Charging: My other e-bike is a Tesla

[lloydt]

I've had a Tesla for a number of years and they recommend charging to a max of 90% to maximize battery life. Repeatedly charging your battery to full can cut the lifespan and reduce the capacity of the battery.

I have no idea what specialized has done to insure that their batteries last (maybe they only ever charge to 90%, I have no idea), but I cringe every time I fully recharge my battery.

There are some after market chargers that can charge your battery to a lesser degree. I looked at the satiator (https://www.ebikes.ca/product-info/cycle-satiator.html) but they weren't able to tell me if the specialized charger was somehow communicating with the batter (there are two leads that don't get attahed) or give me confidence that I wasn't doing something that could damage the battery.

Enter the $12 solution.

I bought one of these on Amazon. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D3QEK4E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It turns out that I can mostly hit between 80% and 90% by hitting one of these buttons. 30 minutes adds about 11% of charge. With my use, anything over 70% is fine for a full day for me.

 

[ROJA]

Yes! I bought a similar one on Amazon and it works great. That said, with over 3000 miles on my battery (and 4000 on the bike), my battery is still at well over 90% (don't have the exact figure with me right now), so I do think that Specialized's 100% is actually much less and that the system is engineered to have the battery last a really long time. I suspect something else will fail before the battery power drops below a usable level...

 

[ebikemom]

I use a dial timer.