rapattack

A couple of days ago I took my bike out after sitting maybe a day or so. The bike would not turn on at all. I charged it and it worked for the next cycling session but then not the day after. I only did a short ride. I charged it again went to go out the next day but then it was dead again. I had to reach for one of my spare batteries I haven't used in ages and fortunately it had some juice in it. I have a couple of spare batteries. that battery that I mainly use gets me a good 20 kms or more so I don't know why all of a sudden there is an issue. New issue I haven't experienced. is it discharging for some strange reason? is it a fuse? in saying that I have no clue what I am talking about. I have had some issues over the decade or so I have had ebikes but not this

This my main battery and my ebike is nowhere to be found on the net. its an ezi-go zoom. folding 20" mtb

Doc_Wui

I have a silverfish battery like the one in the picture on one of my bikes. Not a fuse. They either work or are blown, They won't come back to life the next day.

Mine died too. It was giving my 30-40 mile range for two years. Then one day, it dropped to 5 miles. I found a bad cell in it. Bought a replacement battery.

.

rapattack

Oh ok i havent had this issue in 12 years of ebikes. This is my 3rd one. 3rd ebike and 3rd battery. It hasnt lowered in milage capability it just didnt power on the bike the next day. I didnt use all the battery power. Not sure if i conveyed properly

Doc_Wui

I noted that the ON/OFF switch in mine actually switches the main battery lines so it is a heavy duty switch. What I had seen in other batteries are low power switches that turn the low current battery control circuits on/off.

Maybe if you take the battery out and cycle the power switch, it will wipe the contacts cleaner. There can be substantial arcing when you switch the power lines. Some of us have batteriies with connectors that attach to our bikes. I always get a loud pop when I plug them together. Same thing happens in those high power switches. Same thing happens with my chargers. if I don't plug in the charger to the AC first, I get a pop when I put the cord into the battery.

The other possibility is you set the battery down on some debris that got stuck to the electrical prongs under the battery..Or you have water corrosion on the terminal in the bike's battery cradle..

rapattack

What do you mean by it switches the main battery lines? whats a battery line?What are low power switches? sorry theres a lot going over my head. What is cycling a power switch? yep i am really not getting what a switch is. Not sure what your saying about the AC. I am in Australia and i have to plug everything first in whatever or whichever then i flick the switch at the wall. if your in the US its different.
Yes many times i have cleaned the prongs on the bottom of the battery. That can and has been an issue from time to time. Since it is a small bike(20") they tend to get rather grimey. I am onto that issue. I will try and make time to take all my batteries(3) outside with the bike and observe more on whats happening. Gotta have time to do that. Apartment living and taking a ebike in and out is hard

Doc_Wui

You have the key switch on your battery? Turn one click to lock the battery in the bike. Push in the key and turn it again to switch the battery on?

When I had my battery opened up, I found that the battery switch worked on the main power wires out of the battery. It has to handle the 20 amps or more that the battery delivers to the ebike. So dirty contacts ion the switch are possible. Just work the key switch back and forth a couple of times.

On other batteries, they use cheap button switches to switch a low voltage circuit in the battery control, that turns on the battery, As this is low current, a dirty switch has minimal effect. I would rather they did it this way, because I hate having to leave the key in the battery to run the bike.

rapattack

Oh yeah now i know what you mean sorry. Thanks for the tech info. I havent opened a ebike battery at the top yet and wouldnt know what i am doing. At bottom yes as i have bought a battery where the inputs if thats the right word were around the wrong way. Well i had help doing that from the local ebike shop. Cant use them anymore as they have really ****** customer service and they are the only shop that fixes ebikes they do not sell.
Work it back it forth? sorry i turn it on and off so much i dont know what that would do.
Oh ok i havent seen the type you describe.
Ok not sure what to do next. I am a bit lost.

speedy25

Its quite easy for any of those silverfish batteries to just quit one day. They typically arent made using quality cells. If it doesnt have voltage output with the key on, scrap it and buy a fresh one. UPP seems to be the only company with a warranty of one year.

-SP

rapattack

OK its odd as this is the first time i have had this issue. The battery had a lot of life in it and for it to suddenly be no good i thought something else must have gone wrong. I suspect i accidentally had it on all night and it drained fully. So after that even if i leave it to charge and everything looks ok it isnt. I have tried 3 times now. It takes several hours for the charger to tell me that it is charged with the change of the led charge light on the charger. It was cheap though. It was the cheapest one i have bought and i have only bought from aliexpress. All my batteries. They are just super overpriced in australia and the shops told me they bought from aliexpress anyway.
What is UPP? I suspect thats an american company? Sorry havent been online for a while as we are still in lockdown in australia so not allowed to go out unless shopping. i did though charge and use my old batteries this week. Seems they have enough to keep me going til i get a new battery. Will see if anyone in australia sells them at a decent price but u never see new ebikes with them on here anymore

speedy25

Sorry the Aussies are even crazier than the US over covid! Does the country blame the yanks or the Chinese for this problem?

Anyway, back to batteries. DONT keep charging a battery that takes longer than normal to charge. When cells are dying forcing electrons into them causes overheating and a potential for fire. If you dont have a non contact thermometer, get one!

UPP is Unit Pack Power. While they do have a US warehouse with a few things in it, they are Chinese based. Look for them among your Ali vendors.

The silverfish batteries are still being used in cheap bikes. I see them all the time in advertisements. Only the bottle battery seems to have gone out of favor.

rapattack

Lol depends on who you speak to about that.
I dont get what you mean. I dont keep charging if it takes longer than normal. there is no longer than normal.
So their name is unit pack power? the seller. Or just UPP?
Yes my bike is not expensive but after 8 years (the longest i have had a ebike and bought new) i am pretty happy. I dont know anything about bottle batteries i am afraid. Too poor to own multiple bikes. The previous ebike had a frog battery and that was awful. The way they mount on the frame is terrible. Oh i also had an SLA setup on one bike but yeah glad we left that technology behind. It was like hauling bricks everywhere.

2old

Look for UPP on Amazon or ebay (if available to you). They're not the best, but I had good luck with one of their batteries. I think by "bottle battery" he may mean the ones you can mount in place of the water bottle.

rapattack

I cant find them on either. Its very hard to find anyone on ebay stores here. Amazon i have no clue how to search for stores on their site at all. amazon is way expensive in australia and most items not available here. I had better luck when visiting the US. I did notice they have something set up here as i searched on their UPP website but only one type of ebike battery was listed which wasnt a fish battery. i am investigating some other sites but i would have to have a recommendation to buy from them as theres too many scam artist websites around

rapattack

Oh yes i am aware of those batteries. Just dont see them much in australia. seen them on a lot of websites

rapattack

I am looking around for a new silverfish battery and this place keeps popping up as someone to buy from https://www.pirez.com.au/collections...del_silverfish .they rate up there are productreview.com.au so thats ok. seems even the local bike store that are rude buy from them and they have an ebay page. What is the difference between top discharge and bottom? this is the first time i have seen that on any website. They give that one year warranty and free delivery. Its in AUD btw

josephvman

I just got on my Specialized Vado SL this morning for the first time in a few months. I charged it fully after my last ride and then took it off the charger. I was amazed to see that after a few month of not being on a charger it still had a full charge. I was not expecting that!

rapattack

Oh thats good

Doc_Wui

I've got a battery I took apart several years ago. Some of the cells are stored outside in an old firepit we never use. They still have voltage, about 80% charged..

rapattack

ok thats good

Doc_Wui

Top discharge is where the bike has a motor cable that plugs into the side of the battery at the top, Very old design, and dangerous because the plug looks like an AC power cord plug.



Bottom discharge has two or four prongs in the battery cradle that mate to slots in the bottom of the battery. Mine has two.

rapattack

Oh i c ...ok the bottom type is what i have on all 3 batteries then. I c what you mean when i look at that kettle cord thing. Thanks for that info. Wont be getting that old type

rapattack

Hi I just thought I would update you that I had the battery repaired. They said some cells had stopped working and something else but I've now forgotten. It cost me about $175 Australian to get it fixed. They said they can rebuild it but they recommended that I go down this route first since the battery was mostly ok and still had some time left in it. They said if in a year I want to get it rebuilt then I can do that. I'm thinking to get one of my other old batteries that is not got a lot of juice left in it to get that one rebuilt instead