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Ground-shipping your new wheel during a hot Summer?


Spinner

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Hey Guys 

I'm having my MSuper S+ ground-shipped from California to Montreal, Canada but it just struck me it will spend 5 days in the back of a FedEx truck that's not air-conditioned. Isn't that bad for the batteries?? It's a brand new, expensive wheel and I don't want to receive it with a battery pack that will have aged prematurely. I checked the outside temperatures of where it's at now and it gets to 35 degrees Celsius and more...

@Rehab1, @Mono, @Marty Backe, @Hunka Hunka Burning Love? Tagging you guys because I see your names often on the forum and you all seem knowledgeable about this. Hope it doesn't bother you!

Thanks

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6 hours ago, Spinner said:

Hey Guys 

I'm having my MSuper S+ ground-shipped from California to Montreal, Canada but it just struck me it will spend 5 days in the back of a FedEx truck that's not air-conditioned. Isn't that bad for the batteries?? It's a brand new, expensive wheel and I don't want to receive it with a battery pack that will have aged prematurely. I checked the outside temperatures of where it's at now and it gets to 35 degrees Celsius and more...

@Rehab1, @Mono, @Marty Backe, @Hunka Hunka Burning Love? Tagging you guys because I see your names often on the forum and you all seem knowledgeable about this. Hope it doesn't bother you!

Thanks

Not to worry! There is a great deal of square footage inside FedEx and UPS trucks with lots of air circulation. Your new wheel's batteries will be safe from overheating!

I'm sure @esaj has some charts in his massive library depicting just how much ambient heat is require to compromise the batteries. Certainly storing your wheel inside a car basking in the hot sun all day is a different story and not recommened! 

Fedex is shipping my wife's new KS16S from California across the country to Ohio and I am not concerned one bit.

 

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30 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

I'm sure @esaj has some charts in his massive library depicting just how much ambient heat is require to compromise the batteries. Certainly storing your wheel inside a car basking in the hot sun all day is a different story and not recommened! 

If by "massive library" you mean Internet-access and Google, yes, I have a massive library... :whistling:;) 

Storing a battery in elevated temperature eats away the total capacity, especially if the cell is left sitting charged to full, although not very fast at room temperatures or slightly above, see table 3 here:  http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

The critical temperature probably varies somewhat, but I think it's somewhere around the 150C mark  (around 300F). When not being charged or discharged, the cells shouldn't get hotter than ambient (except in direct sunlight?).

I found these charts (from this article: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2013/ra/c3ra45748f , "Thermal-runaway experiments on consumer Li-ion batteries with metal-oxide and olivin-type cathodes" ) where they slowly heated up the cells in controlled environment:

c3ra45748f-f4_hi-res.gif

Fig. 4 (a) Temperature versus time plot of all temperature sensors in the pressure vessel. The whole duration of the experiment is shown. (b) Amount of produced gas versus time plot. Cell temperature is shown in arbitrary units. (c) Temperature rate of the cell versus cell temperature. Overview of a whole experiment duration. (d) Temperature rate of the cell versus cell temperature. The straight lines are fitted to the heat-up stage and to the quasi-exponential stage. The intersection of the two lines marks the onset point θo of the thermal runaway reaction. A sharp increase in the temperature rate marks the onset of the rapid thermal runaway θr.

image file: c3ra45748f-f5.tif
  Fig. 5 (a) Overview of the time–temperature profiles for the cells tested. Data for the whole experiment durations and for the whole experiment sets is shown. For the sake of completeness, one LFP test with a higher (1) and one with a lower (2) heating rate of the heater sleeve are included. (b) Temperature rates from three representative experiments.

These would also suggest around 150 Celcius as the critical temperature. After the thermal runaway starts, the cells will heat by themselves, and can go up to 900 Celcius (not in these charts, but they refer to another publication: "During thermal runaway, temperatures as high as 900 °C can be reached,3 and the battery can release a significant amount of burnable and (if inhaled in high concentrations) toxic gas.")

 

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 To add to this, as I understand ambient heat degradation on a battery's ability to retain full charge, they are less affected if their storage charge is lower. Your wheel will not be fully charged out the factory so any heat effect will be lessened. My wheel is ground shipping from CA to FL. Probably the worst journey it could make for heat and I'm not worried... And if you look at my threads I'm seriously paranoid about my battery. :D

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Thanks so much everyone! You guys are so helpful. Do you mind answering one last question?

When I charge my MSuper S+ for the first time, should I charge it at the slowest possible setting and let it charge for about 3 hours after it says full? That's what Inmotion recommended in the manual but Jason says you can't really rely on anything in the manual...

Thanks again! I love this forum and its outstanding, generous members!

Freddy

 

 

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I think this would be the procedure for fully charging the wheel and allowing the individual cells in the pack to balance. It wouldn't hurt do do it and then it is worth doing every couple of weeks from then on, especially if you normally perform partial charges (for battery longevity) with a Charge Doctor or one of the eWheels fast chargers that have a charge limiter.

Is it required on first charge or will you damage your battery if your don't....I wouldn't think so, but then I'm still learning much of this stuff too.

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9 hours ago, Spinner said:

Hey Guys 

I'm having my MSuper S+ ground-shipped from California to Montreal, Canada but it just struck me it will spend 5 days in the back of a FedEx truck that's not air-conditioned. Isn't that bad for the batteries?? It's a brand new, expensive wheel and I don't want to receive it with a battery pack that will have aged prematurely. I checked the outside temperatures of where it's at now and it gets to 35 degrees Celsius and more...

@Rehab1, @Mono, @Marty Backe, @Hunka Hunka Burning Love? Tagging you guys because I see your names often on the forum and you all seem knowledgeable about this. Hope it doesn't bother you!

Thanks

As a rule I don't baby my batteries much. I'm focused more on using and enjoying the wheel rather than keeping it looking nice or lasting forever.

I will say that I keep my KS14C (840wh version) in the trunk of my car 90% of the time. It sits outside in Southern California where the temperatures are very high. I haven't noticed any changes after doing this for months.

I wouldn't worry about a few days in a giant truck.

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1 hour ago, Spinner said:

Thanks so much everyone! You guys are so helpful. Do you mind answering one last question?

When I charge my MSuper S+ for the first time, should I charge it at the slowest possible setting and let it charge for about 3 hours after it says full? That's what Inmotion recommended in the manual but Jason says you can't really rely on anything in the manual...

Thanks again! I love this forum and its outstanding, generous members!

Freddy

 

 

I usually just plug the charger in and walk away. I rarely am around when the charge is complete, so it may be fully charged and still plugged in for 1 hour or 8 hours.

I just don't worry about the charging process that much - I let the charger do it's job.

There seems to be two types of people, those that baby their batteries to maximum the lifetime of the batteries, and those that don't. I fall under the latter category. There's no 'right' way of doing this. Everyone has different perspectives and priorities, and that's what makes the world go round :D

Enjoy your wheel when you get it :cheers:

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Late to the party, but yeah they ship these wheels all the time in various temperature conditions so I'd doubt there would be a problem.  The batteries likely are engineered to operate over a fairly decent environmental temperature range otherwise they would be time bombs ready to explode at any moment :blink: or die too quickly during hot days.  If there are specific instructions in the InMotion manual, I would tend to follow those, but then again, I tend to baby my "Precious."

 

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5 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

I usually just plug the charger in and walk away. I rarely am around when the charge is complete, so it may be fully charged and still plugged in for 1 hour or 8 hours.

I just don't worry about the charging process that much - I let the charger do it's job.

There seems to be two types of people, those that baby their batteries to maximum the lifetime of the batteries, and those that don't. I fall under the latter category. There's no 'right' way of doing this. Everyone has different perspectives and priorities, and that's what makes the world go round :D

Enjoy your wheel when you get it :cheers:

I belong to the first category for the first couple of days and then the heck with it... Indeed these wheels are meant to have fun with. As soon as I get my first scratches I have more fun with the wheel. They don't belong in a museum!

But still, the whole "perfect new (and expensive) gift to myself" takes over during the first days. @Paddylaz, I will try to remember to take unboxing photos for you! :) 

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Thanks again, guys. Willl post some pictures of my MSuper S+ once it's all "pimped up" (the boring pimp kind) with reflective tapes, padding etc. and perhaps do a video of the streets of Montreal with it! GoPro is next on my list if I do that... I will be poor when I retire...

@EU GUY, I will definitely contact you about the 3d printing specs of your mud guard. Peace!

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33 minutes ago, Spinner said:

I belong to the first category for the first couple of days and then the heck with it... Indeed these wheels are meant to have fun with. As soon as I get my first scratches I have more fun with the wheel. They don't belong in a museum!

Or do they?   :efefd0f676:   Ah... obviously you haven't seen my wheel.  :whistling:  It's best to catch the reflection of the evening sky in the glossy surface at the right angle with a glimpse of moonlight caressing it's edges from behind in the distance.  :efeeec645d:

895373_img2916.jpg

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Just now, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

Or do they?   :efefd0f676:   Ah... obviously you haven't seen my wheel.  :whistling:  It's best to catch the reflection of the evening sky in the glossy surface at the right angle with a glimpse of moonlight caressing it's edges from behind in the distance.

895373_img2916.jpg

Wow, I'm impressed! 

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6 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

I will say that I keep my KS14C (840wh version) in the trunk of my car 90% of the time. It sits outside in Southern California where the temperatures are very high. I haven't noticed any changes after doing this for months.

Have you looked in your trunk lately?:P

PaiQfuF.jpg

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24 minutes ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

Or do they?   :efefd0f676:   Ah... obviously you haven't seen my wheel.  :whistling:  It's best to catch the reflection of the evening sky in the glossy surface at the right angle with a glimpse of moonlight caressing it's edges from behind in the distance.  :efeeec645d:

895373_img2916.jpg

It still looks awesome! I never wanted to ride mine because of the esthetic value! 

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:cry2:  And you sold yours... :crying:  :facepalm:  I've actually never padded mine up.  I just added some skid strips on the bottoms of the pedals and some little pieces to help as a kick stand... er lean stand.   Sadly it does have some damage after dropping off a curb at a bad angle.  The lower plastic is scrunched a little there, but she's still a beaut!  :wub:

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9 hours ago, Marty Backe said:

As a rule I don't baby my batteries much. I'm focused more on using and enjoying the wheel rather than keeping it looking nice or lasting forever.

I will say that I keep my KS14C (840wh version) in the trunk of my car 90% of the time. It sits outside in Southern California where the temperatures are very high. I haven't noticed any changes after doing this for months.

I wouldn't worry about a few days in a giant truck.

I'm with you Marty.  I'm in the set it and forget it crowd as well....................................

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Acturbo said:

I'm with you Marty.  I'm in the set it and forget it crowd as well....................................

 

 

 

:laughbounce2:

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I love infomercials!  :efeeec645d:  Plus I have that Showtime rotisserie oven!  :w00t2:  It works well, but they have a disclaimer on it saying "Set it and forget it" is just a catch phrase and not really meant as a direction.  So disappointing!  :cry2:  I wonder how many houses have burned down so far.  :blink:

It works well, but with the shishkebab sticks the little clips break easily.  Not the best design.  Also the little cages don't clamp down smaller items so they fall around sometimes.  The metal cover is too flexible.  Plus there's a ton of parts you have to clean afterwards.  For what it is, it does do the trick though.

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