Battery query

Roberticus

Pedelecer
Mar 4, 2018
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Rotherham
Hello, I am fitting a kit to my wife’s road bike and have been considering a soft pack battery to go in a rack top bag.
I have a spare hard shell battery and am wondering if I can discard the shell ? As it is the battery is too big to fit in the rack top bag.
I have opened the shell and it looks feasible to me but comments for or against would be welcome
cheers,
Rob
 

matthewslack

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 26, 2021
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Not the best idea. There needs to be sufficient mechanical strength holding the cells in place to avoid strain on the interconnections and reliability issues, as well as enough protection to avoid damage in case of impact and so on.

When a battery designer has relied on a case for these functions, they probably did not design the cell pack to be able to manage without.
 

Bikes4two

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 21, 2020
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@matthewslack 's points are valid ones but depending on the physical structure of the battery, it might be possible to remove it from the hard case and cover it in shrink wrap instead.

The hard case clearly offers protection to the battery but that doesn't necessarily mean that the battery isn't adequately constructed/protected when out of the hard case. I mean, many an enthusiast has built their own battery pack and NOT mounted it in a hard case but something like a padded frame bag or saddle bag.

The big question is, how do you the OP, determine that the pack is suitable for using outside of the hard case? It would help if you've successfully built your own battery packs as the presumption would be that you by virtue of that experience, have a good knowledge of what constitutes a sound and safe pack build.

Without that knowledge and then removing the pack from the hard case and using it in a saddle bag, is venturing into the unknown and should not be taken lightly.

If you are willing to take the next step and you feel confident in removing the battery pack from the hard case, then you'll be able to go some way in determining the pack's structure and posting pics on here may illicit useful comment.

Maybe start with a youtube vid of folks building battery packs to at least get some idea as to what folks do to ensure a sound build. You could start with this one HERE by ebikeschool.com (Micah Toll) and many of his other videos.

50603
 

Roberticus

Pedelecer
Mar 4, 2018
47
17
65
Rotherham
Thanks for your replies.
I have opened the case. The battery pack seems well built. Seems to have a protective layer around the batteries and is shrink wrapped, similar to the vid.
Will try and post some pics.
Cheers.
 
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Bikes4two

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 21, 2020
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Micah Toll does a tear-down of a battery pack and comments on the points that he considers indicators of a good build in the YT clip HERE - he gives some useful tips on what he considers a good build although I'm sure others would have better ideas, but this guy has been in the battery building business a good while.
 
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