Battery Replacement?

[Tbone]

Update: see attached pic.

What's your experience with battery replacement?

My 500wh Bosch battery is starting to show serious degradation after 9000km(+) on my R-M Charger GX.

Where I once calculated my bike rides according to time, i.e. how many hours I need to get from A to B to A, I'm now facing the reality of... battery dying... big-time.

-Tbone

PS All "just buy a new one" responses are welcome, too. ;-)

PSS Found this pic from Bosch website that pretty much tells the story.

eBike batteries: Long range, low weight, easy charging

The high-quality, long-lasting eBike batteries from Bosch have the highest energy density with a small size and light weight. The Bosch PowerTube is fully integrated in the frame. Different capacities offer the right choice for replacement and spare batteries.

www.bosch-ebike.com

 

[dblhelix]

What's your experience with battery replacement?

My 500wh Bosch battery is starting to show serious degradation after 9000km(+) on my R-M Charger GX.

Where I once calculated my bike rides according to time, i.e. how many hours I need to get from A to B to A, I'm now facing the reality of... battery dying... big-time.

-Tbone

PS All "just buy a new one" responses are welcome, too. ;-)

Don’t know about Germany, but in the US, the warranty period is based on 200 charge cycles/2 yrs, whichever comes first. I think those are the right numbers. If you’re within, or not too far out of the warranty period, it might be worth testing the battery at your dealer. Perhaps you can get some credit toward ... you know .... buying a new one! Actually, I hope it’s the weather as mentioned.

 

[Ebiker01]

Don’t know about Germany, but in the US, the warranty period is based on 200 charge cycles/2 yrs, whichever comes first. I think those are the right numbers. If you’re within, or not too far out of the warranty period, it might be worth testing the battery at your dealer. Perhaps you can get some credit toward ... you know .... buying a new one! Actually, I hope it’s the weather as mentioned.

Is not 200cycles. Most have 600 to 800 cycles and that is just out of an abundance of caution.
They last thousands of cycles. Maybe 10-15% degrading after 10-15k miles.

 

[Ebiker01]

What's your experience with battery replacement?

My 500wh Bosch battery is starting to show serious degradation after 9000km(+) on my R-M Charger GX.

Where I once calculated my bike rides according to time, i.e. how many hours I need to get from A to B to A, I'm now facing the reality of... battery dying... big-time.

-Tbone

PS All "just buy a new one" responses are welcome, too. ;-)

The dealer can run a test and see how many cycles it did and if any cells are bad. I think the issue it’s the latter !

 

[dblhelix]

Is not 200cycles. Most have 600 to 800 cycles and that is just out of an abundance of caution.
They last thousands of cycles. Maybe 10-15% degrading after 10-15k miles.

According to Trek, the Bosch warranty is 500 cycles/2yrs, better than I thought, but realistically, you will hit the 2yrs looong before 500 cycles or even 200 for a lot of people.

 

[Ebiker01]

According to Trek, the Bosch warranty is 500 cycles/2yrs, better than I thought, but realistically, you will hit the 2yrs looong before 500 cycles or even 200 for a lot of people.

Yes, not very fair on behalf of Bosch.

This is what I call a proper warranty :

“For batteries, the warranty is valid for 2 years from delivery date.

With proper registration of the bicycle online (emotionbikesusa.com) BH BIKES USA will extend the warranty for the MOTOR, CONTROLLER and DISPLAY ONLY for a term of 5 years from delivery date.”




This company from Spain -BH Dominates European market , is currently the leader and they just had 110 year old anniversary

 

[rich c]

Yes, not very fair on behalf of Bosch.

This is what I call a proper warranty :

“For batteries, the warranty is valid for 2 years from delivery date.

With proper registration of the bicycle online (emotionbikesusa.com) BH BIKES USA will extend the warranty for the MOTOR, CONTROLLER and DISPLAY ONLY for a term of 5 years from delivery date.”




This company from Spain -BH Dominates European market , is currently the leader and they just had 110 year old anniversary

Not fair? It would be better to hear how many have had a failure just after 2 years. Maybe you’ve had an early failure? I have 3 years and 3,000 miles on 2 different Bosch battery packs. No noticeable degrade on either.

 

[dblhelix]

Not fair? It would be better to hear how many have had a failure just after 2 years. Maybe you’ve had an early failure? I have 3 years and 3,000 miles on 2 different Bosch battery packs. No noticeable degrade on either.

I’ve read @Tbone ’s reviews and am pretty sure he owns a curry yellow 2017 Charger. That puts his battery somewhere between 2-3 yrs unless he bought a winter deal, which would put his issue within the warranty period. How many failures after two years? Likely not many, which is why I think he might get some sort of consideration if he’s just past the official 2 yr mark. One question I have: what constitutes failure? 60% charge, 70%?

 

[Over50]

...PS All "just buy a new one" responses are welcome, too. ;-) ...

Well, if you do have to buy a new one and are in Germany, then maybe you'd be able to get one of these 750 WH batteries that Ravi informed us of:

745Whr replacement batteries + 7A charger from E-bike Vision

I was happy to see that a company is offering higher Ah battery replacements for Yamaha and Bosch powered E-bikes. For Yamaha - PW, PW-Se, PW-TE and PW-X systems are compatible. It is a straight swap and you get 745whr battery instead of 500whr. It goes where the frame mounted batteries go but...

electricbikereview.com

 

[FlatSix911]

See this thread for excellent information on charging and how to maximize the lifespan of your battery...

Best Charging Practice Townie Go/Bosch 400 Battery

I just purchased a new Townie Go 8 step through electric bike. The owners manual does not have any information about when and how often and how much to charge the Bosch 400 battery other then plug it on in when it’s low and then shows 1bar at 20% and 5 at 100%. I want to make sure that I don’t...

electricbikereview.com

Good advice to never let your battery remain at a very low 0-20% state of charge without recharging.
It is also very hard on a battery and will reduce the lifespan if you leave the battery at 100% full charge... you want to start a ride right away.

This question has been studied extensively with respect to the same 18650 batteries used in many electric vehicles. Best to stay between 20-80%.

BU-808: How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries

BU meta description needed...

batteryuniversity.com

 

[tomjasz]

I would NEVER hesitate to purchase a Bosch OEM battery. I buy cells from a source of Bosch factory rejects. All grade A cells but when tested there were build issues, typically BMS systems. Bosch rejects the packs, not repair them and put back into the inventory. Anyone telling us that Bosch isn't worth the price just doesn't know squat about battery building and quality control.

I do not buy them because I'm a builder and have no use for can bus (third wire) systems.

Battery University is a great source but they are generic in their approach. Never taking into account that there are BMS and controller systems that communicate and may, in fact, do a better job of managing the cells than those generic directions.

 

[Tbone]

Are you sure it's not just these past few windy days and slightly colder temps that have been sucking the life out of your battery?

I can notice the difference in range between 1 week ago and now...

Definitely not colder temps. Been very mild past few weeks. But there is some serious wind, like the ride yesterday.

 

[Tbone]

The dealer can run a test and see how many cycles it did and if any cells are bad. I think the issue it’s the latter !

Bike is going in for scheduled inspection soon.

I’ve read @Tbone ’s reviews and am pretty sure he owns a curry yellow 2017 Charger. That puts his battery somewhere between 2-3 yrs unless he bought a winter deal, which would put his issue within the warranty period. How many failures after two years? Likely not many, which is why I think he might get some sort of consideration if he’s just past the official 2 yr mark. One question I have: what constitutes failure? 60% charge, 70%?

Yes, curry Charger owner here and my über-e-bike is over two years old. After two rides this week, one mountain, one road, my battery was dead between 50-60km. I wouldn't say it's a warranty issue, although I'll be putting my bike in for scheduled check-up soon. Not unlike my iPhone and it's battery, the bike battery seems to discharge faster as the indicator bars get lower and lower. I may be wrong here, but the last two bars the other day were drained within 10km. In fact, I had to peddle home with out power for about 12km. Aghast! If I may toot my own horn here, I think I've just worn the thing out.

 

[tompat]

My 500wh Bosch battery is starting to show serious degradation after 9000km(+) on my R-M Charger GX.

I was convinced my batteries were degarding (R&M Supercharger GX Rohloff HS dual battery) after about 1 year and 6000 km.
When the bike was brand new I got about 85-90 km with fully charged batteries. Today I barely get 70 km out of them some days.

When thinking about it though, I concluded it is probably not the batteries. I ride the bike much harder and faster today than when it was new. My average speed has increased from about 32-33 km/h to 35-36 km/h. This may seem as a small change but it's large enough at those speeds to affect energy usage seriously. So the batteries are probably not to blame in my case. Maybe yours too?

 

[tomjasz]

Near 6000 miles, sorry 5500, on a little 500w battery sure doesn’t sound like degradation should be a surprise. I continue to be amazed by the efficiency of Bosch miss and batteries. WOW!

 

[nantycoy]

May I add my figures... Trek Powerfly 7, Bosch Performance CX, 500W battery, new in April 2017. In February this year I had the battery diagnosed = 11,523km from 170 full charge cycles. Average range when new (hilly Wales) was about 65km per full charge; a similar ride now (at 15,251km) will get me about 56km.
All in all, I'm very happy with its performance. The bike itself had one failure - the Bosch motor developed an electronics fault 3 months past the 2 year warranty period. Hats off to Bosch who replaced the unit with a new one as a "goodwill gesture" free of charge!