Battery Shipping
- Thread starter George S.
- Start date
J.R.
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Piedmont Highlands
George, that's great to see! I'm not too surprised to see some (likely most) battery shippers are trying to ship within the ever changing regs. I had both of my ebikes (Easy Motion & ProdecoTech), with batteries shipped to me and both were done in the same way and by ground. Not only does it need the proper documentation and labeling, but the packing materials have to be of a certain type and grade.
After posting that listing from Amazon, I looked again and noticed several listings of "ebike" LiPo batteries from the same company with instruction to ignore the labeling, it's just a dodge to be able to ship by air freight. LiPo, typically used in RC stuff can be extremely dangerous, that's evident by the fact most advise to store LiPo in fire proof and even explosion proof containers.
It's difficult to keep on top of all this and worse when one is trying to get up to speed with the tech side of LEV's and batteries. Being the receiver, it's almost as important to know the transport issues as it is for the shipper. I like many of us have to do a lot long distance, I made sure to keep all the shipping materials from both my ebikes. There's a good article written by an expert in dangerous goods shipping, he notes these 7 key points:
- With few exceptions, all lithium cells must be tested according to strict UN standards which provide specific criteria. These tests are designed (among other things) to simulate real world conditions, including conditions normally incident to transportation.
- Many companies purchase tested cells — i.e. lithium ion cells from suppliers in China — and then construct a battery out of these approved cells. These batteries or subsequent battery packs must then be tested again.
- The penalties for failing to properly package or properly offer for transport a lithium battery can carry fines of up to $55,000 dollars per package per day. This is for accidental violation of the rules where there is no intent to “wilfully” violate the requirements. “Wilful” violations can involve criminal prosecution and penaltites — especially if there is death, injury or property damage that is a result of this intentional disregard of the regulations.
- Many SDS are just plain wrong when it comes to lithium battery shipping information. Any SDS over 3 years old should be suspect as the rules have been in constant flux over the last 8 years or so. Any SDS/MSDS that references the term “excepted by Special Provision A45” is horribly out of date.
- Could you ever see your company in a position where your customers might have to return a lithium battery or lithium battery powered device to you as part of your returns or reverse logistics process? Be careful! In order to ship some of these batteries, your customer (if they are a business), may have to train and certify their employees before they can legally offer a shipment of these products to a commercial carrier (i.e. an LTL trucker or freight company), and they have to comply with the shipping regulations.
- Beware of helpful employees or colleagues bearing mis-information about lithium battery shipping. The most prevalent piece of bad advice goes something like this: “Oh, don’t worry, it’s an ‘excepted’ lithium battery because it’s under 100 Wh or 2 grams — it’s not restricted.” That piece of bad information is pervasive and even many of the carriers don’t understand the nuances of the rules. Your response should be: there is never a circumstance (ever) where a lithium battery is non-restricted. Period.
- The operative question to ask is: Which regulations do apply under our circumstances and to what extent does it restrict my ability to ship our product with the least hassle, least cost, and the highest level of safety.
Other refrences:
George S.
Well-Known Member
What's fascinating to me is how many LiPo packs Hobby King must sell. They have pages of listing. I think they just drop them in the mail. It's hard for me to do that, again, but it's all the drones, and other stuff.
And, of course, the hoverboards...
bikerjohn
Well-Known Member
Wow! This blog reads like there are some real issues with shipping Lithium batteries.
The 36v 12Ah battery for my EG Zurich is losing reserve capacity and maybe should be replaced. I have nearly 300 recharge cycles and 5100 miles tallied. The battery seems to be running out of power more quickly than when it was new. Making a call to (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) and speaking with the shop owner, it seems fairly routine getting a replacement for about $500.
During my talk with the shop owner, Paul Morlock, he mentioned that fully discharging the battery before recharging can help prolong the battery's life. I had read different recommendations in the past.
Paul also suggested that waiting about 30 minutes after charging or discharging a battery would help the battery cells "normalize". I suppose I have been doing that some of the time without consciously being aware that was a benefit to prolonging battery usage. Typically, I have been recharging the battery after a commute which is about 1 hour of usage. I've never fully discharged the battery cells because I was under the impression that would shorten the life of the battery. So I have been mistaken? What have other riders experienced relating to battery life?
The 36v 12Ah battery for my EG Zurich is losing reserve capacity and maybe should be replaced. I have nearly 300 recharge cycles and 5100 miles tallied. The battery seems to be running out of power more quickly than when it was new. Making a call to (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) and speaking with the shop owner, it seems fairly routine getting a replacement for about $500.
During my talk with the shop owner, Paul Morlock, he mentioned that fully discharging the battery before recharging can help prolong the battery's life. I had read different recommendations in the past.
Paul also suggested that waiting about 30 minutes after charging or discharging a battery would help the battery cells "normalize". I suppose I have been doing that some of the time without consciously being aware that was a benefit to prolonging battery usage. Typically, I have been recharging the battery after a commute which is about 1 hour of usage. I've never fully discharged the battery cells because I was under the impression that would shorten the life of the battery. So I have been mistaken? What have other riders experienced relating to battery life?
George S.
Well-Known Member
@bikerjohn
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
This is what I believe, what is on this page. Charge to 80 % and discharge to 20%. You have to read the whole thing and digest it.
What Paul is saying applies to NiMH batteries, not Lith.
Chargers are supposed to balance the cells.
It seems that, for now, the lithium shipping problems boil down to 1) everything goes ground 2) special boxes you might want to keep 3) higher costs and 4) more paperwork. It's maybe $30 more?
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
This is what I believe, what is on this page. Charge to 80 % and discharge to 20%. You have to read the whole thing and digest it.
What Paul is saying applies to NiMH batteries, not Lith.
Chargers are supposed to balance the cells.
It seems that, for now, the lithium shipping problems boil down to 1) everything goes ground 2) special boxes you might want to keep 3) higher costs and 4) more paperwork. It's maybe $30 more?
Ann M.
Well-Known Member
It's a bit more $ to ship a lithium battery and it depends upon the rating it has, George; the higher the volts & amp hours, the higher the cost. Some manufacturers & dealers may be able to ease that cost a bit. I agree that you don't fully discharge a lithium battery, they do quite well with incremental top off charges unlike NiMH batteries which really have to be periodically fully discharged because of memory issues. Lithium batteries do not have memory issues (most people do, though! 
)
)
bikerjohn
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the link George!
Ravi Kempaiah
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Halifax
Shipping an E-bike with a battery is not trivial and if you are importing an E-bike from Asia via the AIR-shipping method, it gets even more complicated.
Recently, when we brought in two pre-production models from Taiwan, we had to pay $2980 for 2 bikes and this is just for SHIPPING.
This is quite high and even using sea freight, it can get complicated if the shipper doesn't have all the legal documents.
Recently, when we brought in two pre-production models from Taiwan, we had to pay $2980 for 2 bikes and this is just for SHIPPING.
This is quite high and even using sea freight, it can get complicated if the shipper doesn't have all the legal documents.
George S.
Well-Known Member
That last statement could be taken as very ironic and very funny. I mean, there are people, companies, who have to follow the letter of the law. Battery Hookup, a DIY company, suggested there would be a hazmat fee on certain watt hour shipments. But they seem to have backed off. I bought a 750 wh battery from them a month ago. It had a "Transport Aircraft Only" sticker. It seemed like 'normal' shipping cost. They used to say Ground Only. I bought a 750 wh battery from Ali over the weekend. I assume it is coming by ship and then? I don't know. Large LFP cells (280AH EVE/Lishen) are all the rage with the DIY guys on YT. One guy bought 12 kwh of cells. I guess they show up in boxes, all from China. But I don't know how all the RV LFP stuff is shipped, from the high end Battleborn to the lower end SOK. If they collect buckets of hazmat money, are we safer? Is there a better system? Amazon puts a UN sticker on tons of stuff.. Am I safer? This seems kind of unstable. If you want a really bad headache read the USPS regs and then talk to a local guy. Yikes.
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