Why the e-bike boom is raising fire fears - BBC Article

[StuartsProjects]

Why the e-bike boom is raising fire fears

Sales of electric bikes are booming but defective batteries and chargers can cause fires.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[warlord0]

Revival of the hoverboard fears

 

[guerney]

"Aviva reports that 71% of adults surveyed in the UK didn't know the signs that a lithium-ion battery, the type found in e-bikes and e-scooters, is on the verge of failure. These warning signs include heating, leaking, swelling, and unusual smells and noises."

Before covid, my sense of smell was very good - my battery has always stunk a little bit, but I've been using it for three years without flames.

Perhaps battery manufacturers should build in smelloalarms™ , as well as temperature activated and cell cracking noise detection alarms? Other enterprising companies could make retrofit kits of the same? Perhaps small animals or AIs could be trained to recognise these warning signs? "What's that, Ratty? My battery is about to explode?!?!? Thanks, have a peanut."

 

[Nealh]

Ebike fires are down to mainly educating people who know little about lithium battery and the charging process . For years the domain of this forum was all about diy with some early oem bikes , one never saw any reports of fires or battery safty issues because the users were knowledgable as were the forum users then.
Now we see the market opening up with all manner of dodgy fast food motorbikes , e-scooters and the public in general being seduced by bosh type bikes etc,etc.
The issue is thye are pretty thick and simply don't understand the dangers of over charging or inappropriate charging techniques. We see it on here quite a few think it is safe to fast charge or only part charge a battery cutting out any benefit of the BMS functions.
The worst bunch of the lot are the high power diy , fast food bike conversions and the e-scooter users .

Most diy conversions are safe if the end user marries the controller and battery up correctly, issues occure becuase batteries are getitng bigger more Ah, faster charging and dare I say even using incorrect chargers to charge incorrect voltage batteries.

We sometimes see it a bit on here users not knowing the difference between Ah and amp ratings and also voltages .
We see it now and again when users have no idea between nominal battery voltage and the max charge voltage for said nominal battery volatge.
There are those who think 52v is 48v and have no idea of what they are talking about or doing.
There are tbh only three proper eapc / ebike voltages recognisable as a standard range and they are 24v, 36v & 48v. Anyhting else is an in between of different voatge range voltage and for most they are very confusing as they have no concept of any mismatching of components.

 

[saneagle]

BBC says there's a rise in ebikes. BBC says "defective batteries and chargers can cause fires". Now put two unrelated facts together to promote your agenda what ever it is.

Here's my one. Millions of below average intelligence people watch the BBC. Defective televisions can catch fire. If a television belonging to a below intelligence person catches fire when they're asleep, they could die from burning or smoke inhalation. BBC needs to be shut down to save lives.

 

[Nealh]

Wisper use an inbetween voltage on their new range of bikes , these are not 36v or 48v but an inbetween voltage so here users simply can't use a std 36v or 48v charger .
I am the same with my bikes , I use an inbetween voltage similar to Wisper it isn't 36v but also isn't 48v . It is 44v /12s or 12 cells in series , it requires a specific voltage rated charger to not exceed the max charge.
The battery BMS is also not a 36 or 48v rated BMS, it is one specific for 12s connection only .

 

[Nealh]

The BBC are like any other media type , they exist on sensationalism and hysteria to misinform the public on issues they mis - report very often. They never let the truth or a fact get in the way.

 

[Nealh]

Imho the part of battery fires that ais dangerous is the idiot on the end carrying out the charging , either thru negligence or using defective /incorrect chargers.