Practical Tips for e-Bike Battery Care
- Read the User Manual supplied with your bike. If any doubt, call the company and ask. Read the warning stickers. Be confident but cautious.
- Store bike, batteries, and charger in a dry place, out of the weather. Only operate the charger in a dry place.
- When charging the battery, place the battery, bike and charger in a place where any accident, such as a hot battery, hot charger, or even a (very, very rare) fire would not affect dwellings, damage property, or hurt people.
- Know where the fire extinguisher is, and be alert that not all fire extinguishers will work on battery fires. For those who are interested, there are training films online for airline crew on how to extinguish a lithium fire in a laptop computer.
- Be alert to how long you have connected the charger. A smart charger is supposed to sense the battery state of charge and turn off when the charge is complete. This avoids the chance of over-charging – a major cause of damage to batteries. As a backup, unplug the charger when not being used. Leaving the charger plugged in indefinitely is placing too much faith in the design and construction of the charger.
- If your charger is not a smart charger – be very alert to the time that you have charged the battery and unplug it when the charge is complete.
- Do not touch any part of the electrical system of an e-bike, the battery, or the charger with your tongue. If you do, you will be regretting it for a long time and be too embarrassed to tell anyone what is wrong.
- You cannot go wrong by charging the battery after each use, although it may not be required.
- You cannot go wrong by charging the battery every month or perhaps every 2-3 months when not in use, even if not required.
- Be alert to the state of charge. There are some bikes that when they are “off” they are still using a bit of current, and that will discharge the battery to a level that can damage the battery. Removing the battery, or more frequent charging may be needed.
- Read the label on the charger. If you plug a 220V charger into a 110 volt mains outlet, you will not be pleased with the results. Even less so if it was a 110v charger that you plugged into a 220v mains. Unlike computers and cell phones – where nearly all chargers are dual voltage, many e-bikes are shipped with a charger that can accept only one voltage. Since e-bike makers sell bikes all over the world, it is possible for you to receive a charger for the wrong mains voltage, or even with the wrong plug.
- If you are trying to connect a charger to the bike or battery, and the plug does not fit – you may be making a mistake. Stop and evaluate. Ask questions of the maker and dealer.
- BMS (and smart chargers) are supposed to protect the bike and battery against damage and provide a level of safety from fire, electrical shock, and overheat. They almost always work. But…not always. Be alert and consider what will happen and what you will do, if the hardware has been damaged or failed and either the battery fails to charge, (most likely) or a fire occurs.
- Shock, vibration, high heat, sub-freezing temperatures, water, high humidity, crushing, punctures, are all bad for batteries. Do what you can to prevent the exposure of your battery to such.
LaBatteria manufactures, imports and distributes high energy Lithium-Ion batteries of premium quality. Our cells and battery units have top performance ratings and are available through our secure, online store at wholesale prices directly to your door. We at LaBatteria pride ourselves on providing all our customers with the best products and full service support at all stages. Our main portfolio today focuses on e-Bike batteries with further research and advancements being made by our team of engineers on other electric powered vehicle applications. For more information or if you have an inquiry, please email us at info@labatteria.co.il or visit or Facebook page.
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