Kobalt Battery Information and questions.

I have a few old electric bicycles: 2 E-ZIP (about 10 years old), EVGLOBAL, and an Extreme Folding XB-310, all of them 24 Volt ebikes. I have been going thru the bicycle components: new Slime Tubes, Slime Tube protectors; truing the wheels; greasing the headtubes, axle bearings; etc. and having fun playing bicycle mechanic. I have obtained a couple of new controllers, have read hundreds of posts about ebikes, controllers, motors, etc. and am enjoying learning different new technologies in my retirement.

Now to the Subject line of my post. I am familiar with 18650 batteries and the different configurations that are possible with them. However, when I started playing with the e-bikes, I bought 12 LOWES Kobalt 1.5 AMP/H batteries, made a small 3-D printer adapter and have hooked up from one to 8 batteries in parallel to run the ebikes (one battery for testing and up to eight for riding around).

The batteries weight less than a pound each and I own three chargers and usually can recharge each one of them in less than 30 minutes. I have used different containers on the back rack, initially a Dollar Tree shoe box, then a small picnic container from Walmart, then a large picnic container from Walmart, then a Stanley Tool Box

When I purchased the 1.5 AMP/H batteries they cost $10 so the cost for an 8 battery 12 AMP/H ebike battery was 80 dollars, now that LOWES no longer sell the 1.5 AMP/H and only sell the 2 AMP/H the cost for a 6 battery 12 AMP/H ebike battery is a 120 dollars. There is also a 3 year guarantee on the battery.

The batteries can also be put into series for 48 to 96 volts, the downside being that the packaging for the Kobalt battery begins to be much larger than 18650's put together for the same voltage.

Now to my question and having read lots of posts on this forum, I know that I am opening a can of worms, but here goes.

What down sides do you see to running the 24 volt ebikes on multiple Kobalt batteries?

What is the up side?

Does anyone see potential danger?

Anything else you wish to comment on?

Thanks

A29Adriver@gmail.com said:

What down sides do you see to running the 24 volt ebikes on multiple Kobalt batteries?

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If you mean running them at higher voltages by seriesing the packs?

That can either destroy the controllers or overheat the motors, depending on usage and situation, worst case.

Medium case, the controllers may have HVC's that prevent operation above the original voltage range (around 28-29v max).

Best case, it works, but the motors will try to run at a multiple of the original speed, depending on the multiple of the original voltage. So the throttle would be more sensitive to input, and harder to control the motor's speed/torque.

If you mean something else, you'll need to specify.

Does anyone see potential danger?

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Mostly the above listed downsides, but if it does work and it does go two or three times as fast, and you use that speed, the bikes weren't built for those speeds, so the risk of crash or injury or worse for various reasons increases that much more.

If you look around at the various EVG / EV Global / EVGlobal threads, there's a fair bit of info on modifying them in various ways.

The I-ZIP and E-ZIP have various versions, also with various threads on modifying.

I'm pretty sure Iv'e also seen threads on the Extreme / Xtreme XB series, but don't recall specifics.

Thanks for your quick reply.

No my question is just to run the 24 volt ebikes on 24 volts.

Before I run any of the ebikes on a higher voltage, I would change the controller and do some testing to see how hot the motors get on test rides.

I was just wondering if others have used similar setups with other Tool batteries and have had good or bad results.

The Kobalt batteries in the smaller AMP/H configurations are really cheap.

I have read every thread I kind find on the ebikes I own and at this time the only Mods I am doing is changing the sprockets on the E-zip ebikes in order to get a little more speed out of them.

The only other changes I am making is to get rid of the battery side packs on the E-zips and the small battery pack on the back of the Xtreme and replacing them something that is acceptable in appearance on the rack to hold the Kobalt batteries. on the EVGLOBAL i am working to put as many Kobalt batteries as I can fit into the original battery space in the front of the ebike.

A29Adriver@gmail.com said:

I was just wondering if others have used similar setups with other Tool batteries and have had good or bad results.

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I'm not sure if they've run those bikes on tool batteries, but there's quite a few builds run off tool packs over the years. Not all these threads are relevant, but quite a few should be:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=tool*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Hopefully some of them will help.

The only other changes I am making is to get rid of the battery side packs on the E-zips and the small battery pack on the back of the Xtreme and replacing them something that is acceptable in appearance on the rack to hold the Kobalt batteries.

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FWIW, the side is the best place for the batteries; it will give a better balance and handling, vs on a rack.

Plus, racks take a hell of a beating with even a few pounds on there if you don't have smooth roads, becuase the racks (if they can sway side to side even a tiny bit) eventually fracture their supports usually near the dropouts. Sometimes at the ones closer to the seat, or both. Depends on teh loads and amount of sway for how quickly this happens. I killed a lot of racks, storebought and homemade, before I began:

--putting the loads lower on the sides (less cantilever force on the rack)
--bracing the rack with an X across the supports (and rack itself if necessary) over the wheel
--making the support structure as stiff as possible

Stopped breaking racks after that, even carrying largish (not huge, maybe 50lbs) grocery loads, and even a young St Bernard just on one side, of DayGlo Avenger.

(Nowadays I use a completely custom built trike, eliminatng the need for racks).

A29Adriver@gmail.com said:

I was just wondering if others have used similar setups with other Tool batteries and have had good or bad results.

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Check vuaeco's Youtube channel. He's done a number of videos about tool pack batteries, especially Kobalt, and his ebike.

Amberwolf; Thanks for the information about the racks. It makes sense, because you can hear all the racket from the back when riding on rough roads, but I had not thought about the forces that could cause the racks to fail under such conditions. I will move the batteries to different areas, 4 or 6 on each side, they are not heavy just have more bulk than a battery pack due to the plastic of the tool pack and the wiring. Also thank you for the thread on tool packs, I will read all of the posts to learn more. Thanks again.

Mark5; Thank you for the YouTube link I will watch all the videos to glean as much information as I can.