Newbie battery care tips

[Dave S]

Hi,

So I bought a Giant Trance E+2 Pro about a week ago and am loving it so far
Mainly staying in Eco and Eco+ mode to preserve battery and just get used to what I can do with the bike with minimal assistance for now although have tried the other modes too

Because I'm in Eco mode a lot of the time, I've probably had about 70 miles out of battery so far and it's just gone onto the single light out of the 5 lights on the Ride Control One control pad

I thought that rechargeable batteries were best being almost discharged before recharging but have seen a vid on EMBN saying it's best to top up after each ride

At the moment, I'm doing rides normally 10 miles but up to 20 miles at a time so didn't really think I should be constantly topping up
How do people tend to treat their batteries ?
Run them down then do a full recharge or wait until they get to a certain point then recharge ?
It would seem mad to keep recharging for the sake of it so I was thinking I might just recharge when it gets to something like 2 out of the 5 lights left on the control pad ?

Cheers
Dave

 

[wepn]

I always reply to questions about battery care lol
A lot of people here say don't worry just charge it to 100% after you ride and get a new battery whenever it fails.
The problem with that is good quality batteries lose capacity - lower bike range - long before they fail. If you constantly keep it fully charged overnight or longer, it will at some point start to shutdown towards the end of longer rides.

Say 30 minutes or an hour after your ride, charge it to 50% or 60% for overnight or longer storage.
Before you ride, charge it to whatever approximate range requirement, say anywhere from 70% to 100%.
Best to never deep discharge unless necessary.
If you always charge to 80% to prevent range degradation, every 3 or 4 weeks charge to 100% before a ride. This the point at which cell balancing typically occurs.
Try to keep it at ambient temperatures in which you yourself feel comfortable.
I think that sums up the most important considerations.

 

[Dave S]

That's great thanks, good clear advice there

I'm comfortable in most weather and being from Manchester, riding in the rain and cold is a normal thing but will get into the habit of regular top up charges now

Because I'd been just doing my rides to see how long the battery would last and since it's new and was fully charged, it would be at maximum range I would think so at least I know now how long in general I can get on Eco mode mostly

For Winter, when it's icy I won't be using the bike or my normal MTBs either (exercise bike only then) so will have to look to long term trickle charge the battery off the bike indoors during those times I think because my garage gets quite cold

At the moment, I'm charging it on the bike though
I'll copy your detailed reply to add to my maintenance notes so I can refer to that for future

Thanks
Dave

 

[wepn]

That's great thanks, good clear advice there

I'm comfortable in most weather and being from Manchester, riding in the rain and cold is a normal thing but will get into the habit of regular top up charges now

Because I'd been just doing my rides to see how long the battery would last and since it's new and was fully charged, it would be at maximum range I would think so at least I know now how long in general I can get on Eco mode mostly

For Winter, when it's icy I won't be using the bike or my normal MTBs either (exercise bike only then) so will have to look to long term trickle charge the battery off the bike indoors during those times I think because my garage gets quite cold

At the moment, I'm charging it on the bike though
I'll copy your detailed reply to add to my maintenance notes so I can refer to that for future

Thanks
Dave

In winter, definitely keep the battery out of the cold & don't trickle charge - just charge it to 50% and keep it there by checking it every few weeks or so. The battery vampire won't drain it like on a Tesla butit's a good idea to check it at least monthly.
??

 

[Dave S]

In winter, definitely keep the battery out of the cold & don't trickle charge - just charge it to 50% and keep it there by checking it every few weeks or so. The battery vampire won't drain it like on a Tesla butit's a good idea to check it at least monthly.
??

Ha, thanks for that
Looks like the charger for my bike has an option to charge to 60% which is for long term storage so will do that and keep the battery indoors once the ice age rolls in

 

[wepn]

All chargers should have that 60% long life feature ! Sounds like you'll be extending its useful life without any difficulty.

 

[Dave S]

All chargers should have that 60% long life feature ! Sounds like you'll be extending its useful life without any difficulty.

Yes, thanks a lot for the advice

The bike user manual doesn't really go into the same detail as your replies, it's more like how to charge it on and off the bike and the 2 modes of charging but doesn't mention best practise for charging being top-ups rather than drain and fully charge

I'm charging the battery now on the bike and it looks like it's going to take 5 hrs to charge from 1 light on the controller so I won't use it like that in future, it will be top-ups and maintenance charges during Winter (with battery in house rather than garage)

 

[Nicho]

Yes, thanks a lot for the advice

The bike user manual doesn't really go into the same detail as your replies, it's more like how to charge it on and off the bike and the 2 modes of charging but doesn't mention best practise for charging being top-ups rather than drain and fully charge

I'm charging the battery now on the bike and it looks like it's going to take 5 hrs to charge from 1 light on the controller so I won't use it like that in future, it will be top-ups and maintenance charges during Winter (with battery in house rather than garage)

Also, before you ask, a charge cycle is when the battery is charged from 0% to 100%, not each time it is put on the charger. So charging it twice from 50% to 100% would count as one charge cycle, or from 40% to 100% plus another charge from 60% to 100%, etc.

The instructions supplied with Giant bikes last year were for a previous generation of chargers, so were very confusing.
Even my LBS thought that the 60% long-term storage setting on the charger was for putting it back into the hybernation state it was delivered in.

By long-term they actually mean if you are not going to ride it for at least a couple of days, and once a battery has been connected to a charger it is not possible to return it to its original hybernation state.

 

[Dave S]

Also, before you ask, a charge cycle is when the battery is charged from 0% to 100%, not each time it is put on the charger. So charging it twice from 50% to 100% would count as one charge cycle, or from 40% to 100% plus another charge from 60% to 100%, etc.

The instructions supplied with Giant bikes last year were for a previous generation of chargers, so were very confusing.
Even my LBS thought that the 60% long-term storage setting on the charger was for putting it back into the hybernation state it was delivered in.

By long-term they actually mean if you are not going to ride it for at least a couple of days, and once a battery has been connected to a charger it is not possible to return it to its original hybernation state.

Yes actually that's a good point, I think it was mentioned that the battery can be charged 1000 times and if that means 1000 cycles it's not too bad but if it's 1000 top ups, then it wouldn't be so good

Currently I'm using my bike every morning for around 10 miles and longer rides at weekends, although I will be using my normal MTBs to keep them ticking over too now I'm more used to how the EMTB is

But I need to start using the other modes a bit more and do tougher trails on the Trance so that will hit the battery a bit more

Up to now, I'd say I've been riding about 90% in Eco mode and a bit of Eco+ on some steeper hills just to get used to minimum assistance but have briefly tried the other modes so I know I'd use those at times on much steeper offroad trails

The hibernation mode thing, I did think that was only when the bike is first delivered to the dealers and they give it the initial charge or some other config work to take it out of that mode and then it's out of it for good

 

[Nicho]

Yes actually that's a good point, I think it was mentioned that the battery can be charged 1000 times and if that means 1000 cycles it's not too bad but if it's 1000 top ups, then it wouldn't be so good

Currently I'm using my bike every morning for around 10 miles and longer rides at weekends, although I will be using my normal MTBs to keep them ticking over too now I'm more used to how the EMTB is

But I need to start using the other modes a bit more and do tougher trails on the Trance so that will hit the battery a bit more

Up to now, I'd say I've been riding about 90% in Eco mode and a bit of Eco+ on some steeper hills just to get used to minimum assistance but have briefly tried the other modes so I know I'd use those at times on much steeper offroad trails

The hibernation mode thing, I did think that was only when the bike is first delivered to the dealers and they give it the initial charge or some other config work to take it out of that mode and then it's out of it for good

They said 1000 charges at 100% charge, then another 800 charges at 80%, 600 charges at 60%.

What worried me is that the battery health started dropping after a couple of months, and after a year had gone down to 95%.

I asked my LBS to consult with Giant as I thought it might be a faulty battery, but Giant told them it was within their expected tolerances, and might even go up again!

I ride most of the time in the lowest power setting, and find that the battery consumption averages about 1.5% per mile.

I often press the down button again to turn the assist off on flat and downhill sections to save power.

 

[Dave S]

They said 1000 charges at 100% charge, then another 800 charges at 80%, 600 charges at 60%.

What worried me is that the battery health started dropping after a couple of months, and after a year had gone down to 95%.

I asked my LBS to consult with Giant as I thought it might be a faulty battery, but Giant told them it was within their expected tolerances, and might even go up again!

I ride most of the time in the lowest power setting, and find that the battery consumption averages about 1.5% per mile.

I often press the down button again to turn the assist off on flat and downhill sections to save power.

Yes, I'm finding that most of the time I'm in Eco mode too

Occasionally switch off motor for things like flat towpath sections although have accidentally switched down from Eco mode when I meant to go into Eco+ for a short steep hill and dragging that weight up a hill was pretty tough but only done that once

Tried the auto mode, but it must think I'm lazy because to me it seemed to whack it into Normal mode which I think is massive assistance and not normal at all (I still want to work when riding my bike)

Not really used the Sport modes yet but getting to stage where I can take it on more extreme trails so might get to use those there as I know some with very steep rocky climbs

Really like the bike though, and Shimano gears are way better than SRAM NX Eagle on my other full sus bike (normal MTB)