(Shimano) batteries. Balancing.

[kev123]

I have a Shimano steps. Battery. (It's a BT) E6000. And I'm wondering if I can balance it. Because it seems to have. An automatic. Shut off. But there still seems to be power going to the battery after it shuts off.

 

[LimboJim]

I've read that Shimano chargers will stay "on" for a brief period after the battery reaches full charge (mine does). This is unusual in my experiences over several years with Bosch, Yamaha and generic "brands." I've heard some folks surmise that the purpose of this is to balance cells, but I'm not technically savvy enough to confirm. There's nothing in Shimano's battery manual about it...

I've had my Commencal eMTB with a Shimano BT-e8010 (for e8000 system) battery for 4 years, however, and don't intentionally wait for the charger light to fully go off. I also have a Kill-a-Watt meter, which shows no voltage draw from the charger when the battery is "full," even though the charger's light is still on. My STePS owner's manual certainly doesn't mention why this happens...

Meanwhile, I've seen no appreciable decrease in my battery's range during that time (100+ full charge cycles). I feel that the reasons for that are
that I never leave my battery fully or lowly charged from more than a few days at a time, and I always keep it in a temperate, dry environment.

Bottom line: I really don't think it's necessary to balance quality batteries like Shimano that have good battery management systems - the BMS should do that automatically. Anyone with more battery expertise care to chime in?