2. Battery Safety (Brief Overview)
If you ever suspect a battery problem, please contact us immediately by email or phone so we can go
through the appropriate steps/procedures to make sure everything is okay with battery system.
At Hi Power Cycles, safety is our number one concern. We want our customers to enjoy a great
product that will give those customers’ years of trouble free operation. As much effort as we do to
minimize the risk of these state of the art batteries, there is always safety concerns when it comes to
Lithium batteries that we want our customers to be aware of. All of the new portable electronics, including
cell phones and laptops, contain lithium batteries which have the same chemical properties, although bike
batteries are just on a much bigger scale. We make every effort to have the highest quality battery cells and
best battery protection (called a BMS or Battery Management System) to minimize any risk associated with
these high power batteries.
We have gone through extensive research and testing to get the
best electric bike batteries in the world. The battery chemistry we use
is the same that large car manufactures (such as Nissan) use in their
vehicles. This state of the art battery chemistry is called Lithium
Nickel Manganese Cobalt (LiNiMnCoO
2)
or NMC for short. We felt
that this is the best overall combination of power, safety, performance,
and life span compared to the other options available.
Due to the nature of lithium cells, which have a lot of energy
stored in a small package, there is always a possibility this energy can
be suddenly released and can cause fire and/or serious injury if not
taken care of immediately. With a state of the arm Battery
Management System that is found on all of our battery packs, the cells and pack are protected from failure.
The only time a pack will fail will be a result of a BMS failure and attempting to charge, short circuit, over
discharge, or somehow puncture the battery pack.
The main cause of failure in lithium batteries occurs during the charging portion, when cells
can be overcharged.
This is the number one failure and can lead to batteries which vent and eventually
release all of their energy at once (or can even cause the battery pack to ignite on fire). Due to a BMS
failure, cells can get out of balance and certain cells may become overcharged as a result. This is why we
always recommend monitoring the charging process in the extremely rare event something should happen.
Charging on a concrete floor, such as in a garage, away from debris and material is always recommended
as a safety precaution.
2.1 Safety Precautions:
We recommend keeping the following immediately accessible where you charge your bike
-
Class D Fire Extinguisher: can be used in the event of a lithium fire
-
ABC Fire Extinguisher: If you cannot get a Class D, this will do the job by preventing other materials
around the ruptured battery from catching on fire.
If your charger typically takes 4 hours to charge your battery, but it seems to be taking longer,
unplug the battery and investigate. If you suspect a bad BMS, smell the top of the battery. If there is a burnt
smell, it is a failed BMS and stop charging immediately. If nothing is wrong, it is okay to continue charging
as the battery is simply balancing while it is charging and it may take longer than normal.
If, for whatever reason, your bike suddenly has a loss of power and you are not getting the same
performance, STOP IMMEDIATELY. Turn the bike off and inspect your battery system. Smell for a burnt
smell and inspect there are no melted or shorted wires. This would be indicative of a shorted or failed BMS
which you will need to contact us directly to take care of.
If you notice that your battery system has a puffed, damaged, or leaking cell, contact us immediately and
we will walk you through the appropriate steps to take in this instance.
