Wanted: New battery for my eZee Torque

[jeronimo479]

I have gone though 4 LiMn batteries now in my eZee Torq in the past three years. This last battery was the last one Nycewheels said they would give me for free. It was very generous, even though I feel like each of the batteries were defective. I never got 450-500 charges from any of them. This last one was less than 30 cycles. I got it in September of 2008. I have posted before and continue to hate LiMn batteries as they have not performed as advertised, even though I have followed all advice to atain longevity. Cool storage, short current burst, keep charged.

I have been reading about the Ping batteries and feel like I should roll-my-own solution based on the Ping LiFePO4 technology. Is there a drop in replacement yet or any other advise people would like to share with me?

I'm sick over having to spend $500 (U.S.) for a battery with a 6 month warranty that I just KNOW won't be 50% usefull next year (given past experience).

Wayne

 

[flecc]

Hello Wayne. The Ping batteries are too big to fit into the eZee case, in common with all these LiFePO4batteries, so you'd have to use it mounted elsewhere.

I don't know when all your batteries were made, but the earlier batteries were very poor and I went through three in less than 20 months myself. I started a test on a latest eZee battery type in January 2008 and gave it savage treatment for six months to try to break it and have been using it ever since. It's now almost 18 months old and has had 306 charges and done 4328 miles. Range is down a bit, probably about 20%, but that's quite normal for these types and it doesn't cut out even on the steepest climbs. It probably won't last much longer than two years and like any Li-ion manganese probably won't reach 500 charges, but it's very much better than the old ones.

In fact eZee didn't adopt this 4.4 kilo one but instead adopted the 3.3 kilo Li-poly one that had been on test at the same time and apparently performed as well. Their UK battery warranty is now 1 year.

The main problem at present is the very high cost of replacements due to the current exchange rates, that going for all types including Ping and eZee. Our eZee battery price in the UK is now equal to 618 dollars, so your position isn't quite as bad.
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[jeronimo479]

Serial Number of latest LiMn battery

I posted a while back that I got $600 from my credit card company to cover the cost of a new battery and charger. I was able to keep that money in reserve since NyceWheels was able to give me a replacement based on Wai Won's willingness to stand behind his product.

The current Serial Number is XH370-10J. It has been the worst performer yet. Wai Won has also asked me what my s/n is, maybe he will help me one more time. My company is moving another 1/2 mile away from home, extending my trip to nearly 11 miles (17.7km). My bike now only makes it 6 or 7 miles with moderate peddling.

I received an email from Sam at Yesa Battery today that says their LiFePO4 battery has 36V, 10Ahr; is good for over 2000 cycles; and has dimensions: 34 x 70 x 94mm. The outside of my eZee Torq battery is 115 x 72 x 380mm. It seems this might be a good solution! NyceWheels even sells a battery case for $25. What do you think about packing a YESA battery into an eZee case? Has anyone tried this?

Would it be better to go with the Ping battery and just create a new battery terminal and holder, say on the bike rack?

 

[torrent99]

I posted a while back that I got $600 form my credit card company to cover the cost of a new battery and charger. I was able to keep that money in reserve since NyceWheels was able to give me a replacement based on Wai Won's willingness to stand behind his product.

The current Serial Number is XH370-10J. It has been the worst performer yet. Wai Won has also asked me what my s/n is, maybe he will help me one more time. My company is moving another 1/2 mile away from home, extending my trip to nearly 11 miles (17.7km). My bike now only makes it 6 or 7 miles with moderate peddling.

I received an email from Sam at Yesa Battery today that says their LiFePO4 battery has 36V, 10Ahr; is good for over 2000 cycles; and has dimensions: 34 x 70 x 94mm. The outside of my eZee Torq battery is 115 x 72 x 380mm. It seems this might be a good solution! NyceWheels even sells a battery case for $25. What do you think about packing a YESA battery into an eZee case? Has anyone tried this?

Would it be better to go with the Ping battery and just create a new battery terminal and holder, say on the bike rack?

Wayne,

As you are US based you probably have a better selection of DIY battery choices than we do!

The site that is most into this is www.endlesssphere.com (ES) which is mostly US focussed.

I believe that the YESA is reasonably well respected on ES. The thing you might have to watch with LiFEPO4s is that they can't deliver as much peak current as LiMn. This probably won't matter or it might affect acceleration and hill climbing ability.

Depending on precisely how DIY you want to be you might consider:
1) A new Ezee battery. I'm sure Wai Won will come thru for you. 30 charges is pretty terrible so there's obviously something wrong there. Perhaps the bike is at fault in some way? For example is the controller cutting out too early? Is the charger faulty?
2) A Wisper battery for a Wisper 905. 36V 14Ah, not seen any bad reports. Don't know how you'd go about fitting it physically. Obviously connectors would need sorting.
3) A Ping battery.
4) Toolpacks from power tools. Dewalt 36V Lithium use very well respected LiFEPO4 cells with high current rating.
Bosch 36V packs have LiMN cells in them. You can get very good deals on power tool batteries in the US (but not in Europe ).
Obviously this is a VERY DIY solution (in more than one sense), and you should do a lot of research into it before starting.

As regards the YESA size, that sounds like the size for a single cell! You'd need 10 of those. I can't see it fitting in the Ezee battery case. Though you might be able to fashion a case of your own that could maybe fit on the bike in the same way.

Don't forget that with the YESA (and other DIY batteries) you will also need an appropriate BMS circuit to manage charging the cells, and cutting the power when a cell gets too low. And also a charger.

Overall it's probably going to be best to get an official Ezee battery...as the DIY route, whilst fun, could end up being complex and/or costly!

Hope this helps

Cheers

Steve

 

[flecc]

The current Serial Number is XH370-10J. It has been the worst performer yet. Wai Won has also asked me what my s/n is, maybe he will help me one more time.

This is only the battery type number Jeronimo, indicating it's a lithium manganese 10Ah battery. Wai Won will need the serial number which is just below that on the label. It's a long alpha-numeric number beginning with a "J". If you let me have that whole serial number as well I can tell you exactly when it was made.
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[jeronimo479]

eZee Torq, Lithium Battery S/N

Sorry it took so long. I have given up trying to get a free battery so getting the S/N wasn't my top priority.

Battery Serial Number: WPR00909A

I'm waiting till Spring here to see what my options are. $600 for battery and charger seems really steep, but I read Flecc's review on the latest eZee battery and it is inspiring.

I know I shouldn't need a new charger, but the last one kept blowing the internal fuse (not the easily replaceable one, but the one soldered onto the PCB). The last time I slid the PCB into the extruded case, something shorted out and the smoke came out when I powered up.

Ah... the joys of electric bike ownership.

That makes 4 batteries and 4 chargers (dead).

 

[flecc]

I'm afraid I don't recognise that serial number at all so am unable to tell it's age. It may be one of the Sanyo made ones that eZee used for a very short time, in which case only Wai Won could tell you more about it.

Most of the eZee batteries use an alpha-numeric coding commencing with a J, generally starting with JF, JG, JH or JI.
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