Charging Tips

[ronin2000]

Ive read a bit about how its not good to either drain the battery to 0 or top off 100%, the sweet spot is between 30% and 80%, is that true like it is on Electric Cars?

 

[mrgold35]

I wouldn't make it home on really windy days if I only topped off at 80%. I figure the cost of battery replacement within 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years with normal use of 100% charge and down to about 20% until re-charge for a normal work commute day.

I used to fill up my SUV every 7-10 days for my work commute and now I'm down to 1-2 times a month (drive during the week if weather is bad or just on weekends). That alone is saving me about $75-$100 per month X 7 months since ebike purchase = $525-$700 not spent on gas. Factor in my daily exercising, taking my own lunch, drinking more water, less wear/tear and routine maint on the car, and bypassing too many to count rush hour accidents that causes minutes to several hours of stand still traffic.

I'm fine with spending the $$ for a replacement battery +24 months out if my range decreases because my eBike is saving me more than the cost of a battery (and stress) already.

 

[tomjasz]

Buy a battery big enough to charge at 80-90%. You can double the life. No exaggeration. Good science and a fact. Easy to do with a timer and mulitimeter or a charger that will charge at 80-90%. I sold many batteries and have near a dozen. Its a fact. Grin builds an expensive battery, $300 that will pay for itself on your first battery. After 3 years now number 4 my batteries are nearly 100%.

 

[tomjasz]

http://www.ebikes.ca/product-info/cycle-satiator.html#satiate-for-enhanced-cycle-life

 

[jazz]

Best thing is not worry about it. Charge it and use it. It will last a few years then when it dies, rebuild it or buy another. Not worth stressing over.

 

[tomjasz]

Best thing is not worry about it. Charge it and use it. It will last a few years then when it dies, rebuild it or buy another. Not worth stressing over.

Stress no. Yet doubling life means $350-1000 every few years staying in my pocket, products difficult to remediate out of the landfill, and a great mode of transportation is even more sustainable. No stress, just common sense. Its to easy.

 

[piper109]

It also means spending a lot of green on this fancy charger day one.

 

[jazz]

Buy a battery big enough to charge at 80-90%. You can double the life. No exaggeration. Good science and a fact. Easy to do with a timer and mulitimeter or a charger that will charge at 80-90%. I sold many batteries and have near a dozen. Its a fact. Grin builds an expensive battery, $300 that will pay for itself on your first battery. After 3 years now number 4 my batteries are nearly 100%.

Spending $300 on another charger or using timer/multimeter is not what most people will do or even want to do. The technology is continuing to evolve and 3-4 years we might not even be discussing this. Go out, enjoy your ebike, charge it when it needs to be charged and don't worry about it.

 

[tomjasz]

Grin sells Satiators hand over fist. A good selling product. And extremely popular. Not everyone has the funds to give up prematurely on a $1500 battery that can last twice as lng with nothing more than an easily programmed charger. $300 to gain $1200. Unless you have some new insight into what is coming for batteries, we are typically a year or more behind the market. Now that 60 and 72v batteries are growing in popularity the savings are even larger. Congratulations on having the deep pockets. I like taking part in the process and not sending stuff to landfills. There are thousands of kit builders doing exactly what i suggest. Its a huge market. Not here, but there are many more forums with builders. This is the tip of the iceberg on Courts site.

 

[tomjasz]

It also means spending a lot of green on this fancy charger day one.

$300 to extend a battery that costs $600 by 100%. Do the math. If my battery will do 800 cycles instead of 400 that means I saved how much? Simple. It means my $900 investment gave me $1200 in value.. The second battery now doubles in value due to doubled cycles. With no additional charger costs. Simple math. For a stable like mine with 8 batteries the payback is huge. Even if you're a one battery and low end owner, the numbers still work.

 

[Bicyclista]

Spending $300 on another charger or using timer/multimeter is not what most people will do or even want to do. The technology is continuing to evolve and 3-4 years we might not even be discussing this. Go out, enjoy your ebike, charge it when it needs to be charged and don't worry about it.

I agree. In three years perhaps the glass electrolyte batteries developed at the University of Texas will be in the market. Such batteries will have three times the energy density as lithium-ion batteries, providing three times the range. They will charge faster and have much longer life cycles. They will be safer, too, free of the dendrites that cause lithium-ion batteries to short-circuit and burst into flames. They might even be able to be charged 100% without any shortening of their lifespan.

 

[tomjasz]

Sorry, but give me one example where a battery technology has moved that fast to market. Just one please.

 

[tomjasz]

Please read the papers and technological reports...he best guess is 15 years. I'll have saved thousands with my charger by then.
"The short version is, don’t get excited too soon. Chris Robinson of LUX Research says translating laboratory breakthroughs into commercialized products is “no small feat.”

“This will have no tangible effect on electric vehicle adoption in the next 15 years, if it does at all. A key hurdle that many solid-state electrolytes face is lack of a scalable and cost-effective manufacturing process,” "