Battery is overcharged

Electric bike kits or ebikes are equipped with a small motor that allows you to step on hills and around towns more easily. The motor is powered by a rechargeable battery, which must be plugged into a charger and charged before it can be used to power the electric bicycle motor. Although charging the battery itself is simple, many people worry about what will happen if the battery is overcharged

Ebike batteries should not be overcharged. Doing so will shorten the life of the battery and may cause it to overheat and eventually make it unusable.

What effect does overcharging have on Ebike batteries?

Electric bicycles are most often equipped with lithium-ion (Li-ion) or lithium-ion polymer (LiPo) batteries, but some are also equipped with lead-acid batteries (SLA), nickel-cadmium batteries (NiCd), or nickel-metal hydride batteries (NiMh).

Most lithium-ion batteries can last 2-5 years, and can usually withstand about 1000 recharges, sometimes less, sometimes more. SLA batteries should last 200-300 charge cycles, although many users report that battery life begins to decrease significantly after 100 charges. NiCd batteries can usually be charged around 500 times, while NiMH batteries are usually close to 400 times.

The most common and significant effect of overcharging an electric bicycle battery is the impact on battery life. When the charger cycles on and off repeatedly, it will eventually affect the overall energy capacity of the battery. Regardless of your charging habits, the distance that a fully charged battery can travel will gradually decrease over time, but overcharging will cause this to happen faster

If you often forget to remove the battery from the charger, please rest assured that you may not cause any major damage. Overcharging is not great, but modern batteries can withstand it; you will not cause it to overheat, melt or even explode as you fear.

Most modern batteries cannot be truly overcharged. They are designed to cycle off and stop charging after reaching full capacity.

However, even if it is not used, the energy in the battery will slowly discharge on its own. If the battery is left on the charger, once the stored energy falls below a certain threshold, it will resume charging again. If you develop the habit of putting the battery on the charger for more than 100%, this intermittent cycle may eventually reduce the battery's overall energy capacity.

A few simple options can solve the habit of leaving the battery in the charger for too long.

l Get a smart plug or smart power strip. These allow you to use your phone or app to control the plug, turn the power on/off, or set a timer to turn off the power after a certain amount of charging.

l If you know how long it takes to fully charge the battery, you can get a simpler device-a plug-and-play timer. Just set the charging time, the time your battery is in a valid charging state is enough, nothing more.

l Or, if you remember, just set a reminder on your phone every time you charge the battery.

Conclusion

In short, it is not a good thing to leave the battery on the charger for a long time, but overcharging is usually not dangerous. Modern batteries can withstand typical charging scenarios common to people, so you will not overheat it, but please try to keep the battery away from the charger for a long time, or cut off the charger's power for easy operation.