On Battery Care and Maintenance

[reed scott]

I've read a lot of threads here on the subject. Until I get an upscale charger I'm just charging till the green light comes on. If this shortens the life of my battery so be it. I can get another one. My concern is storage. It seems poor storage is very bad for these batteries. I don't want to be unduly harsh in the treatment of an expensive device. My question is just what constitutes storage? Obviously putting the bike away for weeks or months would be storage. But what about a couple of days or a week. Like today, I had charged the bike last night. But could not ride today as things came up, like unexpected work having to be done. So the bike has sat now 24 hours at full charge. What if I can't ride tomorrow? It may rain here. So 48 hours. Is this storage and is it detrimental? Thank you for any help.

 

[6zfshdb]

I'm sure you'll get many opinions on this. Not all batteries are alike and some may resist "charge deterioration" better than others. In my case, I usually don't keep a battery at 100% for more than a week. Beyond that, if I can't ride, I use a discharge rig to bring it down below 70%.

 

[Sierratim]

I'm sure you'll get many opinions on this. Not all batteries are alike and some may resist "charge deterioration" better than others. In my case, I usually don't keep a battery at 100% for more than a week. Beyond that, if I can't ride, I use a discharge rig to bring it down below 70%.

I try to follow this basic pattern as well with the addition that I don't leave the battery in the shop when temps fall below ~40°F for the night.

 

[reed scott]

I'm sure you'll get many opinions on this. Not all batteries are alike and some may resist "charge deterioration" better than others. In my case, I usually don't keep a battery at 100% for more than a week. Beyond that, if I can't ride, I use a discharge rig to bring it down below 70%.

So leaving it on a high charge for two or three days is probably OK?

 

[6zfshdb]

So leaving it on a high charge for two or three days is probably OK?

I'm not an expert but I have been doing this for 3 seasons so far and have seen very little loss of battery capacity.

 

[Sierratim]

So leaving it on a high charge for two or three days is probably OK?

Higher levels of charge accelerate deterioration of the battery electrodes so shorter times at 100% charge are better than longer times but I'm personally OK with a trade off between personal convenience and max battery life. Others post that they don't discharge below 20% nor charge above 80%. This will extend battery life but I figure at my age the battery will pobably outlast me regardless of how I treat it!

 

[reed scott]

Higher levels of charge accelerate deterioration of the battery electrodes so shorter times at 100% charge are better than longer times but I'm personally OK with a trade off between personal convenience and max battery life. Others post that they don't discharge below 20% nor charge above 80%. This will extend battery life but I figure at my age the battery will pobably outlast me regardless of how I treat it!

Same here.

 

[6zfshdb]

Higher levels of charge accelerate deterioration of the battery electrodes so shorter times at 100% charge are better than longer times but I'm personally OK with a trade off between personal convenience and max battery life. Others post that they don't discharge below 20% nor charge above 80%. This will extend battery life but I figure at my age the battery will pobably outlast me regardless of how I treat it!

I agree. Another factor is by the time your battery fails, there may be newer, lighter more efficient ones available and you'd want to replace it anyway.

 

[mogulskier]

So leaving it on a high charge for two or three days is probably OK?

Yes. I've done it a few times when work got in the way of riding.

I have not experienced any battery degradation or performance hit as a result. But I think storage means weeks not days. And if you will store it for that long, then keep the charge around 70% is what I would recommend.

For just 3 days, I would not worry about it.