Bike battery questions

[kahoots]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and hope you can assist. I just bought a new electric bike, the ejoe epik se 2018 model. The dealer told me to charge the battery every time i finish riding it optimize the battery cells. I am using it to commute to work, 16 miles round trip. After my morning commute, I still have enough charge (a little more than half way) and can make it home without recharging.

Questions:
1) I've been carrying the charger with me and recharging it at work and home. Can i just charge at home so i dont have to lug it back and forth? How much does it affect the battery? The 16 miles will be the same every day, 5 days a week. I will probably not use it for anything else if that matters.
2) If i should charge it every time i finish using the bike, i found a charger on craigslist for the same model bike but older version. The amp and voltage are lower than my current charger.
Input Amp - 1.8A versus 2.0A
Output 42V - 2.0 A versus 54.6V-2.0A
Will this affect the battery if i use this at?

3) Does using throttle and pedaling affect the motor?

Thank you!

 

[Bruce Arnold]

1. 1. If your battery has enough watt-hours to handle the round trip, leave the charger at home. Some E-Joe vendors claim 40 miles per charge, some claim 30. Whichever it is, it should be plenty for a 16 mile round trip. For any ebike, charging it after every single ride does nothing to "optimize the battery cells." Full charges are not necessarily better than partial charges, and can be worse as far as battery life is concerned. The battery pack will benefit from at least an occasional full charge, to balance (not optimize) the charge across all the cells, as there are variations in how fast the individual cells re-charge themselves. By occasional, I mean once a month. Me personally, I charge mine when it gets down to a half-charge, as the performance of the bike starts to drop off at that point, and I do charge it up to full, because I'm more concerned about optimizing performance than I am about getting the longest possible battery life. Batteries are expensive, and I don't want to have to replace it any time soon, but this will give me many years and thousands of miles of enjoyable riding before needing to replace the battery. There are different opinions on this, BTW, all based on good solid information about battery chemistry. Some read the data one way, some read it another. My view is not the "right one." It works for me. YMMV.
2. Your 2.0A charger is fine. Stick with it. I looked your bike up and it has a 48 volt system. That Ebay charger is a 42 volt charger. It won't charge your battery. It could even damage the battery if it is not well-made. Don't mess around with this. If you really needed a charger both at home and at work, you still wouldn't want this one.
3. Using throttle and pedaling at the same time? The Electric Star website says "With an independent throttle and 5 levels of pedal assist, I can pedal it like a regular bike, power it like a motorcycle, do any combination of both -- or just let it add assistance to my pedaling." So yeah, you can pedal and use the throttle at the same time, assuming that their website is accurate. Whether there's any benefit in that depends on how the system is configured. My bike gives a boost of power when using pedals and throttle at the same time, but that power comes with a cost: the battery drains faster. So I only use it when I need to cross a busy street, get started from a stop light, moments like that.
4. There is a review of your bike on Electric Bike Reviews. Court does a very good job of getting down to the details. If you've already read the materials and watched the videos, great! If not, it's highly recommended. You will learn so much about your bike. Don't let your eyes glaze over the part where Court gives detailed information about the specs. There is very useful information there. Do a Google search on any terms you don't recognize -- if you're willing to pay this kind of money for an ebike, then you ought to be willing to spend some time doing some homework. You will be so glad you did. It will pay off in getting the most out of your purchase.

And have fun! Looks like a great little bike!

 

[kahoots]

1. 1. If your battery has enough watt-hours to handle the round trip, leave the charger at home. Some E-Joe vendors claim 40 miles per charge, some claim 30. Whichever it is, it should be plenty for a 16 mile round trip. For any ebike, charging it after every single ride does nothing to "optimize the battery cells." Full charges are not necessarily better than partial charges, and can be worse as far as battery life is concerned. The battery pack will benefit from at least an occasional full charge, to balance (not optimize) the charge across all the cells, as there are variations in how fast the individual cells re-charge themselves. By occasional, I mean once a month. Me personally, I charge mine when it gets down to a half-charge, as the performance of the bike starts to drop off at that point, and I do charge it up to full, because I'm more concerned about optimizing performance than I am about getting the longest possible battery life. Batteries are expensive, and I don't want to have to replace it any time soon, but this will give me many years and thousands of miles of enjoyable riding before needing to replace the battery. There are different opinions on this, BTW, all based on good solid information about battery chemistry. Some read the data one way, some read it another. My view is not the "right one." It works for me. YMMV.
2. Your 2.0A charger is fine. Stick with it. I looked your bike up and it has a 48 volt system. That Ebay charger is a 42 volt charger. It won't charge your battery. It could even damage the battery if it is not well-made. Don't mess around with this. If you really needed a charger both at home and at work, you still wouldn't want this one.
3. Using throttle and pedaling at the same time? The Electric Star website says "With an independent throttle and 5 levels of pedal assist, I can pedal it like a regular bike, power it like a motorcycle, do any combination of both -- or just let it add assistance to my pedaling." So yeah, you can pedal and use the throttle at the same time, assuming that their website is accurate. Whether there's any benefit in that depends on how the system is configured. My bike gives a boost of power when using pedals and throttle at the same time, but that power comes with a cost: the battery drains faster. So I only use it when I need to cross a busy street, get started from a stop light, moments like that.
4. There is a review of your bike on Electric Bike Reviews. Court does a very good job of getting down to the details. If you've already read the materials and watched the videos, great! If not, it's highly recommended. You will learn so much about your bike. Don't let your eyes glaze over the part where Court gives detailed information about the specs. There is very useful information there. Do a Google search on any terms you don't recognize -- if you're willing to pay this kind of money for an ebike, then you ought to be willing to spend some time doing some homework. You will be so glad you did. It will pay off in getting the most out of your purchase.

And have fun! Looks like a great little bike!

Thank you for your thorough post. I have seen the video review and that's how i was able to find this great site. I will definitely do more reading on my bike. Thank you again.