Battery care advice please

[LesleyA]

Both hubby and I have electric bikes - Mine is a Synergie and his a Thompson. We are hobby cyclists, so don't use them often, and we are therefore not sure how best to care for the batteries. After a ride yesterday, my bike is still showing 3 lights out of 5 on the power gauge, and I am uncertain whether it is best of the battery to charge it again to full before our next trip out, or use it as is (risking losing power whilst we are riding), then charge again from scratch.

Also, over the winter when we will probably use them even less frequently, is is best to let the battery run flat, or should we keep a regular charging cycle going, every 2-3 weeks or so?

Any advice gratefully received, thanks!

 

[flecc]

Yes, recharge if it's two or three lights off, since both lithium and SLA batteries are best charged often for longest life. Regularly running lithium types like that on the Synergie to empty shortens their life.

With one light off it's debatable, but if you know you've done a quarter or less of the full range, then it's not worth recharging.

 

[Scimitar]

With lithium based batteries - always top them up, they last longer, much longer on short charge cycles.

 

[cwah]

I'd say the general rules for lithium batteries:
- Do not charge under 10 Celcius. It will reduce its capacity permanently
- Keep them in dry and cool environment, between 10C and 25C
- Keep them around 40% of charge for long term storage.
- Remove the BMS from the pack if you keep it un-used for more than few weeks.

If you're not sure about all of that, or if you don't want all that hassle, just keep them charged at 75% and come back every few months to check the level of charge and charge them again if necessary.

 

[JimA]

Hi - my wife has just bought a new Kalkhoff this weekend and the user manual advises that you should run the battery all the way down for the first 3 charges to allow the battery to reach its maximum capacity. I have a Storck and wasn't given this advice. Most people will want to follow retailers' advice so can anyone provide definitive guidance on new batteries?

 

[flecc]

Many don't believe that this is necessary, and certainly three times is a bit excessive. It is necessary on your particular model to first fully charge and then use the bike until the battery is virtually empty to set the zero point for it's sophisticated LED meter to measure from. Once will do this.

The emptying process doesn't need to be all in one ride, you can do it on more than one journey if more convenient.

From time to time during the bikes life the meter zero can drift out again, so when you start to notice seeming errors, you can repeat this conditioning cycle to reset the meter. However, during cold winter weather, battery performance drops off and readings can be low, so it's best to avoid the conditioning process then, waiting until the warmer weather returns.

 

[JimA]

Thanks Tony - sounded a bit excessive, good advice as always.

Jim

 

[NRG]

Yes once is enough, the capacity will increase slighty even without full discharge/recharge cycles.