Cold Weather/Battery

[Lunar 3]

Hey Everyone, 

I'm new here, and I was wondering if it's okay to ride the inmotion V10 in the cold Weather. Out in Denver, the weather is about 20F in the morning, and about 48-40s degrees F in the evenings. I want my battery to last as long as possible. I know that cold weather can mess with a battery temporarily, but I don't what that does to the batteries life span. 

[meepmeepmayer 9,764]

Never heard of any lifespan problems with batteries in cold temperatures with EUCs. I guess you could ruin your batteries if they get so cold the conductor fluid freezes? No idea how cold that would be.

If you google it, apparently charging at 0°C or below will damage batteries permanently, but not using them (I wouldn't use a battery that is 0°C battery temp for safety reasons though, too high a risk of no power when you need it).

The batteries stay reasonably warm when you're riding anyways (check their temp in the app, it's like 15°C or 10°C even in icy riding conditions), so only storing the wheel in the cold or long breaks in the cold are dangerous (for safety, not long term battery damage). You'll definitely get less range, but it comes back in warmer temperatures. At least mine did.

I believe as long as you're riding, the cold will get you before it gets the batteries in any way. 20F is -7°C, eek With the wind from riding, that will be quite icy.

[Lunar 3]

17 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Never heard of any lifespan problems with batteries in cold temperatures with EUCs. I guess you could ruin your batteries if they get so cold the conductor fluid freezes? No idea how cold that would be.

If you google it, apparently charging at 0°C or below will damage batteries permanently, but not using them (I wouldn't use a battery that is 0°C battery temp for safety reasons though, too high a risk of no power when you need it).

The batteries stay reasonably warm when you're riding anyways (check their temp in the app, it's like 15°C or 10°C even in icy riding conditions), so only storing the wheel in the cold or long breaks in the cold are dangerous (for safety, not long term battery damage). You'll definitely get less range, but it comes back in warmer temperatures. At least mine did.

I believe as long as you're riding, the cold will get you before it gets the batteries in any way. 20F is -7°C, eek With the wind from riding, that will be quite icy.

Thank you meepmeepmayer! I really appreciate your time. This helps me a ton. It's a nice to get a quick response as a new user to the forum.  It's the first time I actually paid for a wheel so I really want to take care of it. The last wheel I got was given to me for free. Hope you have an awesome day! 

[meepmeepmayer 9,764]

 Thanks.

I should add I'm no expert at all and just repeating what I read or did not read on this forum or what I experienced. So don't trust me 100% please

I can just repeat, monitor your battery temp while riding (I believe the V10 has an extra sensor there, but the standard mainboard temperature would be good enough too) and if it doesn't go below 10°C, I see no problem either way. Too warm for any permanent damage (if that even exists), too warm for real concerns about a cut-out because the batteries are too cold. Still, it can't hurt to drive a bit conservative (no crazy accelerations) when it's so cold.

Edited November 20, 2018 by meepmeepmayer
spelling

[Lunar 3]

Understood! I'm still researching and your input really helps. The app does give me a temp indicator, but the app is a little wonky which makes me a little afraid to trust it. I won't take it out if it's too cold. My ride to my light rail station is only 10-13 minutes so I'm not out all morning in the cold. I add another 5 minutes once I get off of the train, to work. Shorter rides if you will. Every time I check the temp, it's above the temps you mentioned. I'm definitely riding more conservative due to the weather ha ha.  The app temp has this weird overlap of data. Like you'll see numbers or letters on top of each other (what I mean by wonky). 

[meepmeepmayer 9,764]

I think it's best is to imagine it visually/physically. The battery is essentially a block of metal (casings, metal in the cells), and unless that is already thoroughly cooled through, it will take quite some time to lose heat, especially if it's heated from being in use. 15 minutes is nothing. I know from long riding at 0-5°C, (mainboard) temps never went below 20°C for me, even with ice building up on the wheel (from humidity) and the nasty wind from riding cooling from the default 47°C temperature my wheel usually always has.

So unless you store your wheel outside/in a car trunk overnight or so (we did have reports that the batteries had much reduced power and gave up on the rider then, until they were warm again), it's hard to see how the batteries could even get too cold if you store at room temperatures otherwise. Worst case, you can always do a few pendulums (high power requirement), that should heat them up again quickly (I think).

So much for my speculation

Chooch is in Denver (YouTube: Chooch Tech, he's not on this forum) and rides A LOT, maybe he can tell you how winter riding works for him.

Edited November 20, 2018 by meepmeepmayer

[Unventor 3,375]

1 hour ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Chooch is in Denver (YouTube: Chooch Tech, he's not on this forum) and rides A LOT, maybe he can tell you how winter riding works for him.

I have a different tip. He might be here on forum. But have a look on YouTube for a guy that goes by EUCextreme from Finland. He have some really crazy winter vids..besides the otherriders he does on an EUC.

Way beyond my wildest deams of riding skills I could ever hope or dream of. 😁 ohh and possibly modded wheels too 😉

[meepmeepmayer 9,764]

@EUC Extreme

[meepmeepmayer 9,764]

Speaking of Chooch, latest video, can't be older than a week so whatever the temperatures were around Denver then...

Bonus: Picture from one of my first rides. Was around 5°C in the Sun then.

[Chriull 3,638]

1 hour ago, Unventor said:

YouTube for a guy that goes by EUCextreme from Finland. He have some really crazy winter vids..

Afair @EUC Extreme uses battery heaters 😎

[Lunar 3]

Thanks for the replies guys! I reached out to Chooch and he said it's nothing to really worry about. Now I have another issue I need to post in a different thread >.<. My posting for yesterday was limited, so I couldn't add anymore posts. I guess I need to rank up on this forum. 

Edited November 21, 2018 by Lunar

[Jason Jiao 34]

We suggest you to use it at 14~104 ℉, but usually after riding it for more than 10 minutes, the EUC will be a little warm, not so cold, so it won't influence the EUC battery. We don't suggest you to ride it on the road of heavy rain or heavy snow. We also don't suggest you to leave the EUC outside for a long time without riding it, when the temperature is under 14℉.

[Lunar 3]

15 hours ago, Jason Jiao said:

We suggest you to use it at 14~104 ℉, but usually after riding it for more than 10 minutes, the EUC will be a little warm, not so cold, so it won't influence the EUC battery. We don't suggest you to ride it on the road of heavy rain or heavy snow. We also don't suggest you to leave the EUC outside for a long time without riding it, when the temperature is under 14℉.

Thank you for the input Jason. I just really want to take care of it so that really helps me out! It's not that cold yet, so I still have some time. 

[Professur 43]

-13C here today. Rode my V5f for about 20 minutes (stored in my car's trunk) and it only dropped by 2 bars ... just dropping into the yellow as I ended my run.

[Herbas 43]

Last winter I regularly rided V8 at -10C/14F for 30 min and the app showed that battery temp decreased from initial 21C to 13C after such rides.

[dieterGRAMS 120]

Was in the high 20's today... MSX sidewalls became hard as a rock about 10 minutes in. Thought I had a flat