Shimano Battery Life Poll

jimbob

Active member
Aug 3, 2020
517
427
East UK
Just hit 70cycles on an E8035, and showing 76% health now. I'm tempted to run it to 100cycles or so to see how it does before claiming warranty.
 

joxelitor

Member
May 23, 2020
28
27
Spain
Battery (model bt-e8010 504wh - external)
  • 1) # of charging cycles = 87
  • 2) remaining capacity = 84%
  • 3) charger = EC-E6000.
  • 4) age = 5700km (3500 mi) 3 years
On the first year of use I rode 3500km (2174mi) and capacity remained near as new.
Then, suddenly dropped down to 86%, later to 81% and now it is 84% as reported by etube app on tablet
Yes! it rose after changing the harness from battery to motor

I have done extensive tests on range with this battery as well as a new one and definitely there are issues with shimano battery-motor in relation to range and performance.
System degrades over time, faster than expected

I have more data on this issue, and yes I claimed for a warranty replacement when battery was 81% life and 72 cycles, but it was denied.
 
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Pivot

E*POWAH Master
Jun 11, 2020
668
1,088
New Forest, England
Battery type: BT-E8010
Distance: 1780km
Battery cycles: 25
Battery health: 87%
Battery (bike) age: 9 months
Riding style: off-road, mud, gravel, hills.

I ride mostly in ECO mode, which should be easier on the battery and I charge it with OEM charger, I don’t get the fast battery degradation.

Is there an inexpensive Alibaba.com equivalent? Battery should be a consumable item, unless under no-arguments warranty. Where is that Levo thread?
 

Stanczech

Active member
Subscriber
I have had MERIDA eONE-SIXTY 900-E size XL since March 2019, my beloved wife has had eONE-SIXTY M#RIDA METALLIC CRIMSON (RED LIGHTNING) size M since July 2019.
We use only the Shimano EC-E6000 charger,
battery 2x Shimano BT-E8010, Li-ion 36V-14 Ah-504 Wh
Sometimes I use an M#rida battery that my wife rides on. So my battery has less km than my Merida and vice versa.

We use the E-Bike for normal riding for fun on all possible surfaces, all year round. No bike parks.
During the winter we use neoprene covers for batteries, even so the real range is lower due to the cold.

We both drive about 80% in ECO mode.

Merida battery:
now 11.747 km / 7,320 miles approximately
battery health 87%
charging cycles 94.

M#rida battery:
now 8.034 km / 5,005 mil
battery health 92%
charging cycles 54.

Comparing the two batteries, it would probably be possible to conclude that the "% / charge cycle" model is very similar / the same. I feel that it no longer looks good enough (?) To achieve the declared 60% / 1000 cycles?
We will see how it goes.

Merida mileage: 14.724 km / 9,174 miles approx
IMG_20210315_174153.jpg



M#rida mileage: 5.057 km / 3,151 miles approx
IMG_20210307_170652.jpg


Translated using G. Translate.
 
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rafaellop

Member
Dec 8, 2020
80
39
Poland
180588823_3903042939781603_8633126788125965658_n.jpg


Battery (model bt-e8010 504wh - external)
  • 1) # of charging cycles = 2
  • 2) remaining capacity = 92%
  • 3) charger = EC-E6000.
  • 4) age = 2 weeks, 88 km, 3187 m up
  • 5) style = 90% eco, 10% trial, no boost, standard assistance settings
 

Growmac

Well-known member
Subscriber
Dec 4, 2020
375
389
Wilts, UK
So I've had both batteries with my local shop today. They spoke to Madison, who told them that the technical bulletin from Shimano says that the batteries should be at >80% health at 100 charge cycles. On that basis, they are trying to have both my batteries replaced by Shimano under warranty.

Won't fix it, but should be enough to keep going until the bike is sold next year. I'll let you know.
 

jimbob

Active member
Aug 3, 2020
517
427
East UK
Interesting that say 80% at 100 cycles, when their website shows (or used to, anyway) minimum of 80% at 100 cycles.
 

Pivot

E*POWAH Master
Jun 11, 2020
668
1,088
New Forest, England
IMG_8082.jpg


My battery health dropped to 85% at 30 cycles, from 87% at 29 cycles.
I have not done anything outrageous to drop 3% in one cycle. I suspect the BMS is rather flaky.
 

Pivot

E*POWAH Master
Jun 11, 2020
668
1,088
New Forest, England
Slightly off topic but relevant to BMS. I am convinced that my battery is in a better shape than specified by BMS and reported by STunlocker.

I have customised my motor using e-Tube app to Low-Low-Med:
IMG_8126.jpg


This translates to 20% — 70% — 200% assist:
IMG_8128.jpg


Today I went for a 52km ride at ave 22.3km/h and I have 54% battery power left. Admittedly it was mostly on a relatively flat surface, 240m elevation, but anyway…
IMG_8129.jpg


This is odd, as I was pushing hard, mostly in Eco (20%) and some in Trail (70%) on up-hills, with one up-hill in Boost (200%)

So, theoretically my bike should be able to do 100km on flat roads, with 20%—70%—200% settings.
However, I suspect that the battery loses power with concave curve down. More testing to follow!
 

Derek

Member
Jun 11, 2019
35
13
Aust
I think its worth remembering that we still don't know if the reported values of battery health are accurate or not.

I've been tracking the input power to charge the batteries for a while now, and think I have an accurate method down. It seems like there is quite a difference in capacity between a new battery i have and one with 50 cycles. I want to gather more data before showing my results though.
Would be very interested in the feed in figures. As you said these numbers may be a guide but also might be meaningless. A real test would be to ride a set distance with as many things being equal as possible from a new battery and then at various points in time do exactly the same ride as your charge cycle count increases. If for example the ride is generally flat on eco, tyre pressures at x and all up weight of y and similar wind conditions, temp.etc. that would be a truer test of what distance is achieved and then reduced by after say 25 and 50 charge cycles. I wish I had thought to do this from new ...ultimately it's the reduction in range I care about over time vs some % figure a BMC is returning. I also wonder how accurate that number of cycles figure is as well??? Who actually has monitored that? I have two 8010 external 504wh that I rotate between and not in any set pattern. They are discharged to varying amounts depending on the rides I do. Sometimes battery 1 will be taken right down to 1 bar. I then swap to battery 2 and may only use 1 or 2 bars for the day. So a real mix of discharge amounts. I take the batteries to full charge and let the charger auto shutdown always. So how is it unless totally lucky that after approx 2.5 years 7411 kms, that battery 1 shows 90% and 52 cycles and battery 2 shows 90% and 51 cycles!! For similar offroad rides I still seem to get roughly the same distance from both batteries and not that different from when new...I think the drop off is less linear than from new however.
 

jimbob

Active member
Aug 3, 2020
517
427
East UK
Yes, sorry, I've not got round to posting the results up yet. I'm still measuring, and will put some of the results up in the next week or so. There is quite a lot of detail, so want to explain it all properly.

I'd still like more data, but I'm sure some would still find it interesting.
 
Apr 18, 2020
117
32
germany
Mine now dropped to 97%. I have more like 3000km on it because I often don't power on the system on long descents. I almost never empty the battery completely. I did it maybe once or twice and overall not much more then 10 times below 10% SOC I believe. I also only charge it to 90 or 100% when I need it. And the thing I noticed is that battery health dropped at these occasions when I had to charge it to 100% when I went traveling with my campervan and it was sitting a few days at 100% before it got used.

I also store it 95% of the time between 20-40% SOC and 10-20 degrees. I also use only the Shimano EC-E6000 charger.

Screenshot_20210623-184550.jpg
 

Spiff

Active member
Feb 27, 2019
411
234
Earth
Some bike suppliers like E-Thirteen, Spesh and others, when they see in this forum a customer with a problem, they quickly jump in the thread and provide a solution and normally covered by warranty. But as for Shimano, they do not even provide any help but tell their lawyers to remove any specification in the documentation, his programmers to remove any BATTERY LIFE number in e-TUBE app, so we do not have any ducumentation to backup a claim.

But luckily, ducuments are not erased in Internet and old documents can still be found. I am attaching one of the pages of a 2019 Shimano Steps Service Manual, where it specifies that the battery should have 80% of the charge at 500 cycles or 60% at 1000 cycles. But since then the number of 80% charge at 500cycles has disappeared from shimano documentation. But I suppose that the figure 80% charge at 500cycles as showed in this document is still legally binding.

Has anybody successfully used this specification to get Shimano warranty the battery at 80% charge? View attachment 67312
 

Spiff

Active member
Feb 27, 2019
411
234
Earth
I finally opened a new thread for battery warranty.

 

Madonas

Member
Dec 21, 2020
12
4
Delta BC
I have about 8700 km on my BT-E8020 battery . It charges to 87% at this point. I can get phenomenal range by riding on the flats and small hills with eco set to low and Trail set to low . Boost is set to High . I can easily ( using more of my leg power) get reading while riding of 135km range.

When set up like this the bike feel "almost" like a regular full suspension mountain bike. To me the ultimate adjustable exercise machine.

Just Yesterday I was doing laps in the Delta watershed park with all the modes ( Eco , Trail and Boost) turned to low
I did 1187 Meter ( 3894 ft ) elevation at a range of 50 Km on this battery that charges to 87%
23.8 km of single track downhill and the remainder uphill ( 26.2 km ) .
I completed 27 laps , 7 more than I usually do and it took me 3.5 hours . Slower up hill than usual but just goes to show what range you can get if you put more effort into the ride by tuning bike down .





I
 
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TG1971

Member
Nov 14, 2020
47
15
Yorkshire
LBS got back to me and no warranty for internal 504wh battery at 80% 60 cycles after 11months from new, they want me to record rides and battery state after these to prove my range is down
 

jimbob

Active member
Aug 3, 2020
517
427
East UK
LBS got back to me and no warranty for internal 504wh battery at 80% 60 cycles after 11months from new, they want me to record rides and battery state after these to prove my range is down
That is pretty poor IMO. Out of interest, was that Shimano (Madison) who asked for that, or the LBS do you know?

Not sure how easy it will be for you to prove its deteriorated?
 

Cyclopath1000

Active member
Apr 26, 2019
309
125
Davis Ca
Just to be sure on this statement 80% does that mean that it charges to all five bars and then you get 20% less miles before the battery turns off or 20% less climbing or both or is there something else that is being measured
 

Spiff

Active member
Feb 27, 2019
411
234
Earth
LBS got back to me and no warranty for internal 504wh battery at 80% 60 cycles after 11months from new, they want me to record rides and battery state after these to prove my range is down
This is Page 19 of Shimano Steps Service Manual that states 80% battery health after 500 charge cycles, show it to your LBS and have Shimano honour their statement in their own documentation.
Shimano Battery Warranty EN.jpg
 
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Spiff

Active member
Feb 27, 2019
411
234
Earth
Again I will ask the same question: what is exactly being measured and how is it measured.

Battery Health is measured in % and it means the percentage of the NOMINAL CHARGE that remains after the battery has been recharged a number of times (CYCLES). When battery is new, it is 100%, and over time it decreases, but Shimano battery are having a very bad behaviour and battery health decreases too quickly.

It is measured by using Shimano Windows etube software , but it requires a expensive adapter Shimano SM-PCE02. So the other choice is to use cell APP STUNLOCKER at a cost of around $2.
 
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Cyclopath1000

Active member
Apr 26, 2019
309
125
Davis Ca
Okay so you're using some kind of app that measures the total charge that the battery carries after being fully charged by an oem Shimano charger is that correct? So I bought a second battery when my first battery was giving me I guess around 80% of its original energy but it was fully charged with five bars by my measurement. And the time and distance between the 5th to the 4th bar was unchanged the 4th to the third bar was unchanged and the even the third to the second bar seemed unchanged and then it quickly dropped off to zero and died so that's the way my battery manifest some kind of fall off and productivity so I went and bought a second 504 battery and I let the original battery rest for months and months and then seems and then it seems it actually started giving me a bit more life so I don't know what you guys are doing by using some sort of software issue please tell me whether you're actually getting less miles ridden and feet climbed if you're not getting a clear fall in performance I don't know what you're talking about.
 

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