The electric bike battery is one of the most expensive parts of the bike after the motor, or in some cases, it may be more expensive than
the motor.
Therefore, the decision to replace the battery needs a lot of thought before coming to buy a new battery.
From my personal experience, deciding to replace the electric bike battery requires two types of costs.
First, the cost of time in searching for a good model and how to choose the right type for your future needs.
Second, is the financial cost, which is of course a major factor.
That is why in this post I will save you the cost of time because we will walk together step by step on how to choose the battery for your electric bike based on several tips so that you can replace your bike battery with minimum risk.
As for the cost, we have some solutions to reduce the cost. You can take a look at them.
Ebike Battery Replacement Tips.
1- Define your future needs.
The first step for you in deciding to replace the electric bike battery is to determine your metabolic needs, not the current one.
For example, will the bike need to load heavy things or tow a trailer or are you likely to abandon your car for long periods and will use
your ebike for daily commuting, or is the range of your current battery, not enough.
Also, have you faced the problem of forgetting to charge the battery a lot, as you will need a large battery so that you do not have to charge it daily?
And the last thing is the price, are you able to spend some of the extra money to get a battery with a larger capacity or not?
If most of your answer to these questions is YES, then it definitely means that you should consider a battery with a higher capacity than you have.
But if most of your answer is NO, then you can keep the same battery capacity you have.
Now let’s move on to the next step/tip.
2-Know the capacity of your controller.
The second step in deciding to replace the electric bike battery with a new one is to make sure that the motor and the controller are compatible with the battery capacity.
For example, if you have a 36-volt controller and you want to get a 52-volt battery, it will require changing the controller.
Now that you have determined your needs and know the possibility of your current electric bike, we will give you some tips so that you can learn about all the tricks that electric bike battery sellers do and make the appropriate replacement decision.
Tips to choose ebike battery.
1- Check the Battery AMP rating.
Manufacturers and sellers of electric bicycle batteries usually put two types of APM ratings on the battery.
The maximum continuous current rating :
This type of ampere assessment is the most important because it gives you information about the amperage capacity of the battery at all times without any overheating or problems.
For example, if the continuous rating of the ampere in the battery is 15 ampere, this means that the battery will continue to produce this amount of ampere until it runs out of charge.
The Peak AMP rating.
This type of ampere rating on an electric bike means the battery’s maximum amperage output.
For example, if you have a battery that has a continuous amp rating of 15 amps and the peak amp 20 amps, this means that when the battery reaches 20 amps, the battery will heat up and it is preferable not to reach 20 amps all the time.
That is why it is always preferable to look at the continuous evaluation of the battery amp during purchase because this means the capacity of the battery all the time and not under extreme conditions of use.
2- Check the battery cell types.
3- Check the battery cells’ mAh
The mAh means the milliamp-hour, and it is a unit of measurement of electric current over time. As a working rule, the more mAh in the
electric bike battery cell, the longer the battery life
4- Choose the right BMS in your Ebike battery.
One of the mistakes people make when replacing an electric bike battery for the first time is not giving importance to the capacity of the Battery Protection System, or BMS.
The capacity of the BMS battery protection system is measured in amperes, and this means that the larger the size of the motor and the required ampere, the higher the capacity of the BMS must be, because if the capacity of the BMS is low, the BMS will lock the battery to protect it, and therefore the motor will not work.
On the other hand, buying a battery from a well-known manufacturer gives strong evidence that the BMS inside it will work efficiently.
You do not want to do a BMS reset every day so choose your battery from a good brand or at least with a very high rating review.
5- Look at the Cycle of battery life.
The number of times the battery is charged is a matter of debate because what battery manufacturers write in numbers such as 1000 charges or 800 is a matter of how you charge the battery.
The longer the battery is charged to the end, the longer the range and the shorter the life span, and vice versa.
Advice: Always make sure to rebalance the battery at least every month in order to keep the battery in good condition and higher
performance (to know how to rebalance the battery for your electric bike, check this post)
6- Check the new battery charger speed.
One of the things that make you happier with your electric bike battery and also with the bike is the speed of charging the battery, so it is best
to choose a fast charger when buying the battery.
As a general rule, a charger with a capacity of 3 amps or higher is considered a fast charger
7-Have a look at customers’ reviews.
Watching the reviews of previous customers is a very useful thing when you buy the new battery, not only because it gives you an impression of the quality of the product, but the most important thing is that you will see the real complaints from customers.
Personally, if you find more than 5% of the reviews are negative, I will give up buying this battery.
How much does it cost to replace an ebike battery?
Due to the current conditions in the world only, the prices of batteries have increased, just as they are imported from abroad (unless you live in China)
As a general rule, the price of an electric bike battery ranges between 300 to 600 dollars, depending on the capacity and brand
Alternative option instead of buying a new battery.
After what we previously explained about how to choose a suitable electric bike battery for you, I think it is time for us to offer some solutions in order to reduce the cost of buying a complete battery, especially if you have a bike with a kit on it.
1- Check your old battery.
2-Replace the damaged cells.
One of the practical solutions is if your electric bike battery has a few damaged cells, you can just replace them without having to change the entire battery
You can visit the nearest battery repair shop and they will identify the damaged cells and replace them
Note: This solution only works if the number of damaged cells is few, and also the shop you go to know what they are doing
3- Replace the internal battery cells.
You can replace the internal battery cells instead of buying a whole new battery, especially if the rest of the battery components are intact. The battery cells can be obtained from eBay or Amazon.
I will leave you with this video explaining how to change the internal battery cells in detail.
External resources.