What's Needs to be Done if E-bike Kept In a Cold Garage?

[PedalUma]

if freezing damages that battery

Get the batteries inside. Maybe in a basement. Freeze is not as much a problem as freeze/thaw condensation inside motors if they are being ridden, warmed, in otherwise freezing conditions with snow. That will pull in moisture which condenses inside motors causing internal rust. One guy was throwing a pot of hot water on his bike every morning before his Ont commute. It died. Fast. You could move to the other CA. I sometimes can get to see the snow 100Km away on a mountain top once or twice a year. It is nice to look at.

 

[Hewholaughslast]

There are a wide variety of cells in the market, and if you know what's inside your battery and have a technical bent, the charging and storage temperatures can be looked up. Some cells are rated for storage at -40C and charged at 0C.

Most owners will not have that info, so best to use the commonly quoted numbers of storage/operation down to -20C (4F) and recharge above 10C (50F). Freezing will damage the chemistry if you try to recharge. Cold temperatures will reduce the capacity if you run the battery, but won't damage it.

I don't bring my bikes inside, here in northern Illinois, We (wife/I) will bundle up and ride when it's above 40F, but stay home when it's icy, Once in a great while, I'll want to recharge and it's too cold (under 40F) in the garage. Then I will put the battery in a plastic bag to let it warm up in the house without condensation.

Good info. I don't treat my cordless power tool batteries with TLC but I don't recharge them outside in the cold, either. I think I heard that the Tesla or other electric cars use some of their energy to maintain temperature in the cold which seems logical in very cold regions. We all know that high temp's are bad for batteries but don't often think about brutally cold temp's.

 

[Hewholaughslast]

Get the batteries inside. Maybe in a basement. Freeze is not as much a problem as freeze/thaw condensation inside motors if they are being ridden, warmed, in otherwise freezing conditions with snow. That will pull in moisture which condenses inside motors causing internal rust. One guy was throwing a pot of hot water on his bike every morning before his Ont commute. It died. Fast. You could move to the other CA. I sometimes can get to see the snow 100Km away on a mountain top once or twice a year. It is nice to look at.

A pot of hot water? Isn't the the solution for everything in life? Like in the good old days when the doctor would say "boil some water" when he was going to deliver a baby or work on Matt Dillon to dig a bullet out of him. Har-har-hardy-har-har! (As Jackie Gleason used to say in "The Honeymooners".)