Small Battery Bargain.....?

[craiggor]

 

[craiggor]

First ride on the MacAlister.14.52 miles.5.558 amp hours.32.98 voltage minimum.20.01 amps peak.this is my first ebike.I have a huge EV grin.running a £35 second hand hub motor.

 

[Chris Maluszynski]

Cool. I wonder if this would power a Q100H motor with the S06S controller on a brompton? Or would I need two of them to get to the 8ah?

 

[patpatbut]

Hi again

Yes this is what I use on my brompton. It works ok for one battery too. However this battery is back for the full price now

Pat

 

[Chris Maluszynski]

Oh no! Really? I thought it was posted just recently, but maybe I read the date wrong.

 

[craiggor]

I got mine on the 8 the of January. A few days later the price had gone up on the internet.I went in to B&Q yesterday loads more stock on the shelves, but the price is up to £130.

 

[Chris Maluszynski]

: (

 

[JamesW]

I wonder if someone at B&Q made a system typo and then someone else realised it after we all started buying them and costing B&Q thousands???

 

[craiggor]

Could be James.I was thinking £130,was a lot of money for a hedge trimmer battery .there's a lot of garden power tools in stock at both B&Q's i go to.i think they thought lets drop the price of the batteries and people might buy some tools.

 

[JamesW]

2nd thought...
Or maybe they thought they'd drop the price of the batteries pre-Christmas to get people to buy the equipment as presents thinking the batteries were cheap and then when people have bought the equipment and want the batteries or a spare, oh dear - the price has gone up!

 

[craiggor]

Yes, that's sounds like what a big company would do.my sister reckons they might do the same around easter.

 

[Nealh]

Luckily that they don't watch this forum otherwise they would have known better.

 

[jhruk]

If anyone's still interested they would appear to be down to £34 again :

http://www.diy.com/departments/mac-allister-36v-li-ion-40ah-battery-charger/188696_BQ.prd

 

[patpatbut]

I have three of them. Using one is possible even 15a controller but it will sag once the juice has nearly run out.
Ideally you can link them in parallel, it works quite well after that.

Pat

 

[Chris Maluszynski]

If I go for this it would be with one battery and possibly a spare to swith once it runs out. But how long could you run on a 15a controller? Could you explain the sag? Does it make it unusable past a certain voltage? And how fast is that? A mile? Five? Ten?

 

[craiggor]

Chris,I have been running 2 in parallel.but today I did 10 miles on one.1 and a half down a big hill then some fairly brisk pedal assist.going back up the hill (I will have to get my level out but 2 years ago when I smoked I had to start pushing at the bottom.I stopped smoking and can now just pedel up it.it flys up on 2 ).it just lost all power near the top..I didn't have my watt meter on today.20 amp controller. I'am new to ebiking.I don't really now if this is good or bad.seems good to me I got called a cheat as I flew past a Lycra on my first outing.I have been doing 15 miles on 2 and flying up the hill at the end with life left.my average speed has nearly doubled.Went and got a couple more today.

 

[Chris Maluszynski]

Ok, so I went out and bought two of these batteries yesterday. I don't even have the bike or conversion kit yet, but thought I'd get the batteries anyway in case they go up again.

I started charging one of them - and when I went back about an hour later, I noticed a distinct - not very pleasant smell coming out of it. Not super strong, but strong enough to make me worry. The battery was quite warm, bordering on hot on the underside.

Is this normal for a first charge? I got scared and took it off. Three of the diodes light up when I test it. It's cooled down now, but still has the smell close up.

I really don't feel like taking another drive to a B&Q that stocks these as it took me an hour each way, but it looks like I may have to? Or is this smell normal?

 

[craiggor]

My first charge took one hour and 10 mins.there was a slight smell.mine get quite warm,on the top.i think this is normal,but don't quote me on that.I would like to slow the charger down.but i do not know how to do this.i'am sure it would be better for the batteries if they where charged slower.

 

[Chris Maluszynski]

Also, Patpatbut: Could you give details on your custom made battery connection? How did you make it? It looks good!

 

[felix]

Ok, so I went out and bought two of these batteries yesterday. I don't even have the bike or conversion kit yet, but thought I'd get the batteries anyway in case they go up again.

I started charging one of them - and when I went back about an hour later, I noticed a distinct - not very pleasant smell coming out of it. Not super strong, but strong enough to make me worry. The battery was quite warm, bordering on hot on the underside.

Is this normal for a first charge? I got scared and took it off. Three of the diodes light up when I test it. It's cooled down now, but still has the smell close up.

I really don't feel like taking another drive to a B&Q that stocks these as it took me an hour each way, but it looks like I may have to? Or is this smell normal?

Hi Chris,
I have 3 for my project and they did get quite warm and smelled on charging. I think the smell is mainly due to the newness of the batteries. Did you charge them side by side? Warm air comes out of the charger vents and so I made sure there was a good gap between them when in use and this seemed to help.