How do I manage my battery?
We can help! We provide each customer with an instruction sheet with our recommendations for charging and extending your Li-ion battery life. We also recommend our customers refer to any manufacturer's guides for individual product handling instructions, if available. Like you, we only want to have quality li-ion cells in our electric bikes/electric trikes and we tend to supply batteries that use Samsung, Panasonic or LG cells.
Lithium-ion Batteries and Charging:
Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of battery for electric trikes and e-bikes today. As batteries are a significant cost component of any electric bike, making sure you charge them appropriately to extend their life is an investment in the future.
The lifespan of a battery is dependent on your behaviour and how you manage the charging. You can make sure you get as much as possible out of the life of your battery by following a few, simple instructions!
- As Li-ion batteries have no memory effect, the best use of one charge cycle is to bring it back up to full when down to around 20%. You don’t have to cut yourself short though if you’re planning a longer ride!
- A partial charge of 20 to 100% is more efficient than charging each day or when you still have significant battery storage available.
- We recommend that your charging habits take into consideration the number of charge cycles, depending on the battery capacity (approx. 500 cycles).
Treat your battery with care:
Just like your mobile phone, your battery contains sensitive electronics and lithium-ion batteries should be treated gently. If your battery gets wet, remove it and ensure it dries out fully before using. You should always remember to keep the silicon cover on the charge port closed when not charging the battery and keep your e-bike in good working order.
A few crucial things to remember! Don’t get it wet, overly dusty or muddy and don’t allow penetration by water including salt water! Ensuring you keep your battery in good working condition helps keep you safe while riding and is your assurance that you are in good hands.
Please always read the care instructions supplied at the time of purchase and take responsibility for good management and practices.
Not planning on riding for a while?
If you are planning on not riding for more than a few weeks, we recommend storing your bike with a battery level of around 60-80%. This is the level for batteries we receive in bikes or from our battery supplier. It’s optimised for long-term storage.
If you leave the battery full or empty for over 3 months, your battery may fail. Sadly, this is not recommended and is not covered by warranty.
Battery replacement:
Battery replacement is required when the battery no longer holds a charge or if the battery becomes damaged. Li-ion products do degrade over time, and this is widely researched and publicised. It’s not always the case but a degradation of 30% in the first year can occur and is considered to be within specification.
We have many customers with batteries lasting over 5 years, but it is dependent on a wide range of individual factors as well as the battery technology, including gross load, terrain ride style, demand on the motor and variability on draw on the motor.
Warranty terms on batteries are generally shorter than the warranty on bike frames. Please check your warranty terms as they do vary by manufacturer. Some bikes are offered with a reduced warranty due to their age.
Battery testing:
We can test your battery to measure its health. To do this, the battery must be removed from your e-bike and fully charged beforehand. We charge for this service and prefer to be able to complete the test within the same day.
We use a special battery tester designed to record the Amp Hour (Ah) rating of the battery compared to the new level. This helps you determine whether the battery is on its last legs or if it is still fine to continue to use for the types of distances you ride. It can also be a great way to assure a prospective purchaser of the condition of your bike if you are considering selling it privately.
Cheaper cells can be installed in less expensive bike batteries and if that is the case, we may ask you to take your battery with you overnight.
We do not repack battery cells. Some third-party providers can do this, but we do not recommend tampering with the original battery.