Installed throttle, battery life murdered?

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
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Is this to be expected? The bike seems to run a little faster on throttle as opposed to pas on high setting. But when riding to work I would often "ghost pedal" as it's only a short way and let the motor do all the work. Now since installing a throttle I maybe go a couple mph faster this way but my battery life has literally halved using it this way. Is this to be expected or is it running inefficiently somehow?

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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
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Sounds about right.
PAS and peddling draws fewer amps unless of course you are in turbo or top assist level, whereas generally a fully open throttle will draw high amps consistently as it only has one level.
 
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Deleted member 4366

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Is this to be expected? The bike seems to run a little faster on throttle as opposed to pas on high setting. But when riding to work I would often "ghost pedal" as it's only a short way and let the motor do all the work. Now since installing a throttle I maybe go a couple mph faster this way but my battery life has literally halved using it this way. Is this to be expected or is it running inefficiently somehow?

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It might help if you tell us what you have!
 

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,196
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Controller rating 7a nominal ?
Cell inside, make & capacity. Probably 2500mah 4 in P or 2000mah 5 in P.
Pegging open the throttle giving max amps and a faster overall speed will be too much for your 10ah battery, the cells will drain quite quickly.
 

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
Controller rating 7a nominal ?
Cell inside, make & capacity. Probably 2500mah 4 in P or 2000mah 5 in P.
Pegging open the throttle giving max amps and a faster overall speed will be too much for your 10ah battery, the cells will drain quite quickly.
10ah pack, couldn't tell you whats inside without gutting the pack


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awol

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 4, 2013
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When I fitted a throttle I also found more battery was used. I think it's because the highest PAS level doesn't go to the actual max amps whereas the throttle on max does, also using the PAS encourages you to put in more pedal power along with the battery power too.
 

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
When I fitted a throttle I also found more battery was used. I think it's because the highest PAS level doesn't go to the actual max amps whereas the throttle on max does, also using the PAS encourages you to put in more pedal power along with the battery power too.
Yeah that makes sense. It doesn't feel any faster than pas on high going uphill, but downhill, now that's a blast! Obviously useless for bigger commutes but I think deep down I knew that. I wish you could set the throttle up in a similar way, I know you could just not pull it all the way and save some battery but that's fiddly. The main reason I got it was cos my pas kicks in too slow so being able to blip it to get over a roundabout is definitely handy, and so is the white knuckle work commute lol

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JimRides

Pedelecer
Sep 9, 2016
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Liverpool
I'd noticed using throttle alone was using far more battery than just ghosting along - seems I now have an explanation why! I had assumed that I was actually putting in more effort than I realised with the pedals, looks like that isn't the case.
 

anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
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When I fitted a throttle I also found more battery was used. I think it's because the highest PAS level doesn't go to the actual max amps whereas the throttle on max does, also using the PAS encourages you to put in more pedal power along with the battery power too.
PAS does go to max Amps if your hills are steep enough, trust me. A throttle uses more Amps more often, even when you don't need assistance, and you are providing about 70-100 W yourself with PAS even if you are a lousy peddler.
 

shemozzle999

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 28, 2009
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There is no difference between the operation of using a throttle and the PAS.

The power to the motor is continuous in both cases.

Power consumption will depend on the speed you are traveling at and the amount of input you can provide from the pedals.

It appears your throttle allows for higher speed and unless your bicycle is correctly geared to allow you to provide an input through the pedals at this increased speed battery consumption will be higher.
 

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
There is no difference between the operation of using a throttle and the PAS.

The power to the motor is continuous in both cases.

Power consumption will depend on the speed you are traveling at and the amount of input you can provide from the pedals.

It appears your throttle allows for higher speed and unless your bicycle is correctly geared to allow you to provide an input through the pedals at this increased speed battery consumption will be higher.
Well the thing is i would pedal without ever engaging the gears. Just spinning very slowly so the sensor detects movement and kicks in. Yep I'm lazy on the work run. I've had a go pedalling hard today with it and the result was the same great speeds but the battery did do better even though there were some very strong winds today. So the solution to the higher speeds of the throttle without using more battery is to work harder myself too it seems. Since I don't need the range when I'm just rolling into work I'll probs just keep being lazy tbh [emoji13]

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