Cameron Newland
Well-Known Member
So my 2015 IZIP E3 Dash's battery has worked fine so far, but I've discovered a few quirks that I think deserve to be mentioned.
When I first bought the bike, the range in the lowest PAS mode was 43 miles, and after a few days of use and (what I thought was) a full charge, the indicated range dropped to 42 miles. I didn't think this was strange at all, given that lithium-ion packs tend to slowly degrade over time, and I figured that my bike's battery must have been on the cusp of 43 miles of range when it was delivered and its capacity hadn't been reduced by any abnormal amount. A month later, the range on my battery after (what I thought was) a full charge dropped precipitously to 37 miles. That was a big concern to me. Why would the indicated range fall so much, especially when I had been babying the battery, discharging it from 80% down to ~20% on most occasions, and only very rarely using a full charge?
I brought my bike in to the IZIP Store in Santa Monica after my bike got hit by an inattentive driver's Fiat 500e a week or two ago, and mentioned the battery range drop, and when I picked my bike up from the shop, the manager recommended that I make sure that my tires were properly inflated, and that that might take care of the issue. I do ride with properly-inflated tires, but it just so happens that when I brought the bike into the shop, my rear tire's tube had been experiencing a high-pressure leak that drains the tire of air when the bike sits idle for three days. Since I had always been riding the bike with properly-inflated tires, I knew that the tire pressure wasn't the culprit. Strangely, though, when I picked up my bike from the shop, the indicated range in the lowest PAS mode had inexplicably jumped up to 47 miles – a full 10 miles more than when I brought it in for repair!
Since picking my bike up from the shop, I've ridden the bike to work and fully charged the battery again, and I've realized that the battery is (and always has been) just fine. The issue that was causing my bike to show a lower range was that I was unplugging my bike from the OEM charger when the charger's LED turned to green, but *before* the battery had attained a 100% charge. My theory is that the OEM charger changes its LED indicator light's color from red to green at a charge level that is less than full, which might cause riders to unplug their bikes earlier and hence use less than a full charge, which might increase the life of the battery by giving you more usable charge cycles. Either that or the charger turns green once one single cell reaches its peak voltage (4.2v, I believe) but before the rest of the cells, whose voltages might naturally be slightly out of balance, have been charged up to their peak voltages. Either of these explanations might account for the phantom loss of range I was experiencing when I unplugged my bike's battery from the charger right when the charger turned green. When I leave the battery plugged into the charger longer, until the battery's charge indicator lights go dark, I end up with a fully-charged battery that offers the full 47 mile range.
Have any of you experienced anything similar with your batteries?
When I first bought the bike, the range in the lowest PAS mode was 43 miles, and after a few days of use and (what I thought was) a full charge, the indicated range dropped to 42 miles. I didn't think this was strange at all, given that lithium-ion packs tend to slowly degrade over time, and I figured that my bike's battery must have been on the cusp of 43 miles of range when it was delivered and its capacity hadn't been reduced by any abnormal amount. A month later, the range on my battery after (what I thought was) a full charge dropped precipitously to 37 miles. That was a big concern to me. Why would the indicated range fall so much, especially when I had been babying the battery, discharging it from 80% down to ~20% on most occasions, and only very rarely using a full charge?
I brought my bike in to the IZIP Store in Santa Monica after my bike got hit by an inattentive driver's Fiat 500e a week or two ago, and mentioned the battery range drop, and when I picked my bike up from the shop, the manager recommended that I make sure that my tires were properly inflated, and that that might take care of the issue. I do ride with properly-inflated tires, but it just so happens that when I brought the bike into the shop, my rear tire's tube had been experiencing a high-pressure leak that drains the tire of air when the bike sits idle for three days. Since I had always been riding the bike with properly-inflated tires, I knew that the tire pressure wasn't the culprit. Strangely, though, when I picked up my bike from the shop, the indicated range in the lowest PAS mode had inexplicably jumped up to 47 miles – a full 10 miles more than when I brought it in for repair!
Since picking my bike up from the shop, I've ridden the bike to work and fully charged the battery again, and I've realized that the battery is (and always has been) just fine. The issue that was causing my bike to show a lower range was that I was unplugging my bike from the OEM charger when the charger's LED turned to green, but *before* the battery had attained a 100% charge. My theory is that the OEM charger changes its LED indicator light's color from red to green at a charge level that is less than full, which might cause riders to unplug their bikes earlier and hence use less than a full charge, which might increase the life of the battery by giving you more usable charge cycles. Either that or the charger turns green once one single cell reaches its peak voltage (4.2v, I believe) but before the rest of the cells, whose voltages might naturally be slightly out of balance, have been charged up to their peak voltages. Either of these explanations might account for the phantom loss of range I was experiencing when I unplugged my bike's battery from the charger right when the charger turned green. When I leave the battery plugged into the charger longer, until the battery's charge indicator lights go dark, I end up with a fully-charged battery that offers the full 47 mile range.
Have any of you experienced anything similar with your batteries?
