BoxTurtle

My Falco 36V 11.6Ah Li-Ion bottle battery has a charge indicator consisting of one red and three green LEDs. What level of charge should I always have remaining in order to maximize the life of the battery pack? Is there a level so low that it will damage the battery pack? Thank you.

350htrr

The best way to keep any battery in top shape is to charge it after every ride where it goes below 50%, charging it at 25% used up won't hurt it either and can help. Taking it down to 80% used up can start to have a big negative effect... As I understand it.

BoxTurtle

Thank you. I'll try to keep at least one green light between charges.

powell

the habit:
"I still have charge left , don't have to recharge"
is the very bad one
in general the deeper the discharges the shorter the life of battery.
Of course BMS electronics will cut off when any cell reaches low /2.5V for LiFePo / but still deeper discharges will affect battery life.
That's why batteries should always be oversized for applications.
Example I use on my ebikes 20Ah rated, 17Ah real capacity batteries, but I rearly even use 10Ah, overkill ?
Not at all.
such battery will last and last.

BoxTurtle

Thank you Powell. Is recharging too often bad for Li-Ion cells? Sometimes I use my battery very little, but would like for it to be 100% charged on my next ride. Should I settle for 95% (or so), until it is somewhat more discharged before I recharge?

2old

BT, FYI, reportedly Tesla is able to provide an eight year warranty on their batteries ("currently" Panasonic) by limiting discharge to 80% of the total capacity and charging to 80%. I don't think that most ebike systems have "smart" chargers, but Grin (ebikesca) has a charging system that you might be able to set and accomplish this. Personally, battery technology moves rapidly and I won't mind changing in a couple of years.