Welcome to Electric bikes tricks
Have you recently purchased a new electric bike and want to know the rules you should follow while charging the electric bike battery?
Can I Leave my ebike On Charge Overnight?
As a general rule, You can charge the battery overnight, as most chargers have a feature to cut off the power when the battery is full, which can be seen when the green light indicates that the battery is full.
I can also reassure you more and tell you that it is healthy for the battery, especially if it is new, to leave it on charge all night. This helps the BMS or Battery management system (circuit inside the battery) balance the cells inside the battery.
Top Ebike Charging Tricks you Should know.
1- Undercharging your battery
Charging the battery overnight will not affect the battery, but there is something better that you should do to keep the battery lifespan longer
which is undercharging your battery and the reason for this is that when you charge the battery the electrolyte starts oxidizing on the anode and starts to create a plating effect which will affect your battery lifespan over time.
Why does undercharging give more lifespan for the battery?
the plating of the negative electrode occurs only on high voltage (which is in most cases 4.2 voltage) so the higher the charging voltage is the lower battery lifespan you will get.
to explain more I will share this photo with you for a study made by Ebikes this study test charges a battery that should last up to 500 charging cycles
You could see that on the full charge voltage (4.2) it was successful to meet the 500 cycles benchmark (which explain why we mentioned that leaving the battery overnight on the charger won’t harm the battery )
However, when they reduce the charging voltage to 90% which is 4.1 the battery reached 900 cycles.
By reducing the voltage to 80% which is 4.05 voltage the battery reached 1500 charging cycles.
Disclaimer: undercharging your battery has also some cons
- You will not get your battery fully charged which will affect the riding time
- BMS is responsible to balance cells inside the battery and can only work when your battery is fully charged which means that your battery cells will not be balanced, however, you can solve this issue by fully charging the battery every while. (and make sure to leave it charging overnight)
2- Are ebike chragers Universal?
No ebike chargers are not universal and come with different voltages so you need to check the charger voltages if you have more than one ebike and better to label them.
3-Does more AMBS mean charging faster?
Yes, however, this also depends on what is your battery voltage I will be sharing with you a quick way so you know how long it takes to charge your battery.
- Look at the back of your battery you will find how many amps it takes
- Look at your charger to see how many ambs it output
Example:
If your battery takes 10 ambs to fully charged & your charge output is to 2 ambs this means your battery will need 5 hours to get fully charged
102=5
Check out our recommended fast charger on Amazon
4-Does All Ebike chargers have the same socket?
XLR 3Pin Connector is the most standard socket for most electric bike chargers however, some new charger models come with new sockets
XLR 3PIN connectors can work very well with 3 up to 5 amps
Get XLR 3PIN connector On Amazon from here
5-Do Chargers with fans are better than the other chargers
No.
owning a charger that has a fan doesn’t mean it’s better & will charge faster it all depends on the number of the output ambs as we explained.
However,
I would like to mention that most of these chargers have a manual switch that will switch between 110 220 as these charges are manufactured in China and distributed worldwide so they put this switch to can match with different countries.
6- Why undercharging chargers are expensive?
There are types of chargers called undercharging types and they are expensive because they have many features that you can use to adjust the charging of electrical devices at a certain volt level, which what we mentioned earlier may increase the life of the battery to 3 times.
7-Always Keep your battery charged within a dry place
The best temperature to charge your e-bike battery is the room temperature (not too cold or too hot)
8- what is the recommended charging level before storing ebike battery?
If you plan to store your ebike battery try to keep it with 60% to 75% percent charging to avoid damage within the cells.
9-Can I have two different batteries capacity in one bike?
Yes. One installed & one spare.
You can have two different batteries capacity for one bike & it will not affect your motor or your controller.
Note: It’s not recommended to have both batteries working at the same time.
(some people do this by using devices that balance the voltage levels between the two batteries, which aren’t the best safe solution thats’ why I don’t like to have both batteries working simultaneously.)
If you need more range you can check the dual battery ebike it has some good models but it’s expensive.
10- What is ebike Regenerative Braking?
Regenerative Braking is a feature where the energy produced from braking is transferred back into the battery to increase its charging level.
My advice is to keep this feature always working with you and gently press the brakes to cause over time you will get more charging rather than pushing hard which will not increase the charging level over time.
Conclusion
As a general rule, charging ebike battery overnight is safe & won’t affect the standard lifespan of ebike. Also, it will activate the BMS that is responsibly balancing the cells within the battery.
Best ebike tricks to start with as a beginner.
- Undercharging your battery
- Always keep your battery charged in a dry place
- Chargers with fans aren’t better than the other chargers
- Most Ebike chargers have the same socket
you can check our post for the best ebike step-by-step troubleshooting guide from HERE
