New battery losing health

Sparkydave

Member
Aug 7, 2018
73
155
Derbyshire, UK
I bought a new 504wh Gen1 Kenevo battery in spring, so it's experienced no cold weather. It's down to 93% after around 30 charging cycles

I have a 5 year old battery that's spent cold winters in the shed, so I'd expect that to suffer, but that's still on 86%

What could be going on with the new battery?

Health stats via Blevo btw, I don't use the Spesh app

Cheers
 

ThierryGTLTS

Member
Feb 17, 2020
119
55
Belgium
With Specialized App, it would still be 100% , but not correct.

But look at this Link, if your battery is maintained often at 100%, it could explain the decrease.

Store it between 60 and 80% :)

Have a Nice Day.

Thierry
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
13,805
20,498
Brittany, France
Could be several factors.

My Gen1 battery went to 90% in the first few weeks (4 years ago). It was either a bit of a duff one or had been stored incorrectly. I think the time it took wasn't the battery actually degrading rapidly, but rather the BMS working out actual capacity based on charging and use compared to what it should have been - it doesn't just know by magic, it's calculated.

Since then it's actually only dropped another couple of %. A bit like your first battery.

You probably don't know when your new one was manufactured, it could have been sitting around for years. They might have made them all at the same time and they're just sitting in a warehouse(s). It would be more complicated and expensive for them to keep manufacturing a relatively small number each year - you'd imagine if they were doing that, they'd have upped the capacity slightly then they'd be able to re-coup some investment from people purchasing upgrades - but in reality, they'd rather you buy a new bike.
 

RiderOnTheStorm

Well-known member
Yeah, a lot of factors contribute to battery fade over time, how it's charged, used, or stored when not being used. Battery cells or BMS could also be faulty, causing premature degradation.

Adding to @ThierryGTLTS's comment, some of these factors are described in this thread:


I've seen lithium batteries lose up to 5% of their capacity over 3 years, and up to 10% capacity over 6 years.

@Sparkydave Just curious, on first use, have you drained the new battery (to 10-20%) and fully charge it (to 100%) at least 5 times initially, allowing the BMS to balance the cells?
 

Sparkydave

Member
Aug 7, 2018
73
155
Derbyshire, UK
Yeah, a lot of factors contribute to battery fade over time, how it's charged, used, or stored when not being used. Battery cells or BMS could also be faulty, causing premature degradation.

Adding to @ThierryGTLTS's comment, some of these factors are described in this thread:


I've seen lithium batteries lose up to 5% of their capacity over 3 years, and up to 10% capacity over 6 years.

@Sparkydave Just curious, on first use, have you drained the new battery (to 10-20%) and fully charge it (to 100%) at least 5 times initially, allowing the BMS to balance the cells?
Yeah pretty much through normal use.

It's been treated pretty much the same as the old battery, just without the cold winters. Sure it said 100% when I first connected it, but as others have said, could be it's age.

I've read the tips for keeping them in good nick, but I'm too crap to do all that. Ride, charge, ride, charge 🤣 so guess I have to take whatever comes with that
 

Binhill1

🍊 Tango Man 🍊
Mar 7, 2019
2,674
3,950
Scotland
I test the battery yearly on the same power settings on my Levo . Use the same route and let's me know if battery health is going down. So far so good for me 4 years 4 months 9000 miles still full piff.
 

jimbob

Active member
Aug 3, 2020
518
429
East UK
I test the battery yearly on the same power settings on my Levo . Use the same route and let's me know if battery health is going down. So far so good for me 4 years 4 months 9000 miles still full piff.
That's very good. You know how many charge cycles the battery has?
 

jimbob

Active member
Aug 3, 2020
518
429
East UK
245 . They say 300 in manual so be interested to see how it works out.
300 before the battery's done?

I've got just over 200 on one of my batteries and it's lost about 20% of its capacity now, although the degradation seems to have leveled off.
 

Binhill1

🍊 Tango Man 🍊
Mar 7, 2019
2,674
3,950
Scotland
300 before the battery's done?

I've got just over 200 on one of my batteries and it's lost about 20% of its capacity now, although the degradation seems to have leveled off.
Mine still shows 100 percent. Got 50 miles last Sunday so can't be bad .
 

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