Giant Suede E Battery - value/advice

[Ninelives]

I have a chance of buying a new battery (nmhi ?) for my Giant Suede E , for £100 , the seller said they bought the battery direct from Giant 6 months ago but they have never used nor even given it its first charge during this time.

Question is will the battery have been damaged during this 6 months of non usage or maintanance charge, which Giant say should be done at least every 3 months, would it come back to life after a few charge cycles if flat?

Is it worth the risk for what sounds cheap for a new battery, I think they retail over £200 ?

Thanks for any advice

 

[flecc]

In theory NiMh batteries can be taken through a couple of conditioning cycles after a long state of discharge and then recover their capacity, but it doesn't always work in practice. The cells used in these were below the standard Giant used in the Twist series which is not encouraging, and there have been a few failures, the batteries and chargers being the recognised weaknesses of the Suede.

These were £250 when first introduced and I've been told are dearer now.

If you are able to physically contact the seller, ask that they charge it so you can check if it's ok on the bike. If that's not practical there will be some risk of it not being ok, though if the seller is truthful about it never being charged, it's much more likely to be ok.

N.B. A conditioning cycle is a full charge followed by a full discharge on the bike.
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