26
in the standard battery pack or 1248 Wh for the LiFePO
4
pack. Based on
the above calculations, you can get a general idea of the cost of charging
your MOTORINO™ by multiplying the watt-hours by your utility rate (usu-
ally stated per 1000 Wh aka kWh.
Caring for your Gel Cell Battery Pack
The lead-acid chemistry is still the most widely used and, for now, cost-
effective battery type in light electric vehicles. They will deliver excellent
service if used with a few points in mind.
1. They prefer not to be deeply discharged.
Your gel-cell battery pack will give more mileage over its lifetime if you
minimize the depth of discharge. In practical terms, that means shorter
trips between charges will lead to longer battery life. Of course, we have
to go where we have to go and the ideal isn’t always possible, so do what
you can. For example, even if you could make a number of round-trips on
a single charge, it is better for your battery pack to charge up between
trips. In lab tests, a gel-cell pack always drawn down to 10% remaining
will deliver less than half the mileage of a battery that only gets dis-
charged to 50%.
NOTE:
There is no such thing as a “memory effect” in relation to lead-acid
batteries; the “advice” to fully discharge before recharging only ever
applied to NiCad batteries and is actually damaging to lead-acid gel
cells!
2. They like to be fully charged at all times, especially when in stor-
age.
Left entirely on their own, gel-cells will lose about 40% of their charge in a
year. Add the small but steady current draw from something like an alarm
system, and they can be flat in just a few months. This is very bad because
of a chemical process known as “sulfation” (also spelled “sulphation”) that
occurs whenever a lead-acid cell is discharged.
In regular use, if you adhere to the “charge at every opportunity” rule
above, your batteries won’t sit deeply discharged long enough for the
non-conductive lead-sulfate layer to become a problem since when it is
still very thin, it is removed again by normal charging. This can be ensured
Battery Information, Care, and Feeding
Summary of Contents for MOTORINO XP SERIES
Page 1: ...Owner s Manual XP Series...
