How to Maintain Battery Health | E Bike Batteries Explained

the battery is an integral part of the system on your e-mountain bike it stores all the electricity in it that provides the power to your motor now there's a lot of impressive tech that goes into one of these things so today we're going to be going in depth on everything to do with the e-bike's battery battery life is measured by charge cycles and if you don't know what a charge cycle is it's the amount that you deplete a battery and the amount that's going to take uh it to recharge for a full 100 percent be it a 50 discharge and a 50 charge that is going to count as one cycle as would a full depletion of your battery to a full charge of your battery that counts as one cycle however this will vary from each manufacturer for example brands such as bosch say if you top the battery up only a small amount only this is recorded and will not be counted until there are enough of these partial charges to count towards a full charge cycle in short if you top your battery up four times at 25 this will only equate to a full 100 charge as to how many cycles a battery will do well this will come down to how well the battery has been looked after things such as where it's stored which temperature it's been exposed to and the depth of discharge which has been subjected to over the use now usually around 700 to 1000 cycles is pretty common for your average e-bike battery one of the most important factors in the lifetime of your e-bike's battery is your method of charging by and large most lithium-ion batteries last a lot longer if you charge to around 80 percent and not a full 100 but this is going to vary from brand to brand and the battery management system involved in fact you could be looking at hundreds if not thousands more cycles if you charge that lower capacity so researching what is the optimum charge level then is probably one of the most essential facts to find out to get the most out of the lifetime of your e-bike's battery so what happens when you get to the end of the charge cycle period for your battery well it won't simply stop working it will still work but it'll only be able to hold a certain amount of power for a lot less time so for instance if you were getting 30 miles out of that battery before you might find yourself slowly getting 25 then 20 on a full charge it won't stop working it will still power but it will not take you as far so what's inside your e-bike battery well inside this tough outer housing you have a series of cells that are all linked together pretty much like the standard batteries that we use for our everyday you know in our everyday life that is going to power all the different things around your house this has a battery management system in there also known as a bms which is going to control all the flow of the electric between all of those batteries in there it's just going to make sure they're not gonna overheat and they're all working as efficiently as possible now all of this is housed in a super tough plastic or aluminium housing it's gonna protect it from all those knocks it's also gonna have a connection port which is gonna allow it to connect to the motor and power your e-bike along [Music] so there's plenty of different options for batteries when it comes to powering your e-bike so let's take a look a few of them and start off with the cheapest now the cheapest battery that you might find on an e-bike is going to be a lead acid battery now these are pretty similar to the type of batteries you find in cars and motorcycles they're very heavy and they are very limited charge cycles often around 200 to 300 charge cycles is what you're going to get out of one of those then there's nickel batteries now this is the next step up a little bit more lightweight and that charge cycle is increased more you can get about 500 cycles out of one of those batteries up to where we are today with a lithium ion battery that you're gonna find in the modern day e-bike these are similar to the type of battery you're gonna find in your iphone or maybe even your laptop there's a lot of tech going on in there and these can handle a lot of cycles we're talking around a thousand cycles for these batteries they're also very lightweight and very compact they are ideal for fitting in your e-bike battery sizes are measured in watt hours and these range from 300 watt hours all the way up to 900 watt hours and you get range extenders which are like a bolt-on battery that can add up to around 500 watt hours to the bike also a bigger battery will not add any more power to the bike than the smaller battery would instead it increases the range of the bike allowing the rider to cover way more miles so how do you go about charging your e-bike battery well a lot of manufacturers will have a charge port on the frame pretty similar to like your mobile phone at home you simply connect the charger to this and it charges the battery some manufacturers will allow you to remove the battery from the frame meaning that you don't have to take the bike into the house to charge it you only have to take the battery in alone and the charging times what this is going to vary from brand to brand brands such as bosch have a fast charger meaning it can charge a 500 watt hour battery from flat in around three hours and it can even charge a battery to 50 in just an hour perfect for those mid-ride lunch breaks for general charges and batteries of around 500 to 700 watt hours it will take around four to six hours for a full charge then there is the charges that are going to charge your batteries up your standard chargers that come with a bike are great for your regular day-to-day charges they are the best of both worlds with the size and the power they can put out one thing they differ in the charge time too is going to be your lightweight charges these are a great option to stick in your ride and pack for big rides they're considerably slower than the regular chargers but a great option for those rides and then there is the car charger meaning you can charge your battery whilst on the move you can plug it into your 12 volt cigarette lighter it's a slow way of doing it but a great way of topping up those batteries on route to the trails when it comes to storing your batteries well they're quite like us in what they like they like a nice constant temperature nothing too hot or nothing too cold around 20 degrees celsius is bang on if you go to extreme heat or extreme coldness and the battery simply will not like it and it is quite common for us to plug a battery in and leave it on charge up to 100 the bms or the battery management system should take care of this and switch the power off but a good tip is to use an electric plug-in timer that's going to turn off the battery and turn off the power to the battery within the five or six hours that you set it to also if you're going to be storing that battery don't store it 100 take it down to around 60 that way it's going to last way longer you may find your battery losing some voltage even when it's not connected to your e-bike now this is called self-discharge self-discharge is a chemical reaction and the reaction is highly dependable on storage condition and temperature so think about where you're storing your batteries high temperatures will enlarge the self-discharge so store your batteries in a dry cool place avoid high temperatures and direct sunlight think about your batteries yourself would you like to sleep in your fridge for a week [Music] so how about cleaning your e-bike battery is definitely a good idea in fact your e-bike battery is one of the most waterproof components on your bike in fact some manufacturers even give their battery an ip67 rating up to around a meter meaning that battery can literally be submerged underwater with no apparent damage but i wouldn't recommend going to do that what i would do is just apply a damp cloth to the outer of the battery and give it a wipe around just pay attention to the contacts spray a little bit of contact cleaner in there to make sure no moisture is sat in there and also sometimes you can add a little bit of dielectric grease to your contacts just to make sure that contact is nice and secure too so here's my top five things that you definitely do not want to be doing to your battery one is leaving it plugged in for long periods of time is a definite fire risk if you're leaving that battery on charge for a long time number two is storing it in extremes of temperature remember 20 degrees celsius is ideal number three is dropping your e-bike battery damage will definitely occur number four is putting the battery on charge as soon as you arrive back from a ride you need to let those cells go from a state of discharge to a state of charge and last on the list is going to be deep discharges going from a full hundred percent to zero percent on your battery is going to be the way to get the least cycles out of that battery [Music] so does a new battery have warranty well yes it definitely does this is often limited by either a time frame or the amount of charge cycles that that battery is going to be subjected to now this will vary from brand to brand so just be sure to check that on the website first so how about cost how much does it cost to replace a battery outside of your warranty period well if you're looking at something like the shimano 500 watt hour external battery that is roughly going to cost you about 500 pounds to replace now if you're looking at a specialized levo 700 watt hour battery that's going to be about 1 100 pounds to replace so in short the bigger the battery the more expense [Music] so how are you going to dispose of your battery well your best bet is going to take it back to your local dealer who supplied you the e-bike a lot of these guys are now recycling the batteries and putting them again in other e-bikes rather than incinerating them or putting them into landfill and the same goes for a damaged battery if you damage your battery take it back to your dealer and they will sort it out just take care of that because it could potentially leak but i hope you've enjoyed today's video on everything to do with batteries don't forget to get involved down in the comments box down below if you've got any more questions about batteries give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed it don't forget to subscribe to it to us here on enbn and give us a like and a follow on your favorite social media too thanks for watching today guys

Channel: Electric Mountain Bike Network

Views: 327,047

Keywords: battery, battery health, battery capacity, how to get better, tips, charge, battery life, charging, how far, tutorial, explainer, explained, is it ok to charge, overcharge, guide, e bike battery, electric bike battery, emtb, EMBN, Electric Mountain Bike Network, e bike, e-bike, e mtb, electric mountain bikemountain bike, electronic bike, e-bikes, e-mtb, e bicycle, skills, tech, bike skills, mountain bike skills, bike riding, cycling, emvn, chris smith, к, 4067, э, т, ц, ӈ, Т, ꔠ, ꕀ, ꔁ, བ, མ, ௯, ई, के, ᐶ, ፕ16, ଐ

Id: zSGBhVvYZUI

Length: 10min 16sec (616 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020