Best battery practice?

Hey folks, just wondered if there was a "best practice guide" or similar for the battery?

I guess I'm wondering about charging and when etc etc. I've heard mixed comments about not charging until fully depleted and I've heard the exact opposite also, so it might be nice to have a concise guide to follow to ensure absolute longest possible life?

Thoughts?

 

Just ride it, keep it charged and don't run it completely empty if you can try. And when the charge is low don't let it sit there for days, keep it charged up and you'll be fine. Its not Nickle Metal Hydride batteries, it Lithium Ion so no memory and no need to drain it all the way down before you charge.

 

Ahh ok, so every time I come back no matter how much % is left I should put it on charge?

 

I'd keep my boards always charged up so I ready to just grab one and go out the door. But if its 3/4 the way charged when you get back home, you're tired, I'd go right to bed rather than making sure I'm plugging it in. You can still ride it the next day if you like, lit it sit, or charge it.

Until you get the capacity of what's in a EV car battery, there's no sense milking every bit of life out of these small batteries. Its more of a pain and you're missing out on the convenience of what they offer.

 

Ok cools, sounds like I will be keeping the charger by the door and plugging in every time

 

Yep, that's what I do. Don't have my Carbon GT yet, any day now... But I have a MetroBoard Slim that has the 40 mile battery pack. My commute to work and back is about 8 miles... I don't need to plug it it, but I do anyways so that I always have my full 40 mile range if I ever need it. The charger is right by the door so I can unplug and go out the door or for when I come home I just put the board down and plug it in. I recharge my remotes once a week to keep them up and working reliably.

 

And another thing, charge off the slow charger (2 amp) that comes standard with the board over the fast charger for long term charge behavior. Its easier on the battery, but if you really need to charge fast to get out the door then use the 4amp fast charger.

 

Good tips I only have the supplied charger anyway, so I'll be sticking with that

 

what about the remote guys? the gt remote. How often should you charge it. how long should it last? Is it best to keep charging that no matter what?

 

My BGT should come anyday so inthe mean time I have my Yuneec E-go which I'm afraid to leave charging when I'm not home due to fire risk. Is it ok to leave the GT charging when you are not home?

 

For the GT remote I'd keep it plugged in ever couple of days to have it ready and sufficiently charged for your rides. I commute on my board during the week, 8 mile / day and charge mine once a week for my MetroBoard. You'll get the feel for it once you use your board regularly.

As for leaving your Evolve GT plugged in and risk of fire, I wouldn't worry about that. Fires in consumer devices are from companies that fail to do adequate testing as well as cut corners by using cheap materials like low grade untested Chinese batteries which short, heat up and then initiates most of these fires. I've plugged my MetroBoard in for days, all 4 of them and its not a worry at all for me. I know he builds quality boards and never seen any issue regarding anything close to a fire or overheating of the batteries / charger. With that I'm certain Evolve did some quality testing and feel they didn't go for the crappiest battery out there. i've also never seen anybody worrying other than this post nor anybody who saw or smell any fire hazard.

 

That said, best practice would be to not leave your board charging when not in the house. Sure Li-ion batteries are more stable than Li-po's but if something were to short out in a battery of this size it would be goodbye house. I'm sure Evolve uses a good quality battery but it also takes a hammering every time you go out riding and is squeezed inside a deck where you can't see if any cells have blown unless you inspect it after every ride.
I've been using li-po's and li-ion's for years in r/c vehicles and have seen some batteries, even new ones blow cells and catch fire..that's why they're always stored in safe bags when not in use and the golden rule of never charge them unattended in a house is usually followed.

Check out the size of the flame that is produced when some idiot damages a small li-ion battery in the link below..

 

Also, another good tip is if you've been out riding and hammering it in GT mode there will have been a massive current draw on the pack making the cells heat up... for longer battery lifespan best to let it cool down before charging...

 

Sure, if you poke at a lithium battery it will blow, you're shorting it out dude. Let me jab a knife into your arm and see what happens to you! That's just ABUSE. Ever see a car burn up from being abused or crashed? Typically from sharp objects cutting into wires and shorting them out from the impact. So stop scaring people man. This is the same tactic political candidates use to get votes.

RC cars are not going to have much testing nor quality control done on them, they're very low cost cheap products with very cheap components (especially the batteries) and not the greatest skill set of people designing them. I'm sure there are RC vendors who buy quality components, have a pure understanding on hardware and electrical design, and can make a robust system that does not spontaneously combust. But people in the consumer sector as customers want to buy the cheapest crap, so what do you get, a cheap piece of crap product. Spend quality money and you typically get a quality product designed by a quality engineer. Also in RC cars many Lithium Ion batteries are sold without the hard case, so nothing protecting them and prone to shorting if not handled correctly. So in many cases its the user who damaged the battery buy not using caution and then tried charging them which led to the short or fire.

And if your not adhering to the specs of the battery such as for charging amps, your pulling more amps out when running its rated, or overcharging it by not following the spec then all bets are off if its going to be reliable or safe, again that's under abuse or just stupidity of the designer.

Another major part of Lithium Ion batteries is the Quality Control process. You're battery is only as good and as safe as your quality control methods when making the battery. So if dust and debris enter your battery manufacturing facility during the build of the battery pack, then yes, you will eventually encounter a failure in the battery due to metal particles making contacting points where they should not, and thus fail. Again this goes into the bucket you don't want to pay for $ for quality then you won't get quality product that will eventually fail.

Don't worry people about charging the Evolve in your home. Its been done for quite some time now and none have burned up.

But if anyone's afraid of charging their board at home, give Evolve an email or phone call and ask them if it's safe and what type of testing they conducted to verify its safe. I'm sure they'll give you some comforting words.

 

By the way, with the washing machine its the hot water hose that burst due to heat / cooling expansion, get a braided hot water line and you're good to go. I had a rubber hot water hose burst and I replaced it. Again getting back to a quality designed system, they sell cheap rubber water hoses and people buy them up because they're cheap. Buy the braided ones at twice the cost and you're good to go! Truth is you don't need a pair, no need for cold, but if it puts your mind at ease then go for it. I've never seen a washing machine just loose all its water due to a washing machine design flaw, its usually the supply hose that's not braided....

Just think of all the Tesla's and EVs charging in peoples homes. Look how many more batteries are in these cars than in your skate board, quite a bit more. I own a Tesla, its near my house, its a Roadster so very early battery technology and mine nor any of my friend's Roadster have burned, let alone any of the 2500 that were made world-wide. I'm can push 240 Volts @ 70 amps into it and don't have any worries. I own a Zero Electric motorcycle, had a couple of them, same thing, no fires. If you're buying a Chinese made Electric Vehicle or Motorcycle then all bets are off because they cut corners and quality anywhere they can. If someone who understands the fundamentals is watching the build, then quality has accountability, design specs are respected and proper testing is performed there need to be no worries.

As for the Note that was a was pushing a battery design too hard / fast, making the battery too slim for the amount of energy it holds and what happened was that one of these thin sheets were too thin, cracked/failed and shorted out with a neighboring sheet, causing heat and uncontrolled release of its energy. I've work in consumer electronics with lots of engineers and have delivered Millions of consumer based hand held to customers since 2003, so I understand this stuff a little bit more than your average Joe off the street. I'm a engineer in both software, hardware and quality control. I have friends who've built batteries for Zero and consult world wide on battery technologies.

Here's why Samsung Note 7 phones are catching fire

Look how many Lithium Ion devices you have and the world has.... when was the last time you had your friend say I just had my consumer electronics device just spontaneous combust? Only time for me was when my friend made his own charger setup pushing more amps to a Zero motorcycle battery, buy passing the on board charger that has safety checks, and relying on himself to cut off the charger when reaching a set voltage. Well he forgot to turn it off, battery overcharged and caught on fire. But that was user error, not error on the system that was delivered and tested by Zero.

You honestly should be more worried about rats / mice eating the wiring in your home that'll cause a short and start a fire than your Evolve catching fire while charging. Yes I know people who've had their homes burned by rats/mice.

In any case, everyone should have smoke detectors installed in every room for safety no matter what. They're cheap insurance that do save lives.

 

That's right, the video shows what happens to a lithium battery when it shorts... an extreme way of provoking that short but the end result is the same.

Some of the r/c batteries I've used run to nearly the same cost as the Evolve battery and are from main brand vendors who test the crap out of their products before releasing on the market... certainly not cheap crap as you have assumed.

If you'd read the post correctly you'd realise no one said 'don't charge your board at home'... where the hell else would you charge it? But charging a massive non branded (hell, even a branded one) battery of this size and spec and leaving it unattended is a dumb move. Feel free to do it if you want but please don't encourage others seeking advice to do the same - you may be prepared to take those risks but those of us who know better will take the sensible route and charge when we can monitor it...... just like Evolve recommend in their user manual.... did you read that part?