Winterizing Your Battery
It is hard to believe, after the amazing week we’ve had, but Winter is on the way. How you store or manage your battery this Winter can add years to the life of that battery!
Most of the following you knew at some point. Still, I’ll bet everyone will find at least one thing they’ve forgotten.
You can ride your e-bike in snow, sleet and rain. Chef Chris at Ruby’s, myself and our friend Jason use our e-bikes year round in place of a car. Your battery is even more tightly sealed than your motor or display. You will find that your range is dramatically reduced. Don’t worry, if properly maintained, it will come back with warmer weather. You can even use an insulated battery cover to help some with that temporary loss of range.
When charging, always wait until your battery is back up to room temperature. Charging cold or extremely warm batteries is hard on them.
You can increase the life of any Lithium battery by not always charging them to 100%. This is especially true in cold weather. A simple timer to shut off your charger, set to the length of your last ride, will generally keep you around 90%. Ruby’s sells these for $20.
It’s okay to store your bike outside while you shop or are at work. Try to avoid letting your battery sit idle, in the cold, more than an hour or two though. Rare is the business that cares if you bring your battery in to work with you.
Don’t charge or leave your battery on the bike, outside or in your garage, over night. Bring it inside. If you leave your battery where it can get below freezing all Winter, you may not have any range come Spring.
Do not store your battery with a full charge! If you intend to store your bike for The Winter, be sure to fully charge it, then run it down to 75 or 85 percent. Fully charged batteries, left idle, can develop internal shorts. These kind of shorts are not dangerous. They do though ruin cells that you need for best battery life.
If you follow these tips and a few others for Spring, you can expect your battery to perform nearly like new 3-5 years. Some say as much as 5-7 years. These rules apply to all e-bikes whether from Ruby’s, another great local bike shop or an on-line retailer (Ruby’s is happy to work on them all).