B&B Battery Experience???
 

I wanted to get your opinions on my recent experience with SLA batteries. I ride a 2008 Electrec which has a 600W motor running at 24V. My daily commute is one of two offices at either 6.5 or 9.5 miles each way. I pedal constantly and use the motor whenever I feel the need (i.e., pedaling gets hard). I recharge at work and home with a Soneil charger immediately after each ride.

The original SLA batteries that came with the bike (12V 14Ahr, Kung Long brand) started to give me noticably decreased range and power after about 18 months of constant use equating to more than 2600 miles and 400 charging cycles. This is within my expectations for lead batteries and I felt OK about replacing them.

Wanting to get something maybe a bit better, I shopped around and bought a pair of B&B EB12-12's allegedy designed specifically for extended life in electric mobility applications like bikes. I expected to get at least as many cycles from these as the old batteries. Yes, I realize the power is less (12Ahr vs. 14 Ahr), but my commute at the time only used about 50% charge and I always recharge at work, so I didn't see a problem.

The short story is that my "new" B&B EB batteries are seriously dying now after only about 5 months of use or 700 miles and 100 charge cycles. I checked the voltages after discharge and the pack is very imbalanced. For example, one battery may read 12V while the other is 10V. I've pulled the batteries out and tried multiple discharge/charge cycles with them in parallel (to force balance) and the weaker battery doesn't seem to bounce back. Even when I pair the stronger B&B battery with a strong battery from a different set (in series), it still doesn't seem to deliver very much power.

So, are these B&B EB series batteries just total junk, or did I just get a bad batch, or what? I thought B&B were good quality. Anyone else try them yet?

I've ordered a generic pair of 12V 14Ahr batteries from BatteryMart. Maybe they'll be more comparable to the originals, who knows. Yes, one day I'll go lithium, but if I can find decent lead batteries that last a year or two per set, it's really tough to justify the cost of lithium over the life of the bike.

Maybe you bought some that had sat on the shelf for a year. Other people who have had those B&B have reported using them for about 5000 miles.

Since you only have 24v, have you thought about buying two 12v Thundersky packs for about $240 ? I assume you are only pulling about 20 amps out of the batteries? If so, Thundersky would be the way to go in my opinion. The cost is just a little more than some good SLA batteries and they'll last a lot longer. Probably 5 years or more.

http://elitepowersolutions.com/produ...products_id=74

You can buy them with or without balancers. I use mine without balancers and they are fine. I charge mine with a regular 12v SLA charger. Only thing you have to worry about with Lifepo4 is the batteries can't go below 2.5v or above 4.2v. I usually charge mine to about 3.7v per cell. Another thing you have to worry about is a damaged cell so you have to check the voltages each time you charge them to make sure the cells are still working okay but aside from that, they are great. I've been using them since January.

You could buy a celllog 8s monitor from hobbyking.com for about $15 and put a small piezo alarm on it to warn you if you ever get below 2.5v per cell. If you want to know more about how I charge them and use them, there is a thread on here called "looking for battery recommendations" .

I would second Morph's recommendation on getting Thundersky LIFEPO4 cells. This spring, I built a 24V 20AH LIFPEO4 pack using Thundersky cells that I bought online from Elite Power Solutions in Arizona. I don't use a BMS but rather a newer, less expensive piece of electronics called a CellLog 8. If you have e-brakes, you can actually wire the CellLog to perform low voltge cutoff like a BMS. Otherwise, you rely on audible alarms that sound to prevent you from over charging or discharging too deeply. It's wonderful to have this pack on the bike and I'll be building a second pack this summer.

I discovered recently that my 5303 will run just fine on 24v of power. It only goes 15 mph but it will carry me without pedaling as long as it's flat ground.

O'hell, does this mean that I'm thirding morph? I gotta find time to check these posts more often......As NB indicated get a good set of Thunder Sky packs and CellLog 8 and ride like the wind.

To bring this story to a happy ending...

In the interim, I had put the original Kung Long batteries back in and they are working fine in the warm weather ( I had replaced them in January when I was seriously losing range). Commuted to work last couple of days on them just fine.

Today, a new pair of Powersonic 12V 14Ah batteries arrived. After an initial bulk charge and discharge, it looks like the two batteries are equalized nicely and they have recent matching date codes. The questionable B&B batteries had different date codes. I performed an initial load test on the Powersonics and gave up early because the voltage just was not coming down after a much longer discharge than with the other sets. These look like GOOD batteries so far.

While I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm for lithium, if I can buy a good set of SLA batteries for $75 that give me ample range and last 2+ years or several thousand miles, why do I need lithium?

In your case, it doesn't make as much sense to really bother with lithium since you are only 24v and the weight on your bike probably isn't that bad. Most riders use 36v or 48v and the weight is very bad and that's the primary reason why most go to lithium. Also, lithium has a much denser energy to weight ratio so you get more distance for the weight. In lithium, you typically use 90 % of the battery but in SLA, you can only use about 60 % of it because of the bad peurkert effect. It's still more economical to use Lifepo4 over SLA's because they will last much longer.

B&b
 

no doubt B&b brand of SLA is the best in industry.
I own 24V Merida and checked other brands.
Original Long were good , after that i CHECKED haze BRAND AND IS OVERHIPED poc.
It sags voltage like crazy.
After 25km of riding I rode up the 100m hill not problem.
It would have not be possible with other brand.
Read on ES forum and others, it will confirm what I say.
mc

please let me know how you do for battery problems i need to get myself 4 12v 20+AH (5h) for my bike and know nothing about what any of it means

my experience with B&B batteries has been excellent.
ON 24V Merida bike, pedalec, 230W motor it performs very well, much better than HAZE brand which I bought locally.
wELL, I wanted to support local business and I was sceptical of HAZE I never heard about .
Well scooter, wfeelchear model of HAZE performed poorly, bigger voltage sag than B&B .
B&B brand is only one which produce their own Pb plates , other don't , they buy from others.
Charging RIGHT after ride is a MUST with any Lead Acid, discharging to LVC is NO, NO if you want it to last.
MC