Lipo slower discharge question

[Nightstone]

As an RC guy I charge my batteries before use. I use them and stop at 20%. Been my routine for 4 years.

I just finished 2 BBSHD mid motor bikes. 3 4s 16000mah batteries in series in each. My wife and I found out real fast that pedal assist 1 or 2 for hills is all we need. My battery discharge rate is very slow. 3 rides now and im still at an average of 4.08v per cell. At this rate a charge is going to last a week at least.

So will the slower discharge rate effect lipo life? I really do not want to discharge and recharge between rides. Btw... Im charging these at 8a, .5c rate.

Thanks
NS

 

[dogman dan]

No need, or any logical reason to discharge before recharging. Id say ride them down to 3.7v or so, then charge back to half for storage if you won't ride for awhile. Then when you are going to ride, charging only to 4.1v makes some sense.

Charge to 4.2v only to go for really long rides, or to balance once or twice a year. They won't go out of balance used like that. If they do, its because of a dud cell.

BTW,, when I say balanced, I mean to .5v is plenty good enough. After all, you stop early.

 

[wesnewell]

if you charge o 4.1V and discharge to 3.7V, they should last at least 5 years or 20K miles. I charge to 4.2V and discharge to 3.7V and have ~15K miles and 4 years on my 10ah 24s pack now. So only charging to 4.1V should double their lifespan. Originally, I was planning on replacing them after 2 years. With low discharge rates, they just keep going.

 

[Nightstone]

Thanks for the advice guys... When I did my research I figured there was a lot of exaggeration going on. One guy posted he was getting 70km in pedal assist with these batteries. I can see that's real now.

I also did not realize $150 worth of lipos could last that long. I see it now.

These lipos are a big money saver... I'm surprised everyone is not using them.

Will charge to 4.1 on the next charge. Soon as my anti flat stuff gets here I will be doing longer rides in the dirt. Weekday short rides and weekend longer stuff.

The other big surprise was the petal assist. Its really all you need unless your just being lazy that day and want to ride.

Going to hook my watt meter up today and see what im pulling amp wise in the different petal modes and with the throttle engaged ( Need to solder up some xt60 to xt90 adapters).

Thanks again NS