10 best tips for charging your ebike battery - avoid fires and prolong battery life 

Two additional tips one for batterylife and one for safety. For batterylife if your bike came with a so called rapid charger, but your battery and motor manufacturer makes a non rapid charger get the slower charger and it will prolong your battery life (shimano makes a 2A and a 4A charger). For safety if you happen to have a garage charge your bike in your garage or car port. Most building codes require fire safety provisions for garage and carports to be built into the structure to stand engine fires so if you charge in your garage especially unsupervised it is the safest place to do so.

Thank you 🙏

One tip that is implicit in your routine is to give the battery chemistry time to settle before charging - even 30 minutes makes a difference. I also charge just under 100% wherever I can (it’s a game now 😊). My rides use 25-35% and I often nearly top them off just to avoid range anxiety or to be setup for a bonus ride💪 After 2.5yrs I’m at 120 full cycle charges on 700w Specialized turbo Levo and battery continues to read 100% health with Ride app (potentially less as apparently bike/app rounds up, shop app might report exact health %).

the bluetooth/wifi smart plug is a good idea THANK YOU

Great video. I would suggest always make sure you hear the fan turn on in your battery charger. Mine came disconnected and it overheated. I connected it 2 years ago and it still works well. I believe many good batteries come with cheap chargers

Very helpful information. Thank you, E-MTBR.

Thank you for the tips

An important thing in my opinion is to always let the battery rest for at least 15 minutes before recharging it, especially if it is hot and the battery has been used intensively. This applies to most domestic batteries anyway ;)

I generally charge my eMTB battery just before the ride to 100%. After the ride it remains generally to 10-40% with state of charge for few days or weeks till next ride. I also keep 20-25% state of charge over the winter for 3 months. I rarely discharge the battery to 0% on a ride. This happened 4 or 5 times in 2 years of use. Now the battery have 45 charging cycles and I do not feel a drop of autonomy. I store my bike with battery installed in a shady place on the balcony where the temperature is maxim 40 C degrees in the midday of summer and minimum 10 C degrees in winter.

Mine caught fire at my brothers house, his homeowners insurance covered it. The house was a total loss. Since then ive come to know that ebikes are just expensive toys that do not last. A small gas powered Honda is cheaper in the long run.

Good tips. I’d also suggest being very sure that any extension cords or timers you use are rated for the amount of power your charger draws. Also keep in mind that typical $1.50 household outlets aren’t meant for multiple hours of use at peak current, and they can really heat up. Consider replacing your outlet with an industrial/commercial grade unit.

Nice work sir ,I'm getting my first ebike soon

It would be nice if manufacturers build smarter chargers with a bluetooth connection that would allow us to set a countdown timer or max. % of charge for automatic cutoff. Great video by the way. Loved tip no. 1 ;)

What are those devices you use to hang your bikes on the wall?

I live in the rocky mountains of Colorado. My storage shed gets way below freezing at night. I way too many e-bikes to store inside my small house. So I came up with a solution that work's pretty good. I wrap the downtube with powered dog beds (never fold the dog bed when heated) and put Thinsulate insulation over that. Worked flawlessly last year. I would say do this at your own risk, as doing it incorrectly could start a fire. But it keeps the battery warm and ready to use in the morning and protects against critical charging problems if the battery gets below freezing. As Francis says, keeping the bike inside is best. Never charge your bike if the battery gets well below freezing. That could destroy the battery for good.

Put the left crank arm down when charging because it can fall down and hit the charger port of the bike and the cable of the charger and make a bad connection between bike and charger and could provoke a short circuit

Is there a battery tester we can get to show what % is left in our battery . Like the one for my RC trucks .

When is the lowest battety i should charge

We have 3 Specialized ebikes and always time them , always charge them to full and haven't ever had any problems

I usually ride only 5-10 miles at a time. So I only charge @ every 3 or 4 days of riding. Lithium batteries like to be charged fully when they are used down to 25-30% left in them.

I keep my ebike in my living room, and never leave it charging overnight, or unattended. A timer in my phone reminds me to unplug the charger at about 80-90%, since I've never come close to using the whole charge in a simple ride.

As far as I know Specialized bikes aren’t UL certified, I’m not sure about the Brose components.

4:30 The text guy was a little tipsy when he wrote that.

Should the battery be switched off or on when charging?

You forgot about the no extension cords rule.

Be careful with safety labels. There's $ involved! If you don't understand what I'm saying, it's best that you do your thorough research on the safety label's background.

I have to drive 6 hours to do any good riding. I've got an overland rig that have 320 watts of solar and 600 amps of batteries. I can charge 3 batteries and keep the fridge running.

if the bike is charged all the way...how long can I drive it?...I do Doordash and would like to get a bike. I drive all day for about 8 hours. Would this last me the 8 hours.? and where can I charge it instead of my home?

They're all a fire hazard

Ultimately I think there is so much variability in lithium batteries, BMSs, chargers, and e-bike parts and brands, that I don't think buying a brand-name really buys a whole lot of safety. Safer, yes. "Safe" ? I dunno. So many UL listings are fake these days, having a UL symbol doesn't mean a thing any more. Even your comment "the charger must shutdown" should not make a difference... the BMS built into the battery is supposed to protect the battery, is it not doing its job? Sure, the charger must shut-down, but the BMS should also disconnect the battery when it hits its charge target. Also, these lithium polymer chemistries (NMC, NCA) don't seem to have the robustness to deal with the constant physical abuse that bikes take. Just road vibration alone, for example. IMHO, the only thing that really, really improves safety is going with LiFePO4 rather than NMC or NCA lithium chemistries. That means taking a range hit, LiFePO4 batteries aren't as energy dense. But man oh man they are a hundred times safer. You can charge them up to 100% every time, and you don't have to worry about leaving the bike unused with the battery charged to 100% causing any damage (LiFePO4 doesn't, not really). And as an added bonus, the LiFePO4 battery packs can handle thousands of charge cycles. It seems the industry is focused on marketing range, though, and I don't see anywhere near as many LiFePO4 solutions as I do standard lithium solutions. With enough people demanding it, the industry would catch up, just like it did for power stations.

Get a good charger lol

Don't listen to this guy. He's just trying to sell overpriced bikes