Replacement Battery for Freedom Folder

[NormanW]

Three years ago I purchased a folder for my wife from the Scottish E-Bike Centre (Alien Ocean) as they were my local shop. That company has now gone out of business and I need to find a replacement battery.

It's a 26V 10Ah one that fits between a retaining plate and the seat-tube. I think it's the type used by many other current models such as those sold by Kudos and Cyclamatic.

Unfortunately neither of these companies will sell me one, as they seem to want to retain their stock for specific bikes bought from them.

Can anyone help me please with a suggestion. I think there are similar items on E-bay and Amazon, but as far as I can see they have mixed reviews.

(My own bike battery was re-celled last year by the Electric Transport Shop in York, but this proved to be a failure, so not sure I want to go down that road again ! ).

Thanks for reading.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can find them on Aliexpress, but you have to make sure that they're the same size on the width and delth. The height doesn't matter so much. The aluminium extrusions are a standard size, so if the measurements in the listing are approximately right, that's probably the right one. Sometimes there are minor differences in the bottom plate, but you can easily swap the bottom piece anyway. The main thing to be careful of is that they sometimes swap the terminals + and -, so check with a meter before connecting, otherwise you'll be looking for a new controller too.

You can use any 24v battery wherever you can fit it. The plate underneath your battery is removable (2 screws), so you can remove it and run the two wires through the hole to the controller underneath.

BMSBattery have the 15ah version of your battery, which will fit, but it's taller, so you might not be able to get the seat down so far. You have to check the length to see if you have enough room for it. It'll probably be OK.

 

[NormanW]

Thanks for your reply d8veh. It looks like in both cases mentioned by you the item would be imported, and I'm a bit wary about being clobbered with additional duty and/or VAT. Also perhaps difficult to return in case of defect. I was hoping that some contributor on this site might be able to suggest a UK retailer who stocks such batteries? I must admit I'm a bit disillusioned with electric bikes generally given the earlier problems with my own one, and now with dealers who are unhelpful. I suppose it's easy for them to say that I should have purchased the bike from them, but how was I to know that my dealer would stop trading, - and indeed how confident will prospective purchasers be that their chosen dealer will still be around when they need them further down the line !!

 

[jonathan75]

Did you get a refund for your recelling?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You can get a Cyclamatic battery from Sports HQ, but it's expensive for what it is. Even with duty, Chinese batteries are still relatively cheap. I buy all my batteries from China and not had a duff one yet.

 

[NormanW]

d8veh : Thanks again for your input and advice. I appreciate your insight.
jonathan75 : It was last May I had the trouble with my other bike. Kept cutting out when I gave it throttle (It was another Alien Ocean creation/conversion). The people at York suggested that I take the bike and battery to them, which I did, so my wife and I had an overnight stay (and a couple of nice meals) whilst the young lad in the shop recelled the battery (one of the ones which was on a rack above the rear wheel). Cycling it round their yard it seemed fine but first time out back in Scotland it cut out within a few hundred yards again ! To be honest I didn't feel like doing battle with The Electric Transport Shop and soon after, I stripped all the components off the bike and reverted to pedal power. I wrote this off to experience - that little outing cost me over £500, for our hotel, meals, fuel and including a £360 bill for 36V recelling. We enjoyed our couple of days in York. For sale, all the bits and pieces, hub, controller and 36V recelled battery - only five minutes use !!
Perhaps you can see my disillusionment - I'd be cheaper using my car, although I appreciate that doesn't save the environment......

 

[jonathan75]

that little outing cost me over £500, for our hotel, meals, fuel and including a £360 bill for 36V recelling. We enjoyed our couple of days in York. For sale, all the bits and pieces, hub, controller and 36V recelled battery - only five minutes use !!.

Oh no, I'm really sorry to hear that. That must have felt incredibly disappointing. Did you pay by credit or debit card? If the former, the easiest route to a 100% refund is ring your CC provider (your card issuer, not VISA/AMEX) and explain what happened. The CC provider is jointly liable with the retailer to you under s 75(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 in conjunction with s 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and s 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

The retailer has made a binding agreement to see you right, i.e. make sure the services were provided with reasonable skill and care, and goods he provided work properly for as long as the cost suggests they ought. A good 2-3 years, not 5 minutes. Note he has a choice whether to repair, replace, or refund. The CC provider in theory has the same choice but tends to just refund. You have no obligation to pay for either of return or re-return postage, that is 100% the obligation of the retailer, as the need to post it flows from their breach of contract. If you have any questions you'd like me to answer, do reply using the 'quote' method otherwise I might miss it. Fingers crossed you can get your money back or your battery fixed and just have lost the money for the overnight stay (which if you can get a refund or working battery for free, will I hope seem more like money well spent).

I would tell them the truth, i.e. you only got 5 minutes usage and assumed that there was nothing that could be done, until someone told you just now. I'd act as if you know nothing about the law. I'm told reliably the most important thing above all is to try to sound kind, helpless-sounding, polite and sweet etc.

 

[trex]

You probably won't get much from selling the e.bits second hand.
I'd send the battery back to them and ask for a full refund on the £360 bill.

 

[jonathan75]

Don't send it back until and unless they authorise, because it's up to them what remedy they offer (repair, replacement, refund) and until they say which, they have no obligation to pay for the method you choose, at all. If they want to repair or replace, the cost of (and in fact arrangement of) return is on them, but you have to give them the choice first. However it will probably be much simpler to go through your cc provider, to engage the cc provider's liability to you (if you paid by cc) in the way I explained above.

Trex is spot on about not getting anything for selling the bits, (although partly wrong about what to do instead, as I've pointed out).

 

[trex]

I think Jonathan's tactics is too confrontational.
It could well be that your controller cuts out for other reasons than the battery is not good, for example, a blown Hall sensor, in which case, they are the innocent party although being the professionals, they should have given your bike a good check before you left.
You need the bike fixed cheaply, the people who work at the shop would probably prefer to give you a refund rather than spending their time fault finding for free. Rather than wielding the credit card company stick which will get everybody's back up, a bag of donuts would probably get your bike fixed. If they can't then it's natural to return your cash.

 

[jonathan75]

I think you make a good point about it potentially being to do with something not relating to the battery Trex. It sounds like the OP needs to get some diagnostic work done somehow. Otherwise he won't know whether it's the motor, controller or the battery as you say. Although I don't know technical stuff so nobody should listen to me on that.

But with regard to the credit card route, that isn't wielding any kind of stick at any retailer: I think you're confusing seeking quick redress from the CC company (eg RBS) and in a way which doesn't involve the retailer in any way, available for up to six years after purchase - with seeking a chargeback (which is where you go to VISA and say 'goods significantly not as described'), which is only good for a few months after purchase anyway, and subject to all manner of limitations. I wasn't advocating seeking a chargeback, which in any case always requires exhausting remedies from the retailer anyway.

And I completely agree with what you say about donuts. It is definitely too confrontational and a bad tactic indeed to try to get a retailer to pay out for a refund when you don't know if the part in question is the one with the problem. I didn't realise that it wasn't certain about the battery. And if it was about the battery for sure, I agree donuts is the way too - but know what the retailer and cc company have agreed to, otherwise you end up in the OP's situation which is thinking you have no leg to stand on at all.