| Author | Message | ||
     Whistler |
Read where it's verboden to trickle charge (battery tender) a lithium ion motorcycle battery. What say you good people? | ||
| Froggy |
Contact the manufacturer of the battery, they will let you know if it is OK to do it or not. I've seen some mention that it is fine, others that say its not fine. | ||
| 86129squids |
What Frogs said. Methinks it may take a special kind of charger, but it can be done. | ||
| Spacecapsule1 |
Here's what anti-gravity says: Does this battery require trickle charging? No, and please DO NOT trickle charge this battery or damage will result! The battery is Maintenance Free and can hold a charge for up to a year! Trickle charger is required by Lead/Acid batteries because they have a Natural Discharge… Our batteries do not have this effect. IF your vehicles charging system is in good working order and you do not have any “parasitic drains” on the bike you should not have to charge this battery rarely if ever. If you do have longer layoffs you can purchase one of our battery chargers specifically designed for the Lifepo4 technology we use. See our Batteries Chargers. How do I charge the battery? The Antigravity Battery comes ready to install, you should not be having to charge these batteries unless you had a long lay off, or accidently discharged the battery. We do offer a specific “smart” battery charger that is optimized for charging Lifepo4 Lithium batteries. We have a 4-amp and a 8-amp charger. It will charge the battery to it’s intended peak voltage and will shut off when the battery is charged. We do not recommend using a automobile or motorcycle charger that is specific to Lead/Acid batteries! They can cause damage to the batteries because they charge in a different way than a specific Lifepo4 Lithium Charger. They often have a Desulfinate feature or over voltage “Quick Charging” feature… both of which will damage the Antigravity Battery. Lead Acid charges in many case will overcharge a lithium battery ending up in damage which is not covered under our warranty. | ||
| Whistler |
Thanks guys. | ||
| Rah7777777 |
You have to keep lithium batts in a very precise voltage range. You never want the cells to drop below a certain point as well as never go above a certain point. | ||
| Blake |
Excellent discussion on the issue. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/chargin g_lithium_ion_batteries What a great site that is. | ||
| Sifo |
This need for specialized charging has always had me wondering about using a Li-ion battery in a bike. Is the stock charging system really compatible with a Li-ion battery? | ||
| Teeps |
Sifo Posted on Wednesday, February 01, 2012 This need for specialized charging has always had me wondering about using a Li-ion battery in a bike. Is the stock charging system really compatible with a Li-ion battery? My thoughts as well. | ||
| Spacecapsule1 |
dang i'm currently installing an anti-gravity battery.... now i'm nervous. will the charging system damage it? | ||
| Whistler |
All good stuff. I am trying to get a definitive answer from the battery authority now. If OK to charge I will ask for the correct charger and post the info. Stay tuned. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Simple answer.... no. That's why I suspect the EBR battery was $300+. It included a smart charger built into the battery. "Sloppy" charging shortens the life of the battery. Batteries are getting less sensitive to it every day. The people selling "just batteries" are observing that the tipping point between when the battery dies, and when the consumer still cares, may have been passed. So the batteries may be getting their life shortened by a factor of 3, 5, or even 10, but its still long enough for a consumer of a sport bike. IMHO. | ||
| Froggy |
Not really. That is why the more expensive ones like the EBR battery have special circuity to maintain the battery and allow it to work just as good as a lead battery. The cheaper batteries like Shorai, Antigravity, Speedcell will all work fine, they just won't last as long. Been there, done that. | ||
| Nik |
With lithium if the voltage gets too low, or too high, bad things happen. How bad depends on what the lithium chemistry is. For most it means explosive thermal runaway... For lithium iron phosphate the cells will just die, maybe vent, but basically behave the same as lead acid. I talked to the Shorai guys at the motorcycle show and asked them about their products lack of a protection or balancing circuit. Basically their reasoning was that it wasn't necessary because as long as the bikes charging system is healthy, the cell voltages should never exceed either the high or low limit. Which is true. But consider that when my 77 connector melted, riding home on the (stock lead acid) battery alone dropped the voltage way low and killed it, but it got me home. A lithium Iron Phosphate battery would have behaved in much the same way (although with less warning, as the voltage drop is less gradual), but in the end would have been just as dead, and cost 2-3 times as much to replace. I'd rather spend an extra ~$50-100 for a pack with a basic BMS. As far as balancing goes they said ideally you would use a lithium specific balancing charger to balance the cells every few months. That said I think the technology shows great promise and I'm excited to see it getting cheaper and more accessible.} |
