Battery charging questions

[jdallan]

A couple of questions about battery charging:

1. Does it matter if there is a break in the battery charging period, or is it advisable to charge to full in one continuous charge? I usually do a continuous charge however on the odd occasion, a greater power decides that some sort of excursion out of the house is needed so I unplug the battery/charger and resume on return home.This doesn't seem to have had any ill effect so far.

2. When giving details of the batteries on their bikes, some suppliers talk about the battery being good for "x" charging cycles. What is a "charging cycle"? Is it simply the normal charge after partial depletion or does some other formula come into play?

Probably stupid questions but I'd appreciate any views.

Jim

 

[IR772]

1 No problem, she who must be obeyed, must be obeyed.

2 Full discharge to recharged is a cycle.

It is better for the battery to do part charges, i.e. from 55% to full rather than flatten the battery for a full cycle.

There is no "memory" effect with this technology so please yourself.

If you really want to help the battery charge it to the high 90%s rather than 100% and your battery will last the longest. But if you need maximum capacity charge it to 100%

 

[D8ve]

A complete charging cycle is full- flat - full charge.
The way it works is two half discharges and recharges = one cycle.
Splitting the cycle makes no difference.
Warning going absolutely flat can do other things and kill the battery as will over charging. More than 100%

 

[Nealh]

To keep the battery cell groups/strings balanced then really you need to charge fully as any balancing by the BMS doesn't happen until near full charge.
Discharging #flattening fully very rarely happens as most battery BMS's will prevent cells from going much lower then 3.3 - 3.5v per cell, though most cells are capable of going to 2.8v.
2.8v is often the minimum that testers go to for reviewing battery capacities and then they often get warm at higher discharge rates to asses there effectiveness.

 

[jdallan]

Thanks all. It would appear that what I'm doing is OK.

Jim