking. After it fully discharged I charged it and it took a 1200mAh charge. Not bad for a ten + year old cheap @ss Chinese POS battery. Probably lost half the original capacity. Original capacity was supposedly 2400mAh although in all likely hood it was only an actual ~ 2200mAh.

I bring my battery inside and charge it.

Well, now we all know that Trinh meant lead acid and I give him credit for posting in a an English forum. If I tried to write something in his country, I'd do far worse.

Enjoy your scooters, Trinh, and maybe some of us will get to visit your country sometime.

Well , Make sure it has a good charger, one that will balance the cells while charging, and preferably tracks temperatures.
and follow these steps.

Don't charge to 100%, leave the last 5%.
Never let the battery run completely flat, if your bike doesn't have something that tracks the level of every cell, and stops things before any one of the cells hits bottom, you can get a device from the model airplane hobby that will do this.
Don’t charge the battery when it is hot, either from use, or from the sun beating down on it, or below freezing. If it's easy to remove, bring it indoors when you charge it.
If you are someplace where it gets down to -15F or -25C, you have another case where you bring things indoors, depending on what exact chemistry the battery uses, it will freeze around then. It will survive, if you let it thaw at human compatible temperatures, without trying to charge or discharge it until it thaws.

Charging a battery immensely after riding in the cold shouldn’t normally be a problem as the battery will be warm from riding. They heat up the most (internal resistance is highest) when the state of charge is low. A good battery should prevent charging when the temperature is low enough to cause damage.

This is good information thanks!

So what's the best way to maintain a lithium battery when you only use it maybe once a week? Just leave it at half charge?

AFAIK, anything from 20% - 80% is fine although 50% may be optimum. I've had good success for four years with a 52V, 10 ah battery by charging to 100% just before riding then leaving it wherever its level is at the end of the ride as long as it's 20 % - 80%; otherwise charge lightly.

Huh? My 14s battery is charged with 2 wires and a 3rd for temp sensing. The Battery Management System (BMS) in the pack handles balancing. RC Li-Pos have balance connections tapping between the series connections, but I've never seen that for a (Li-Ion pack for a) bike.

Better chargers might accommodate the BMS doing it's job like Grin Tech's Cycle Satiator "With lithium packs, it can happen that the battery stops charging abruptly because the BMS circuitry has tripped from a cell overvoltage fault. If the battery's management circuit does cell balancing, then this high voltage cell will be bled down to a release voltage and then the charging will resume again. This process can sometimes repeat many times, especially if the pack was largely unbalanced. Even though the charger says "Charge Complete", it will still resume the top up charges as the BMS circuitry allows so that the pack can fully balance out." (from the manual )

Extreme temps are an important factor in the life of a battery. Maybe look up the manufacturer specs

Here are some simple rules to extend your battery life:

• Do not leave the batteries discharged for a long period of time. A group of lithium-ion batteries doesn’t require a full charge/discharge cycle to avoid loss of capacity. But none of them will survive a long-term idle time in the discharged state.
• Observe the temperature regime for each battery type.
• Spend some money on a good specialized charging device for the type of battery you need. It will cost you less than having to completely replace the battery every year or so

If it is a lead-acid (SLA) battery, it must be charged after driving.

If you have a nickel-cadmium (NiCd) battery, then it is advisable to charge it before driving.

If this is a lithium battery (Li-ion), then the longest battery life is observed at a charge of about 60% and temperature no higher than 20 - 25 degrees Celsius. The lower the temperature, the more slowly it degrades over time.

Therefore, the main rule here is not to keep your bike fully charged or completely discharged.

Ideally, it needs to be charged at 80%, and if you're going on a trip, you can charge up to 100%.