Easylife Battery question .

[neptune]

I am posting this query on behalf of a friend , He bought an Easylife 24 volt lithium bike for his daughter who uses it for daily commuting . She has owned it about 18 months . The charger failed under guarantee and was replaced . Now here is the problem . The newly charged battery is installed in the bike and the red amber and green lights come on as normal . The battery shows 28 volts when tested with a multimeter . After about 100 meters , even on very low throttle , the bike cuts out and all the lights go out .You can get a repeat performance by switching the key off , switching it back on , and trying again . As a temporary measure the bike is being run on a 24 lead acid , and works fine . So the problem looks like the battery . Can anything be done to this battery , or is it scrap ?

 

[JuicyBike]

Could quite easily be one loose or poor connection within the battery. Have a careful peek inside, but be careful. There is an awful lot of energy stored and a short could be explosive!

 

[flecc]

Yes, thoroughly check for a poor connection first. However, it's not unusual for a daily used low cost lithium battery from 18 months ago to be at failure point, indicated by cutting out as soon as a load is applied. Also I would expect a fully charged healthy 24 volt lithium battery to show about 29 volts or a little over.

The present cold weather considerably depresses battery performance, so that will have suddenly shown up any developing weakness with age. Warmer weather may help the battery to cope for a little longer if decline is the problem.

 

[neptune]

Hi guys , and thanks for the information . We will check all the battery connections . The other thing is , what to do with the battery if it is scrap .Am I right in thinking that if the voltage drops below a certain point it becomes a fire hazzard ?

 

[flecc]

No, there's no fire hazard with lowered voltage. The much publicised lithium battery fires of some while ago were caused by faulty manufacture in conjunction with cobalt cathode construction. For a long time now much safer cathodes, either manganese or compound, have been used.

Best just put the battery into the local authority battery recycling and let them sort out any recycling of materials. At present the lithium content recovery isn't possible, but they will know how to dispose of it.