Battery charging

[IOM]

I recently purchased a Salisbury LPX and from advice given on this forum, I think I have conditioned it correctly i.e two full charge / discharges. Since then I have just topped up following each run, however I have also read that the cells are stressed at full charge. Should I stop the charge cycle before it reaches full charge?
Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[Phil the drill]

I recently purchased a Salisbury LPX and from advice given on this forum, I think I have conditioned it correctly i.e two full charge / discharges. Since then I have just topped up following each run, however I have also read that the cells are stressed at full charge. Should I stop the charge cycle before it reaches full charge?
Any advice will be appreciated.

Hi IOM

Shouldn't be necessary to do that. Fully charging is fine if you are going to use it in the next couple of days or so. Leave at approx 40% charge (and somewhere cool) only if it is not likely to be used for an extended period of time.

Cheers, Phil

 

[IOM]

Thanks Phil,
From what you have said, I wish I had posted this yesterday. I am off to China tomorrow for best part of six weeks. Just fully charged the battery, following a 15 mile run earlier today. Wont have chance in the morning to use the bike to take some charge from the battery. Will six weeks cause any damage if left on full charge?

 

[flecc]

No it won't hurt it IOM. The 40% charge recommendation is mainly for very low temperature long term storage to gain a bit of extra life, i.e. refrigerated at between zero and 5 degrees C, but for periods of less than a couple of months it's not necessary and gains hardly anything if stored at average temperatures.
.

 

[IOM]

Thanks Flecc,
It will be stored in my garage, not sure what the temperature will be. Think I will do a few miles on throttle only, first thing in the morning, just to be safe.

 

[flecc]

You can if you wish of course IOM, but it won't make a lot of difference.

The 40% charge recommendation is specifically for refrigerated storage over long periods. For example, these batteries can lose as much as 30% of capacity per annum, but if stored with a 20 to 40% charge at zero degrees C, that can reduce to as low as 2%.

Over your six weeks absence we can assume that the battery wont be at zero degrees but will be varying continually and could be well above zero for much of the time so the gain will be much lower, possibly averaging a 10% to 15% per annum loss rate. From that I'd guess your net gain will be about 2 or 3% of capacity loss saved over 6 weeks.
.

 

[IOM]

Thanks again Flecc,
I can ill afford the time in the morning, so will take your advice and not bother using the bike.