Electric bike battery

[gradus]

Unluckily for me the Bosch Power Pack battery for my electric bike is refusing to stay on despite being fully charged.
Being newish technology it is proving difficult/impossibe to find anyone who knows if it is repairable or a write off - being Li-ion it is potentially dangerous to fiddle with.
I wondered if anyone on here has had similar problems and/or knows where it might be repaired. New ones are something over £400 and quite difficult to find.

[Serial_Apologist]

Unluckily for me the Bosch Power Pack battery for my electric bike is refusing to stay on despite being fully charged.
Being newish technology it is proving difficult/impossibe to find anyone who knows if it is repairable or a write off - being Li-ion it is potentially dangerous to fiddle with.
I wondered if anyone on here has had similar problems and/or knows where it might be repaired. New ones are something over £400 and quite difficult to find.

I take it that the battery is not covered by any guarantee? Has it worked all right up until this moment?

[gradus]

Sadly for me it is long past any guarantee and Bosch only offer links to dealers none of whom are able to repair it. Until now it has worked perfectly for its age (8-9 years) but as it charges it seems (at a guess) like a non-cell problem.

[Pulcinella]

Just a thought, though you might already have had it and done something similar:

Have you tried somewhere like Kwik Fit?
They might have specialist battery-testing kit that could help identify the problem.

[Quarky]

Unluckily for me the Bosch Power Pack battery for my electric bike is refusing to stay on despite being fully charged.
Being newish technology it is proving difficult/impossibe to find anyone who knows if it is repairable or a write off - being Li-ion it is potentially dangerous to fiddle with.
I wondered if anyone on here has had similar problems and/or knows where it might be repaired. New ones are something over £400 and quite difficult to find.

This may be a case of Bosch piling up the costs of replacement parts. A check through ebay shows replacement batteries at £70, £120 , and upwards. Bosch seems the most expensive.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I have had the batteries for cordless power tools - drills etc - renewed. But that was Ni-Cad batteries being replaced by NiMh batteries.

I notice the small outfits that provided that service have not got involved in renewing Li-On batteries inside the battery cases. This blog says that manufacturers glue and tightly pack the individual cells in the assembly together, and it is impossible to extract and repair failed individual cells.

https://www.upsbatterycenter.com/blog/repairing-broken-lithium-batteries-feasible/

[gradus]

Having now spoken to battery repair companies(at Pulci's suggestion) it seems that the problem lies with the circuit boards that Bosch builds into the product for which no spares are available. Ah well ...

[Dave2002]

I was only very recently recommended to try electric bikes - though I've not done so yet. If you've had yours for 8-9 years you are presumably fairly familiar with them by now. If your battery is caput, but your bike still works, can you console yourself with the thought that it effectively only cost £50 per year - and if you buy another battery and your bike lasts another similar period, then maybe that's not such a terrible thing.

Otherwise might be time to buy another new e-bike perhaps.

[Serial_Apologist]

I was only very recently recommended to try electric bikes - though I've not done so yet. If you've had yours for 8-9 years you are presumably fairly familiar with them by now. If your battery is caput, but your bike still works, can you console yourself with the thought that it effectively only cost £50 per year - and if you buy another battery and your bike lasts another similar period, then maybe that's not such a terrible thing.

Otherwise might be time to buy another new e-bike perhaps.

Can E bikes be ridden without batteries then? I didn't know that.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Can E bikes be ridden without batteries then? I didn't know that.

They can, but obviously this will mean relying on good old-fashioned pedal power.

[gradus]

They are heavier than regular bikes because of the electric gubbins but are rideable sans electricity.
I'd certainly recommend getting one as they make light work of steep hills (very relevant for S_A's locale) and the power assistance on the Bosch system - others too I think - can be varied form little to the full 250 or more watts which can get even the least fit cycling up steep hills in a high-ish gear whilst remaining seated.
Mine is no longer made as the company, Ave, went bust although the name has reappeared. It was given to me by a friend 3 years ago when he upgraded to a more recent model.

[gurnemanz]

They are heavier than regular bikes because of the electric gubbins but are rideable sans electricity.
I'd certainly recommend getting one as they make light work of steep hills (very relevant for S_A's locale) and the power assistance on the Bosch system - others too I think - can be varied form little to the full 250 or more watts which can get even the least fit cycling up steep hills in a high-ish gear whilst remaining seated.
Mine is no longer made as the company, Ave, went bust although the name has reappeared. It was given to me by a friend 3 years ago when he upgraded to a more recent model.

Ebikes must be quite a bit heavier with battery and motor and as long as I can negotiate our environs purely on my own leg power I shall continue to do so. There are some steep bits but they can be avoided, or tackled in lowest gear or on quiet stretches by zig-zagging to reduce the gradient with a hairpin effect. Getting the heart pumping a bit is surely one of the benefits of regular cycling.

[Dave2002]

The friend who recommended that I try e-bikes is a keen regular cyclist. Apparently he went on holiday to an island, which he wanted to circumnavigate. I think there was/is a mountain in the centre. He hired an ebike and was surprised that it was able to go up really rather steep slopes with few problems. Regarding his circumnavigation - apparently that also went very well. He thought that it might run out of power so stopped to charge up again half way round, but the battery hadn't gone down much, so he completed his tour easily. I'm not sure what happens if you don't pedal at all, but I'm told you can put in as much or as little effort as you like.

They are heavier than ordinary bikes. I've still not tried one, nor been converted yet - but then my mountain bike is still unassembled in the garage - where it has been for years, so I'm clearly not as keen as my friend. One day .... maybe!

There are currently opportunities for grants and/or loans for ebikes.

[gradus]

Ebikes must be quite a bit heavier with battery and motor and as long as I can negotiate our environs purely on my own leg power I shall continue to do so. There are some steep bits but they can be avoided, or tackled in lowest gear or on quiet stretches by zig-zagging to reduce the gradient with a hairpin effect. Getting the heart pumping a bit is surely one of the benefits of regular cycling.

The electric assist is variable from nothing to quite some, but all require pedal turning so the effort though potentially reduced is still there and particularly useful exercise for maintaining leg strength flexibility and movement if knee problems preclude walking for long distances, as I've found to my benefit.

[Dave2002]

I was advised - if interested - to hire one or two at first to see if I would actually enjoy having one. I think some locations are much more likely to have a range of ebikes to hire than others - for example some holiday destinations. There might not be many suitable hire locations in some parts of the UK.