Do batteries "waste away" if not used?

hapc

1 mW
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Jan 19, 2016
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Hi, how is it going? I was wondering if those battery packs on the internet stop getting charged if you don't use your bike for long peiods of time, I'm thinking just like it was a car battery and a car, of course it's not the same but still wanted to know.

Thoughts?
 
Yes. All batteries deteriorate over time.
Storage conditions will greatly affect how long they live. Properly stored Li-ion batteries can have a pretty long lifespan. I have some that are 10yrs old that are still 80% of their original capacity.
 
Yes, batteries deteriorate with time. You can do things to slow this process. If, for example, you store your li-ion batteries at about a 50% state of charge at cold temperatures, they will last years. If you store them at 100% SOC in a hot garage you'll be lucky to get a year.
 
2-3 years is typical, for an e bike battery that is used and stored in the real world. It's not ridden everyday usually, and not ridden for months in winter. In summer, its in a warm place, and full so you can ride anytime, especially if used daily in summer.

Because a stored battery with a bms can sometimes discharge itself while in storage, most people should top off a battery in winter storage about monthly, or at least verify that its not discharging fast enough to matter. Leave it plugged in on the bike, ignore it for 6 months, and likely you killed it.

For serious long term storage, then somehow disconnect the bms. Then store colder than room temp, charged to 80% or so.
 
dogman dan said:
2-3 years is typical, for an e bike battery that is used and stored in the real world.

Dan, you need to start using better batteries. I fully expect to get 10 years of regular vehicle service out of all of my automotive grade lithium batteries, and then after capacity has degraded they'll go into service for the home battery bank. I use Chevy, Ford, and NIssan stuff, and only they older type of Nissan modules have shown any degradation at all, and that's to be expected since it's the same chemistry as all those konions I got from DrBass. Even some of those konion packs I built 8 and 9 years ago are still in service, though more saggy and diminished capacity.
 
Yes, your shit should last a lot longer than a typical e bike battery, that is 5-10 ah too small to begin with. From day one, a 20 amps controller is beating those small bike batteries into shit. By the third year, lucky if they have half capacity left.

Same to some extent with the HK lipos, they just start puffing slightly on day one, but they can also last a lot longer, if you keep those discharge rates down.

As for my battery choice, you couldn't have made a more spectacularly wrong choice than I did. That choice lasted a year and a half before it burned my house.
 

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I had the chance to test a couple of unused turnigy 3000mah 3S lipo's today. They were bought in october 2012 and have been stored at the shipping voltage now for 5 years, and in room temperature.

Internal resistance is 4-5 mOhm for each cell and capacity is 2969mah for the one I have finished testing. As I see it that's as good as new. Batteries can be stored for a long time at storage voltage. Even in room temperature.

I just had to share this as I found it very interesting :D

The batteries:
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-battery-3000mah-3s-40c-lipo-pack-xt-60.html
 
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