Health and Safety - Share Your E-Bike Battery Experiences & Recommendations

Dear Forum Community,

In light of the recent news surrounding e-bike battery safety, I believe it's crucial for us to discuss and share our collective insights and experiences regarding the batteries we use in our e-bikes. Ensuring the safety and reliability of our equipment is paramount, not only for our personal well-being but also for the sustainability of our passion for e-biking.

Many of us have come to rely on our e-bikes for daily commuting, recreation, or as an eco-friendly transportation alternative. However, the growing concerns over battery fires have underscored the need for vigilance and informed decision-making when it comes to selecting and maintaining our batteries.

I encourage each of you to share your personal experiences, preferences, and any tips you might have concerning e-bike batteries. Whether it's a brand that you've found to be exceptionally reliable, maintenance practices that ensure longevity and safety, or any challenges you've encountered, your input could be incredibly valuable to our community.

Let's use this opportunity to help each other make informed decisions, enhance our safety, and continue enjoying our e-biking journeys with confidence.

Looking forward to your stories and insights!

Please list your

1. Battery manufacturer and model.
   
2. Electrical spec (e.g. 36v 10s3p).
   
3. Brand of cells it uses.
   
4. Purchased date, age, and mileage if known.
   
5. Anything relevant point - Does the BMS use bluetooth, have a temp sensor? Any failures or worse any fires?
   

To the moderator: Can we get this thread as a sticky if it picks up momentum?

That's just hysteria. None of the 20,000 people, who joined this forum has reported a fire in at least the last 14 years. It would be better to discuss not to leave your battery or ebike anywhere where something might set light to it, like in an airport carpark next to a Landrover PHEV.

All you're going to get from a thread like you suggest, is reinforce the false narrative that your ebike is going to burst into flames and burn your house down if you look in the wrong direction.

We've had countless threads on this matter before and there's already plenty of good advice.

Edited February 11, 20242 yr by saneagle

That's just hysteria. None of the 20,000 people, who joined this forum has reported a fire in at least the last 14 years.

In fact not a single member has experienced a battery fire in the whole 18 year life of this forum since it was established in October 2006. And some of us, including me, also drive electric cars too, our makes including Nissan, Renault, Tesla and Polestar, again without any fires of any fear of experiencing a fire.

In the very earliest forum days when li-ion batteries commonly had simple cobalt cathodes we did have the odd instances of a battery casing swelling when the 18640 cells of that type were failing, but none caught fire. These were the same cells that caused all the laptop fires in that era, found mainly to be due to poor manufacturing standards, but dealing with that and advances in cathodes solved that problem well before the end of that decade.

The present fuss over lithium battery fires has at it's source the recent introduction of illegal privately owned e-scooters and poorly home constructed and mostly also illegal e-bikes.

They are nothing to do with legal EAPCs, the pedelecs that we own and ride, as our 18 year fire free record demonstrates. So as Saneagle has posted, this thread serves no useful purpose and could spark more unnecessary and inaccurate hysteria.

.

Here you can find some reasonably good advice:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/battery-safety-for-e-cycle-users/battery-safety-for-e-cycle-users

not only for our personal well-being but also for the sustainability of our passion for e-biking.

I think it's sensible to discuss the fires we see in the media and what we think are the best responses to them. It's easy for some to abuse the present situation for competitive ends and promote needless restrictions, we should make our voices heard just now.

Tempted to open up my UUP batteries, I bought some of the bottle batteries.

"If anyone owns one, they should not use it and contact the seller for redress.”

https://hounslowherald.com/warning-after-banned-battery-causes-kensington-blaze-p24364-249.htm

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/opss-takes-enforcement-action-over-dangerous-e-bike-battery

So as Saneagle has posted, this thread serves no useful purpose and could spark more unnecessary and inaccurate hysteria.

I strongly disagree. New members should not be discouraged from asking questions and opening new threads. Nobody is showing any signs of hysteria. There is an elephant in the room and it is better to address the problem rather than to brush it under the carpet.

Yes, we talked a lot about it, but despite that there is still a lot to learn.

BTW Search engine on this forum is the worst I have seen. I really struggle to find things even when I know what I am looking for and more or less where to find it.

BTW Search engine on this forum is the worst I have seen. I really struggle to find things even when I know what I am looking for and more or less where to find it.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=site%3Apedelecs.co.uk+%22fire%22

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=site%3Apedelecs.co.uk+%22fire%22

As enigmatic as always Lenny. I am not sure what you are trying to say. I know how to use google and one can't google what OP was asking in first post.

People saying this thread is pointless are missing the forest for the trees. The average member of the public aren't aware of the 20,000 responsible people on this forum. They see the increasing risk of ebikes causing fires and understandably want to be safe.

That doesn't mean they are stupid, obviously these incidents are a minority of actual ebike users, but this dismissive "we're not the problem" rhetoric does nothing to foster trust in our community for the average person.

If in in 2021, 1 in 20 people in the uk owned an ebike = 3.5 million. That number must have increased since then - aren't the odds of conflagration occurring very small?

Other prizes you could win include:

I think it's sensible to discuss the fires we see in the media and what we think are the best responses to them. It's easy for some to abuse the present situation for competitive ends and promote needless restrictions, we should make our voices heard just now.

Compared to mainstream media, whatever is said on this forum doesn't matter a jot - I believe we're being prodded for the purposes of article research by a journalist using multiple forum identities. Is the journalist a lazy insignificant wannabe?

Edited February 12, 20242 yr by guerney

I believe we're being prodded for the purposes of article research by a journalist using multiple forum identities. Is the journalist a lazy insignificant wannabe?

Do you think Weekly Mail deprived access to certain voicemails is now fishing sensitive battery information on our cozy forum? Hmmm... it does make sense...

I feel flattered

None of the 20,000 people, who joined this forum has reported a fire in at least the last 14 years.

20,000 ?. It was 12000 3 days ago.

Besides. Why would anyone specifically come on and announce such a thing in a 'conversion' led ebike forum. Thats pretty much admitting they've failed.

"Hey guys, i built an ebike and it burned down my garage and killed the cat oh ho ho ho, who'd have thought eh ?"

You really need to drop this 'oh nobody told us so it cant have happened' rational, because its so far from rational its beginning to look like you're in denial

Edited February 12, 20242 yr by AndyBike

Besides. Why would anyone specifically come on and announce such a thing in a 'conversion' led ebike forum. Thats pretty much admitting they've failed.

Exactly.

The 20,000 figure quoted is a missleading statistic as all but a couple of members will know.

First, there is no compulsion for any of those 20,000 members to report a battery fire.

Second, to me it seem highly likley that a 'member' asking questions about batteries etc who then chooses to ignore the advice, goes the el-cheapo-cheapo route and has a fire is very unlikly to come back to the forum and report the fire.

So rather than invent statistics to prove a narative, what are the real statistics, how many battery fires are there really ?

So rather than invent statistics to prove a narative, what are the real statistics, how many battery fires are there really ?

"With the surge in popularity of e-bikes and scooters, has come such a rise in the number of fires that some have called them the new “chip pan” fire. Government data collated from 38 fire and rescue services shows that across the UK there were 227 such fires in 2022 and 338 in 2023. "

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24091226.e-bike-scooter-battery-fire-risk-call-awareness/

Government data collated from 38 fire and rescue services shows that across the UK there were 227 such fires in 2022 and 338 in 2023. "

So 338 fires reported in 2023.

I wonder how many are not reported ...............

So 338 fires reported in 2023.

 

I wonder how many are not reported ...............

https://jameslevesconte-psychicmedium.co.uk/in-cardiff

BTW Search engine on this forum is the worst I have seen.

inurl:www.pedelecs.co.uk xxxxxx

I strongly disagree. New members should not be discouraged from asking questions and opening new threads. Nobody is showing any signs of hysteria. There is an elephant in the room and it is better to address the problem rather than to brush it under the carpet.

Yes, we talked a lot about it, but despite that there is still a lot to learn.

 

BTW Search engine on this forum is the worst I have seen. I really struggle to find things even when I know what I am looking for and more or less where to find it.

In the interests of accuracy this reply is addressed to all in the forum, not just you.

The OP has obviously assumed that we in the EAPC community are a part of the fires problem when we clearly are not. That is the inaccuracy I speak of that only adds to all the media hysteria, which is very real. We are also media, so if we get involved in this current discussion about battery fires, we wrongly admit to being part of the problem when we absolutely are not.

So let's start by getting a long list of facts right:

When Russell Scott first created the pedelecs forum in October 2006, knowing of my pedelecs advice sites he got in touch inviting me to join, so I became member number one and added links to the pedelecs forum to my sites. So when I tell you that there have been no fires in their bikes reported by our members, that is true. Had there been we would have known, since we discussed the subject in depth in the first decade when the defective cobalt cathode cells that caused all the laptop fires were in some of our batteries, albeit much better protected in our products, hence our not suffering the laptop style fires.

Much of the source of the current fires problem is, as so often, our bungling incompetent politicians. When Boris Johnson successfully persuaded the public to vote for Brexit and later became PM, he was desperate to get a US trade deal to help make it a success. The large US e-scooter hire companies had long tried to get them into Britain, but unsuccessfully since they are automatically illegal here. However Johnson had the idea that he might curry favour with Biden by permitting a trial here, but of course that didn't work, since Biden has followed Trump's "America First" policy.

However in admitting the e-scooters into Britain for the trial the problem of how to deal with them was created, so our civil servants and politicians very wrongly lumped them in with pedelecs, referring to all of them as e-bikes. That is why we are being wrongly treated as a part of the problem.

At this point lets get one thing straight, our legal EAPCs (pedelecs) ARE NOT E-BIKES, so please stop calling them that !!

An e-bike, short for Electric Bike, describes a bicycle driven by an electric motor. Our legal EAPCs are NEVER only driven by an electric motor. They only have an AUXILLIARY motor which only ASSISTS when rider is pedalling, however lightly. If you don't believe me, you don't know this law. I do, better than anyone, even better that the DfT who make the law but are on record as not knowing it a number of times and being corrected by me.

An e-bike if not registered and plated etc., is an illegal machine, because the law has no provision or exemption for an unregistered electrically powered bicycle. E-bikes are in law L class motor vehicles, chiefly L1e-A or B. That is why our EAPCs cannot have fully acting throttles, since the addition of one makes them a motor vehicle.

The 20,000 members mentioned is not inaccurate. Former site hosts kept a tally of total membership on the forums page, that lost with the last change of host company.

The Search facility in this forum is indeed very poor, but it often wouldn't help even if it were excellent. The Pedelecs forum has been hosted by three different companies during its lifetime and in the transfers, particularly the last one, very large numbers of earlier posts have been lost, a source of considerable frustration to many of us. So even a random Google search often won't help.

Fleece kindly given to me by the Pedelecs administrators:

Edited February 12, 20242 yr by flecc

20,000 ?. It was 12000 3 days ago.

 

Besides. Why would anyone specifically come on and announce such a thing in a 'conversion' led ebike forum. Thats pretty much admitting they've failed.

 

"Hey guys, i built an ebike and it burned down my garage and killed the cat oh ho ho ho, who'd have thought eh ?"

 

 

You really need to drop this 'oh nobody told us so it cant have happened' rational, because its so far from rational its beginning to look like you're in denial

You're logic is somewhat lacking. You seem to have forgotten about those that joined and left. Look at the posts from 2008 and see how many of the members from then are still members.

You're logic is somewhat lacking. You seem to have forgotten about those that joined and left. Look at the posts from 2008 and see how many of the members from then are still members.

That's true, you alone left three times!

.

That's true, you alone left three times!

.

One of me died and went to heaven - bled to death in The Princess Royal, Wellington through lack of care. I'm just a ghost now, haunting the forum.

Do you think we should subtract a few because of the AI bots that were in the Brexit thread? Let's call it 19,993.

Edited February 12, 20242 yr by saneagle

Do you think we should subtract a few because of the AI bots that were in the Brexit thread? Let's call it 19,993.

I don't think there were many AI bots then, but certainly large numbers actually actively left then, their posts shown now as "NoLongerRegistered with a number" and "Account closed".

There were actually two Brexit threads, both started by me. The first one was titled "Leaving the EU" and ran for 48 pages. The second wasn't intended as a thread, only as a radio program link, but members jumped ship and it has run to 5499 pages to date.