Getting the Most from Your Battery

There are many misconceptions about what to look for in a battery when purchasing an electric bike, as well as how to properly care for the battery.  We want you to get the most out of your bike, so we put together this article to help you better understand what to look for when purchasing your bike, and how to maximize the life of your battery.

We designed our MOD-DRIVE motors to deliver maximum power with extreme efficiency, but it's important to understand that the more strain you put on an electric bike’s motor, the faster it depletes the battery.  The best way to maximize your battery life is to be economical with the use of your motor.  Heavy strain on the motor also puts more stress on the bike’s drive-train and other critical components, so by following the steps outlined in this article you will maximize the life of many of your bike’s parts in addition to the life of the battery.

Ride Efficiently

You likely won’t need the aid of the motor when going downhill, so one way to ride more efficiently is to turn the level of pedal-assist down, or off altogether while going downhill or on level terrain.  It’s also important to know that your motor consumes much more power trying to move your bike when you are stopped than it does while your bike is already moving.  If your bike has a throttle, avoid using it to take off from a stop unless absolutely necessary.

Many riders are so impressed by the power of their bike’s motor that they forget to use their  gears.  Learning how to properly shift gears is important with any bike, and the better you get at shifting, the more efficient your motor will operate.

Taking Care of Your Battery

Proper care and maintenance for your electric battery is similar to most electronics. Avoid getting your battery wet, and don’t expose it to extreme heat, cold, or direct sunlight.  Do not attempt to open your battery, and avoid dropping or banging it against hard surfaces.

If your battery is swelling or leaking, do not use it, and contact us immediately. Always make sure to properly dispose of a faulty battery, and to handle it with extreme caution.  If you touch any leaking fluid, immediately wash your hands and avoid touching anything.

The batteries that we use at MOD BIKES are rated for 1000 full-charge cycles. Depending on how often you use your bike, your battery should last about 5 years.  Our batteries are fairly resistant to many of the normal pitfalls with rechargeable batteries. Unlike most rechargeable batteries, you don’t need to worry about power-cycling your e-bike battery, but you do need to take care of your battery if you plan on storing it for long periods of time.  

If you don’t plan on using your bike for more than three weeks you should try to leave the battery level at around 50%. Storing the battery for extended periods with too much charge (70%+) or too little (30%-) can cause damage to the cells of your battery.

Now that the basics have been covered, we’ve extended this guide in case you’d like to dive deeper into how your battery operates. The first thing that we will cover are some basic terms that you will see when looking at batteries.

Amps, Volts, and Watts

You can think of batteries as tanks filled with electrons. When you turn your bike on, electrons flow out from the battery, through your bike’s motor, and back into the battery. This flow of electrons from the battery, through the motor, and back into the battery is referred to as a circuit.

Without an appropriate battery, even the most powerful motors will be unable to move your bike. The amount of power that your bike’s motor can consume depends on the number of electrons that your battery provides, and on how quickly those electrons are able to move through the circuit.

Volts describe how fast electrons move. More voltage means more speed. Amps measure how many Volts can move at the same time. You can think of Volts as the speed of the cars on a freeway, and Amps as the number of lanes that those cars can travel on. If you multiply the number of Amps by the number of Volts, you end up with the number of Watts.

Amp Hours and Watt Hours

Amp Hours (Ah) measure how many Amps a battery can sustain for 1 hour. Going back to the analogy with cars, Amp Hours can be thought of as the size of the gas tank. Most batteries will be listed at 10 to 20 Ah. While it is important to know the Ah of your battery, this metric alone will not tell you much. You need to factor in the Voltage that your motor consumes to get a good idea of how long your battery will last, which is why we typically talk about Watt Hours.

Watt Hours (Wh) provide a much more accurate indication of how much usable energy is in a battery. As you may have already guessed, Watt Hours measure the number of Watts that a battery can deliver in 1 hour. Electric bikes do not consume a constant amount of power across time. Your motor consumes more energy going uphill than it does downhill, and this is where it helps to use Watts as opposed to Amps.

Let’s say that your battery has 500 Wh. If your motor is operating at 500w, then your battery will last for one hour. If you crank up the speed and the motor operates at 1000w, then your battery will only last for 30 minutes. If you decide to ride more efficiently, and your motor only has a load of 250w, then your battery will last 2 hours.

Again, the amount of power that your motor consumes is not constant. If your bike has a 500w motor, that means that the highest load that your motor will use is 500w. Your bike’s power consumption will change throughout your ride, but it will never exceed 500w. Many riders incorrectly assume that bigger is better when it comes to the motor and the battery, but if your motor is not running efficiently even the biggest batteries will be quickly depleted.