Battery safety education - Only you can prevent battery fires!

[Slaphappygamer]

I would also add, not to charge immediately after a long ride. After heavy discharge from a long ride, the battery will be hot to warm. Let the battery cool for about 30 minutes, at least, before charging.

 

[Art Deco]

A good example is my dewalt power tools ... they will flash a wait signal and refuse to charge when the battery is either too hot or too cold to charge... the programming to check temp is trivial, but my much more powerful ebike chargers don't even do that.

 

[PCeBiker]

My Ryobi power tools do the same thing.
The charger also goes into maintenance mode after a charge and monitors the battery.
You can leave the battery in the charger and plugged in indefinitely.

 

[Robert R]

We had some fires in Vancouver -- at low cost housing where people had "acquired" e-bikes without chargers and jury rigged connections.

 

[Art Deco]

One of these days I am going to do a full on rant about more money doesn't equal safe or I wouldn't get articles like this every time I do a google search ...

Mercedes EQE Loaner Car Burns Down Inside Florida Homeowner's Garage

The Florida homeowner said the EV had been parked in the garage for about 22 hours when it caught fire, and it wasn't even charging when it burst into flames.

insideevs.com

 

[Rome]

You nailed it man you can't be doing Wiley Coyote on batteries.
I have batteries constantly charging from solar power. Hilti and makita hand tools charging station is always plugged into the outlet provided by the batteries also charge my ebike's batteries. I plug and play very little worries about fires. I refer to owner's manual for proper charging. Ambient temperature is mentioned in the manual for my ebikes.
My LG batteries are CE China Export good stuff. Technicians come out if fault is detected electronically.

 

[Art Deco]

My Ryobi power tools do the same thing.
The charger also goes into maintenance mode after a charge and monitors the battery.
You can leave the battery in the charger and plugged in indefinitely.

Maybe you can ... I won't.

 

[Art Deco]

You nailed it man you can't be doing Wiley Coyote on batteries.
I have batteries constantly charging from solar power. Hilti and makita hand tools charging station is always plugged into the outlet provided by the batteries also charge my ebike's batteries. I plug and play very little worries about fires. I refer to owner's manual for proper charging. Ambient temperature is mentioned in the manual for my ebikes.
My LG batteries are CE China Export good stuff. Technicians come out if fault is detected electronically.

Those are monster sized batteries. Stay safe .

 

[Art Deco]

They not attached to main house. It's 30 feet away from my bedroom. They are attached to outside of garage shed.
You know what I never thought of battery fires until I started seeing ebike owners posting on it.

30 foot away is very good. 30 inches away is not good at all.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

You can leave the battery in the charger and plugged in indefinitely.

My co-worker did this with a dewalt battery. The battery is dead now.

 

[PCeBiker]

My co-worker did this with a dewalt battery. The battery is dead now.

I actually never leave a battery in the charger.
Once the battery is charged I put the battery back in the tool and put the charger away. I don't use the tools very often, and I've got 3 batteries so if one goes dead, I've got others to use.

I had a Dewalt battery apart, and I wasn't too impressed. There was no BMS. Just that single third wire that goes to the first cell in the battery to monitor that single cell. Just like the old-school Ni-Cad batteries. And they charge the battery pack up to 20 volts.
The Ryobi battery pack has a fully functional BMS with a sense wire going to each cell for balancing, and monitoring.
Ryobi only charges the same number of cells to 18 volts instead of 20 volts helping to make things safer and last longer.

 

[Art Deco]

I actually never leave a battery in the charger.
Once the battery is charged I put the battery back in the tool and put the charger away. I don't use the tools very often, and I've got 3 batteries so if one goes dead, I've got others to use.

View attachment 159847

I had a Dewalt battery apart, and I wasn't too impressed. There was no BMS. Just that single third wire that goes to the first cell in the battery to monitor that single cell. Just like the old-school Ni-Cad batteries. And they charge the battery pack up to 20 volts.
The Ryobi battery pack has a fully functional BMS with a sense wire going to each cell for balancing, and monitoring.
Ryobi only charges the same number of cells to 18 volts instead of 20 volts helping to make things safer and last longer.

Very good. It sounds like you know enough to not leave them on a charger all the time the way one contractor I know does.

 

[PCeBiker]

Very good. It sounds like you know enough to not leave them on a charger all the time the way one contractor I know does.

My co-worker did this with a dewalt battery. The battery is dead now.

I mostly do it to save energy. I don't like having things turned on that aren't in use.
I let the battery cool down before I charge it, even if the charger will start charging.
(especially after using the grinder. The grinder kills a battery in 5 minutes.)

At least the Dewalt battery just died and didn't burst into flames.
I'm guessing that my charger won't kill a battery while in standby mode, because of the fully functional BMS, but I have no desire to test it and see.
I think that I've only seen my charger in standby mode once?
The light stays green for quite a while before it goes into standby mode.
It may very well be balancing the cells before it goes into standby mode?

 

[Art Deco]

30 foot away is very good. 30 inches away is not good at all.

BTW those batteries are lithium iron not lithium ion ( cobalt or magnesium or something ). My chemist friend tells me they won't burn. I think anything will burn if it gets hot enough ...

 

[TrevorB]

BTW those batteries are lithium iron not lithium ion ( cobalt or magnesium or something ). My chemist friend tells me they won't burn. I think anything will burn if it gets hot enough ...

Preferred chemistry for storage batteries where weight isn't so important. Same goes for new house batteries in RVs.

 

[TrevorB]

Bosch ebike chargers seem to turn off once battery is fully charged. While charging battery charge state lights flash. Once charged lights go out.

 

[Art Deco]

Bosch ebike chargers seem to turn off once battery is fully charged. While charging battery charge state lights flash. Once charged lights go out.

AFAIK all chargers are supposed to do at least that much...

 

[PCeBiker]

AFAIK all chargers are supposed to do at least that much...

I'm pretty sure that's not true.
Some battery/charger combinations rely on the battery's BMS to stop charging once each cell group reaches 4.2 volts (54.6 volts for a 48 volt battery.)

My Das-Kit charger goes from red to green when charging is finished, but it still puts out 54.6 volts while the light is green.

With my new battery and charger from @Jenny Mao, the charger shuts off completely after the charge is complete.

The Bosch charger may very well shut off as well?
If there is no specific warning in the owners manual about unplugging the charger after the the light goes off, then it probably does shut right off.

 

[Art Deco]

I'm pretty sure that's not true.
Some battery/charger combinations rely on the battery's BMS to stop charging once each cell group reaches 4.2 volts (54.6 volts for a 48 volt battery.)

My Das-Kit charger goes from red to green when charging is finished, but it still puts out 54.6 volts while the light is green.

With my new battery and charger from @Jenny Mao, the charger shuts off completely after the charge is complete.

The Bosch charger may very well shut off as well?
If there is no specific warning in the owners manual about unplugging the charger after the the light goes off, then it probably does shut right off.

I should have said all ebike chargers, of course. And once I looked around online there are chargers that don't actuality turn off, even some that seem to say they do, so probably a voltage tester is still needed when running a full charge.

 

[PatriciaK]

I just don't think I could trust any automatic shut off feature, whether on the charger or battery, enough to leave the battery charging unattended for long periods of time.