What Battery Technology do you use

Just thought I would see what everyone uses on their bike

I currently use NiMH but shortly to go to LiFePO4

I'm gonna stick with nimh for as long as its energy density by weight is still superior to LiFe, which along with LiMn are the only Lithium variants I'd consider.

Norco Chaos - 72v 20ah LiMn
Giant ATX mtb - 48v Nicad
Chopper with X5 - soon to receive 48v 25ah LiFe
Supercycle mtb with front X5304 - 48v 12ah SLA
72v 8ah Nimh currently looking for a match..

So.. "all of the above" should be an option !

current: SLA 36v 17ah (15kg) eek

looking to get:
either:

LiMn
LiFePO4
or possibly NiMH (if the above two aren't possible)

This is a most interesting poll, with only 10 respondents SLA has 40% of the market. I believe price has a influence here but availability of other chemistries is a bigger influence. Maybe someday the battery like the "Fly" will change all that.
Mike

Yep, lithium gets far more press than whats reality giving a false impression of it's popularity.
I believe Pb is still hanging on as the number one selling chemistry worldwide, thanx to the automobile mostly.

What's the 'Fly'?
Are you talking about Firefly Energy with graphite in place of lead?

Affirmative, I should have said Firefly instead of fly. According to their website their initial product will be for the Husquarvna folks due out sometime in late 2007.

When you read the firefly folks web pages you get the impression this stuff is right around the corner, coming soon to a theater near you but in reality it is probably a long way off. Toyota has dumped their plans for a LiPO4 hybrid for at least four more years due to problems within the battery chemistry that can cause things like fires and explosions. Neither of these things are considered good when you're driving your car and would probably hurt sales should they happen.

Firefly won't experience, I don't think, these type of problems. It seems most of the developmental issues have (only in my opinion) been based on royalties for Caterpillar first and manufacturing second with product liability a distant third.

In a way I hope my interest in ebikes/evehicles holds for a few more years so I can see what develops in the battery industry. Perhaps by the time my yet to arrive LiPO4's wear out something new will be either on the horizon or maybe even in place. For today and for the next six weeks or so it'll be SLA pushing this guy around.

On a brief side note: My country club has two golf courses. Each course has 144 electric golf carts and each cart is powered by six, six volt lead acid batteries. That is 1,728 big ass heavy lead ass batteries which require substantial recycling efforts. My club has TWO courses, there are another 10 or more in a fifteen mile driving radius and probably about a gazillion in the state. They even have golf courses in Canada! Of course they probably only get about six weeks of play (between snows) but they still have them.

Think about the savings to the environment is this antiquated technology could be replaced.

Mike

mvadventure said:

They even have golf courses in Canada! Of course they probably only get about six weeks of play (between snows) but they still have them.

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Even in the middle of winter, as soon as there's a chinook there are guys out on the brown grass.

To blow the snow away?

The helicopter or the howitzer?

The warm westerly breeze (which those things derive their name from)
that melts all the snow in January for about a week.

Would zephyr be the murrikin equivalent?

mvadventure said:

This is a most interesting poll, with only 10 respondents SLA has 40% of the market. I believe price has a influence here but availability of other chemistries is a bigger influence. Maybe someday the battery like the "Fly" will change all that.
Mike

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I think its also availability as well as cost.

Ie a 36v 17ah SLA setup costs $150 AU, the equivalent Lithium costs at least 3x more, but there are no RETIAL places around selling the lithium. You have to buy it mail order/ internet with a lot of lead time, making it dificult. I'm currently specing up what setup i need for lithiums and will be purchasing soon. I just wanted Lead so that I could get the bike going, and lets face it SLA's are always useful around the house.

Actually, if you simplify the groupings around base chemistry (Pb,Ni,Li), as of this date it's a dead heat.

i like Ni chemistry's they are a nice middle ground and i know how to treat them.

Yeah, but all I can afford is lead :?.

I'm currently using a LiCo pack which is on it's last legs and can only deliver about 8A continuous.
I'm building up an a123 pack now. I've got the batteries and the power supply. Still waiting to place an order for Gary & Fechter's new BMS.
My prototype bike used SLA and I was realy glad to ditch the extra kilos when I got the LiCo pack.

JohnB

Obvious choice for a poll, but great nonetheless. Hope everyone participates. I'm still using SLA. I was going to jump on LiFePO4 last year. Now I'm glad I waited. Doesn't seem like the technology is completely mature yet. I'm sorta leaning toward the more proven, and slightly more robust, NiMh. But I'll probably wait for my SLA to die before making the switch. If anything, thirty pounds of batteries makes my bike that much less appealing to a would-be thieves. And it also makes slamming down on the pavement that much more fun.

I'm satisfied with sla's for my first pack. My repaired sla pack weighs 27lbs. I'll let the people who got lots of money be the "test rats" for the lithium types.

Hmm, methinks this poll could use redoing. I'm betting a fair portion of the folks who voted for lead have switched to lithium (me included). And what about those who have bikes that use different chemistries (also me)? Multiple selections needed?

EDIT: New poll made. What chemistry do you use? (Ver. 2)

With all the push for LiFePo4, I'm surprised there are so many SLA users out there. That's good I suppose. I guess I'm not the only one using SLA bricks on an ebike (escoot actually. see sig). Ebike's got LiFePo4 as recommended by y'all during my research.

I was amazed at those results. i just expected LiPo to be the clear leader, with SLA to be down the bottom.
I am a newbie really to the e-bike world...just year now and went straight in with LiPo...after looking at all the options I would not even have considered SLA.

I mean my pack would weigh over 150lbs instead of 26 if I had gone with SLA.

As far as the SLA user numbers, this pole is from back in 07/08. Battery tech has come a loooOOOooooong way since and prices have dropped a great deal.

I'm on my second ping pack. I can tell you from experience that the extra voltage of the 60 volt packs on 2C cells isn't worth the $. I can hardly tell a difference from how the bike felt when I was running 48 volts. I'm officially of the opinion that high voltage low c rates in less than a 40Ah pack is a waste of time. Go lipo, I know I wish I did. For the $ I spent on my pack, if I had gone LiPo, I would have a beast of a ebike, instead I have a tame commuter.

what's with bringing back 2 year old threads ???

Ypedal said:

what's with bringing back 2 year old threads ???

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In my honor, obviously.