battery range /power seems to have decreased

[footpump]

hi bought my ebike last year vita uno 10ah bottle battery used it in the summer, and seemed to get 25-30 miles range faily flat.

not used it over nov/dec/jan period to cold and wet for me (have been bus pass bashing) battwery has been fully charged ,and is in warmish location.

however a couple of short rides this month the most being 6 miles,but loaded up with shopping locks etc about 9 kilo max bike seems a bit gutless and I feel I would get nowhere near the range mentioned even without extra weight.

as its my first ebike, not sure how much the colder weather affects battery range, or if I have got a duff battery I would estimate I have done 1000 miles since new or less

it took nearly 2.5 hours to recharge after this 6 mile trip mode 2 used slight hill

thank you all

 

[Gubbins]

My battery is nearly 2 years old now and still performs well, but during the winter it drops off quite dramatically but comes back with the warmer weather. I dont notice a loss of power, just a loss of miles... I would say it is down about 20% if I go in the winter months..

 

[AndyBolton]

Same here December through February but left the battery on the bike in the outside shed, where it was kept nice and cold. I understand this is better for storing.

 

[trex]

it may recover. Just take it out for another ride.

 

[SteveRuss]

Same here December through February but left the battery on the bike in the outside shed, where it was kept nice and cold. I understand this is better for storing.

Really? I thought storing batteries in the cold wasn't the best idea. There are some proper battery/tech guys on here so hopefully they'll chime in and straighten this out.

The reason for posting on this thread now is that my Kalkhoff 17ah battery (less than a year old) is showing signs of poor performance as of this week. I met someone with exactly the same bike today (on my local cycle path) and he held the battery test button down and it showed 4 out of 5 bars. Apparently this is what it considers its own capacity to be. Both his and his wife's battery showed 5 bars. He knew this as his battery showed similar signs previously as well as the poor performance figures and was replaced accordingly. From what i've read on here, the cold weather can be a contributing factor to these type of issues but i'm personally not sure if they explain my issues fully.

Although my battery is under warranty and 50cycles customer service appears to have no reported issues, the replacement cost of these things is so high that I need to make sure that any problems with it are dealt with before my warranty runs out

I'll let you know how it goes

 

[JuicyBike]

Winter temperatures can diminish range by 30%
Our battery care advice applies to all lithium batteries:
http://www.juicybike.co.uk/care-tips-for-e-bike-batteries

 

[SteveRuss]

Winter temperatures can diminish range by 30%
Our battery care advice applies to all lithium batteries:
http://www.juicybike.co.uk/care-tips-for-e-bike-batteries

2. Keep your electric bike battery clean and dry
There is little danger from a wet battery and ours are designed to cope with riding in the rain, though it is not advised

Is that the general advice with your bikes? I'm not trying to wind anyone up here but.. wow...

 

[SteveRuss]

You probably think I may be having a go at you at this stage, but I am not intending to at all. Being a general sponge for information, I couldn't help reading the battery advice you linked to..

The lithium powder inside the battery cells decreases its electrical resistance as it warms up. This means that in warmer conditions your battery will discharge more quickly and will need charging more often.

You should notice that on cold days your bike will travel less far and this is due to this same property of lithium powder - its resistance increases with colder conditions. This means that you will travel further on warmer days.

Er.. Is it just me or is there a glaring contradiction there..?

 

[flecc]

Really? I thought storing batteries in the cold wasn't the best idea. There are some proper battery/tech guys on here so hopefully they'll chime in and straighten this out.

There's a lot of confusion about this. A lithium battery being stored out of use long term is best at around one third charge and kept close to zero degrees C, which minimises capacity loss with age.

One that's in fairly regular use is best kept at around room temperature to perform well.
.

 

[SteveRuss]

There's a lot of confusion about this. A lithium battery being stored out of use long term is best at around one third charge and kept close to zero degrees C, which minimises capacity loss with age.

One that's in fairly regular use is best kept at around room temperature to perform well.
.

Thanks Flecc

 

[mountainsport]

Same here December through February but left the battery on the bike in the outside shed, where it was kept nice and cold. I understand this is better for storing.

Hi Andy, im not ruling out altogether what you've said, but 21 degrees Celsius sounds a bit more acceptable for most batteries .

MS.

 

[trex]

the battery's electronics needs to be kept dry. In a garage, the humidity in the air will condense inside the casing damaging the electronics and increases leakage current. We are talking about a few mA here, but the effect can be devastating on the closing up of the tiny pores in the cells surfaces due to a special passivation effect when the cells slowly discharge.
The result of reduced porosity can be catastrophic, you may find that after a couple of months in storage, your battery loses so much of its continuous aand peak discharge rate.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I'm not convinced that temperature has a significant affect on batteries. In theory it does, but if you charge your battery in the house, it doesn't know what the temperature is outside. Even when you take it outside, the cell-pack is reasonably insulated from the outside air, so it would take some time to cool down if you didn't use it. Once you start using it, it has internal resistance, so warms itself up. When I test batteries at a constant 5 amps in my cold shed, they get pretty warm by the end of the test. Obviously, on a warm day, a battery would heat up more, so it would have the potential to deliver more current, but that shouldn't affect its capacity.

You could easily eliminate the cold as being a factor by charging the battery in your warm house. Then, when you put it on your bike just before you set off, wrap a scarf arround it so that it can't get cold.

 

[SteveRuss]

You could easily eliminate the cold as being a factor by charging the battery in your warm house. Then, when you put it on your bike just before you set off, wrap a scarf arround it so that it can't get cold.

 

[AndyBolton]

I was talking about storing the battery unused for three months. And I'm led to believe that room temperature is not a good idea.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The colder the better, but not frozen.

 

[Gubbins]

I was reading recently about the Tesla car batteries which are quite expensive to replace, and I was wondering if the cells are similar to what we use. The report was on the effect of the recharge cycles over time with 5 years of use and 60 to 100 thousand KMs done there was between 2 and 10% measurable loss in capacity.. This has to be good and I was wondering if our batteries are likely to perform the same..

 

[flecc]

Tesla's case is somewhat different where battery use is concerned. With our minimal batteries on e-bikes we are working them quite hard nearly all the time, so they suffer in consequence.

Cars, including Tesla's, due to road and traffic conditions spend most of their time running at only a fraction of what they are capable of, so their batteries have a very easy time of it in comparison.

A bit like satellite lithium batteries that only gently use one seventh of their battery capacity once each 24 hours and last ten years and around 3600 daily solar charges.
.

 

[Gubbins]

Tesla's case is somewhat different where battery use is concerned. With our minimal batteries on e-bikes we are working them quite hard nearly all the time, so they suffer in consequence.

Cars, including Tesla's, due to road and traffic conditions spend most of their time running at only a fraction of what they are capable of, so their batteries have a very easy time of it in comparison.

A bit like satellite lithium batteries that only gently use one seventh of their battery capacity once each 24 hours and last ten years and around 3600 daily solar charges.
.

So, If you use Turbo all the time and do a lot of hills, then ........ ?

 

[flecc]

You've been watching too many car adverts where a car winds along at speed on a clear road in amazing countryside without any other vehicles, crossroads or traffic lights in sight!

But yes, if you could find the conditions to work one really hard all the time (Le Mans?) the batteries would suffer somewhat, but realistically that's not possible in consumer use. Hills go down as well as up for example and the Tesla's high performance just cannot be used to the full on roads in such a demanding way.
.